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From: Anthony Buckland on 2 Aug 2010 16:34

"(PeteCresswell)" <x(a)y.Invalid> wrote in message
news:3qj9561t0ofch3rmpsd0eq7mcieb215s73(a)4ax.com...
> Per (PeteCresswell):
>>But I've always used the TeraByte DOS product and am comfortable
>>enough with it that I wouldn't switch unless I needed some
>>additional functionality - like Acronis' ability to change
>>partition size.
>
> I should add that one should look into the concept of separating
> system and data.
>
> Without going into the full rant, there's a case for partitioning
> one's hard drive into, say, 50 gigs for the system (AKA "C:") and
> the rest for data (AKA "D:")
>
> After that, one moves all their "MyThis" and "MyThat" folders to
> the "Data" partition.
>
> System backups, then are only taken occasionally - when some
> significant change has occurred and one knows that the system is
> good - i.e. not infected with anything.... and not otherwise
> corrupted.
>
> Data, OTOH, is backed up daily at least...keeping old copies as
> well.
> ...

A problem is that the partitioning between data and
system isn't that simple. For example, the default
location of Outlook Express' mail files is not in My
Documents, but in an obscure place in what would at
first glance look like system files (a problem I fixed by
moving the mail files into My Documents). Other
applications have more or less important components
in odd places that would be lost with loss of the
system partition.

Making full backups of everything in a single, rather than
divided, partition saves worrying about all these odds
and ends. Nevertheless, I do make more frequent
saves of My Documents to a flash drive so that a
complete restore wouldn't destroy my recent data
irretrievably.


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