SOLVED How do I properly use my data partition?

[catilley1092]

Today, I reinstalled my OS from a fresh backup that I had. It only used about 462GB of the drive for my "C" partition. I created another partition (457GB), "F", and labled it as "Data".

My question is, what do I need to do in order to divert my downloads, docs, and possibly in the future, my VM's, into this partition? I'm familiar with having a data, otherwise known as a "home" partition in Linux, everything I do (except installed programs) goes into this partition, even my VM's. This allows me, when I install the latest version of Mint, to only format the main partition, and leave my "home" as is.

Even though I may not be able to accomplish the same exact thing with 7, I would like to keep my data away from my OS, in order to keep it running smoother, and upon installing a backup, I'll only need to install what's necessary, and not the entire drive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cat

 

[brkkab123]

1click Start orb.2 click on your name on top right side.3Make new folders on your Data partition for Contacts,Documents,Downloads,Music,Pictures,Saved Games,Searches and Videos.4. In the folder you opened in #2 right click each of the folders and select Properties>Location>Move and select the folder you made for which ever folder the one is and move it to the new folder with the same name on your Data partition and click on Select.

 

[Fire cat]

Well, I have the whole content of my user folder located on my data drive. Really usefull - I can make backups of files by simply dragging them onto the desktop.

Simply right click on the folder that you want on the data drive, and in the properties, change the location. There's a tab for it, if I remember correctly.

 

[catilley1092]

Thanks to both of you. I'm going to have to do some praticing here, the advice given should point me in the right direction.

Cat

 

[brkkab123]

Forgot to mention mention to double click on Computer right afterMove to select your Data partition.

 

[brkkab123]

P.S. Cat Firefox 3.6.14 was released at midnight and TuneUp Utilities 2011 got an update yesterday. I know you use both. If you use Piriform's Speccy it got an update yesterday also.

 

[yodap]

It only used about 462GB of the drive for my "C" partition.

Cat, how much data is on that partition. That is huge for a C partition, especially if you are going to create and offload your data onto another one. Shrink it man.

 

[catilley1092]

yodap, I used the Windows Disk Configuration after the install, and a full defrag, and couldn't get it below that. When I done the original install last October, using my recovery discs, it gave no option as how much drive space to use. So I shrunk it as much as I could, and was left with that much (462GB). After another defrag, I was able to shrink it about another 800MB, that was all.

When I applied that backup to this freshly wiped drive, I defragged, but could still not shrink anymore. Now, I could use one of those partition CD's to shrink it, but when I used it to shrink an XP partition, the performance became slow. Although I defragged it with Diskeeper & Auslogics Disk Defrag, upon startup, the icons load slow.

Right now, my desktop loads up fast as ever, and I didn't have to change firewalls to accomplish it, like I did on my previous 7 install. Plus, Comodo's Firewall, being it's an active one, bugs the crap out of me every time I try to install commonly used programs that I know are 100% safe. I don't mind security, but to have to respond to several prompts to install an trusted app is too much of a PITA to me.

However, I do have it installed on my notebook.

I would like to shrink it further, but don't want to sacrifice performance to do it.

Cat

 

[catilley1092]

P.S. Cat Firefox 3.6.14 was released at midnight and TuneUp Utilities 2011 got an update yesterday. I know you use both. If you use Piriform's Speccy it got an update yesterday also.

I don't use TuneUp Utilities 2011 (is it a good app, and free?), I use Speecy on my notebook, and as of yet, FF is not installed on my desktop. I'm dedicated to making IE9 work for me.

But on my XP install on my notebook, both Win 2K & XP Media Center has the updated FF versions. 4.0 Beta 12 is on XP, 2K will only allow for 3.6.14, no beta.

So far, so good on making the data partition work, I'm right now creating a VM (XP Media Center) using Windows Virtual PC. And I've directed downloads to go to the Downloads folder that I manually created there.

And before I done anything, I did a full backup with Todo 2.0 (thanks, yodap). Todo does everything that the free version of Macrium Reflect, and then some. You can even clone with it.

Cat

 

[yodap]

Cat partition resizing is easier than ever with all the good freeware applications out there.

Right from our very own Freeware Database. https://www.w7forums.com/partition-wizard-home-t7029.html Three versions: Installer, bootable CD, or bootable USB.

Also Easeus Partition Master Home. http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm There are others.

Often (but not always) the programs will automatically revert to a DOS environment when downsizing an OS partition but it's just moving data. The more data the longer it takes, that's why you should do it soon.

Always make a fresh back-up image just in case.

 

[catilley1092]

That's the ones that I normally use to make & shrink partitions with. The last time I done it was last week on my notebook. XP was on 81GB of space, I wanted to install 7 Pro. So using Partition Wizard Home, I shrunk the XP partition to 40GB, which left me the space to install 7 Pro.

But afterwards, the shrunk OS, XP, loaded slow (one icon at a time loading), prior to this, it loaded fast. Do you think it was a coincidence, or could it happen again. I do have the backup made with Todo, just in case.

As soon as I finish making this VM, I'll shrink that partition, then expand the data one.

Thanks for your advice.

Cat

 

[etalmar]

Firefox 3.6.14 was released at midnight and TuneUp Utilities 2011 got an update yesterday. I know you use both. If you use Piriform's Speccy it got an update yesterday also.

As well as Piriform's CCleaner, which is now at version 3.04.1389.

 

[catilley1092]

I got the CCleaner update last night. If you subscribe to File Hippo's list, you're notifed of updated programs as they roll in. With so many programs, it's hard to manually check for every one.

Also, I have the File Hippo Update Checker installed, and run it every couple of days. Many apps are on this list.

http://www.filehippo.com/

Cat

 

[catilley1092]

Cat partition resizing is easier than ever with all the good freeware applications out there.

Right from our very own Freeware Database. https://www.w7forums.com/partition-wizard-home-t7029.html Three versions: Installer, bootable CD, or bootable USB.

Also Easeus Partition Master Home. http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm There are others.

Often (but not always) the programs will automatically revert to a DOS environment when downsizing an OS partition but it's just moving data. The more data the longer it takes, that's why you should do it soon.

Always make a fresh back-up image just in case.

Thanks yodap, I got it done! I used the boot disc of Partition Wizard Home Edition to do it. At first, I tried to make it 175GB, it wouldn't go, reported excess fragmentation, although Perfect Disk had it down to 0% fragmentation, and excellent in all categories. There were blocks of files in the corner, I suppose that was the reason. Same with 200 & 225GB.

Finally, it allowed me to shrink it to 250GB, which was 200GB less than it was, so I can live with that. Too, it's already over one third full, I need a little room for expansion. It didn't take long, either. Actually it took longer to expand my data partition over the newly created free space than shrinking my 'C' partition. Probably because the program had to move everything to the left, whereas most of my 'C' partition didn't need to be moved.

And unlike with the other install that I was referring to earlier, there was no loss of speed or anything. Having your files separate from your OS partition helps to keep it running better, as it shouldn't be getting as cluttered. This is the way that I've been running Mint for the last few months.

Cat