PDA

View Full Version : Move your user files and folders to another partition



StarshipTrooper
11-29-2007, 09:25 PM
Hi,

This article has some very good advice. I didn't start using this procedure until my last installation of Vista. I have re-installed Vista many times this year due to stop errors (Blue Screens of Death). So this time, I split my 500GB hard drive into two 200GB partitions (one for Vista, the second for my documents). The remaining space on the hard drive is for Linux.

Regards,

Nathan

* * *

Move your user files and folders to another partition

By carusen on Thursday, November 29, 2007

One of the best tips I have learned since the beginning of my career in IT is to never keep my personal files and folders (such as My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, etc) in their default locations. In Windows Vista, all the personal folders are stored on the drive where the operating system is installed. For example, if your user is called "George" and you installed Windows Vista on the "C:" drive, your personal files and folders will be stored by default in "C:\Users\George\". By leaving them in their default location, each time you have problems with the operating system there is a risk that you might loose them. If something happens and you need to format the "C:" drive that means all your documents, music, pictures, etc will be lost.

To avoid such problems you can always move them and store everything on a separate partition. This way, you can format the "C:" drive and reinstall the operating system how many times you need without risking your data. As a general advice, it is always better to keep on your "C:" drive only the operating system and the applications you use. All of your data, including documents or saved games should be kept on a separate partition.

In this tutorial we will show you how to move your personal files and folders to other partitions.

http://www.vista4beginners.com/Move-user-files-folders-to-another-partition

http://www.windowsvistamagazine.com/US/05582469250665751536/move-your-user-files-and-folders-to-another-partition.html

Loki
12-19-2007, 12:48 AM
You could also install a second hard drive in the computer and keep the files on that. Or use a UBS hard drive and keep important files there as well.

SCIFI-Junkie
12-19-2007, 01:08 AM
Very good advice. You might also want to do that with your Linux partition. Typically /home is stored on the root (/) partition. As an IT geek, all servers have the OS on a separate drive, and data on a nice big RAID.

I just had to re-install SuSE on my laptop because an attempt to create a bootable linux system on a USB drive screwed up GRUB (still haven't figured why). Anyway, I had been putting off upgrading the laptop to SuSE 10.3, and this sorta forced me to do it. Fortunately my /home directory is stored on another partition.

Now if I could just get the kernel bcm43xx wireless support to work, I'd be in good shape. NDISWrapper works, but can be flaky, and is unsupported; the kernel guys won't listen to any bug reports if you're running NDISWrapper.

Galactifan
12-19-2007, 07:26 PM
If only VISTA worked well...ahhhhhh, if only. I will be using Windows XP for quite some time until all the bugs are worked out of VISTA.

Darth Marley
12-19-2007, 09:09 PM
I just had to re-install SuSE on my laptop because an attempt to create a bootable linux system on a USB drive screwed up GRUB (still haven't figured why).

GRUB is AWESOME!

Sounds like you should back up your grub.conf file though.

Being able to boot from a USB dive may be a BIOS option. With Dells for example, you can hit f12, and get the option to boot from and drive or device.
If you are wanting to have the option in a GRUB menu, it may be some odd dynamic numbering of the drives once the BIOS spots and labels the USB drive.

When playing with dual boot, I have made GRUB floppies so I can tweak for multiple OSs while leaving the MBR intact for the primary drive.

SCIFI-Junkie
12-20-2007, 02:08 AM
GRUB is AWESOME!

Sounds like you should back up your grub.conf file though.

Being able to boot from a USB dive may be a BIOS option. With Dells for example, you can hit f12, and get the option to boot from and drive or device.
If you are wanting to have the option in a GRUB menu, it may be some odd dynamic numbering of the drives once the BIOS spots and labels the USB drive.

When playing with dual boot, I have made GRUB floppies so I can tweak for multiple OSs while leaving the MBR intact for the primary drive.

BIOS isn't the problem as the T30 Thinkpad supports USB boot and has the same F12 option. The problem was that for some reason, even though I told it to partition, format and install the system on the USB drive, that for some reason GRUB, or YaST installation routines screwed up GRUB on the internal harddrive. That should not have happened. Oh well, I was putting off upgrading the laptop because I didn't want to mess with re-installing NDISWrapper. As it turns out, SuSE 10.3 is, it seems, a more efficient system. Boots quicker and seems more robust all around. Not that the previous version was a dog.