Program Files, My Documents, on diffrent HDDs? 1

[TopHat2]

Been using Win98 SE for years, just about to install XP Pro on my new PC.

What I want to do is have 3 HDD's, one with the OS, one for applications, and one for data. By default an application usually installs to the 'Program Files' directory on the system drive, and the default save path for data is offten 'My Documents' on the system drive.

My question is, is it posiblle to change these default paths so that if the OS is on C:, data will be saved to 'D:\My Documents', and applications will install to 'E:\Program Files', without having to change the drive letter manually each time an application is installed or a document saved?

Also can anyone think of a downside to what I am planning?

 

[gargoyle47]

The only problem is even though you place the programs on another drive the operating system still places a lot of junk on your C:drive. So in the end you really do not gain anything in doing this way. In fact I tried this and it really was not worth the effort, as far as I was concerned.

However the idea of using multiple partition is an idea that I highly advocate. At least 2 partitions, one which only holds the operating system and another at least for data.

I have 8 partition, Operating system, Music, photo, webpage development, etc...

This way only items relating to that drive are on it. I think it makes it a lot easier to backup and control the whole system.

Never Say Never (Romeio Void)

Homebuilt MSI MD5000MD-5000 M-ATX, 2.4Gig, 393mb, WinXp Pro
Homebuilt Iwill KK266R-Plus, 768mb, WinXp Pro

 

[undrcovr]

Program files need to see the OS because of dll association. Just use two partitions, one for OS and the other for saving data.

 

[TopHat2]

Quote: "Program files need to see the OS because of dll association."

DLL and other dependencys are handled by the registry, apps don't need to be on the same drive!

 

[TopHat2]

Isn't there just some simple reg hack to set this up???

 

[satrow]

To move "My Documents" in XP - right click the desktop icon, Prperties, Move ...

Don't move Program files to another drive - install them there in the first instance; if a program wants to install to C:, change it to D:, E:, whatever eg. X:\Programs.

Only "Common Files" components will be then installed to Program Files on the same drive as the OS, along with the original install items, IE, WMP, etc.

 

[TopHat2]

No, no, I don't want to "Move" 'My Documents'! I want to tell XP where to find it.

A little rooting around in a Win2k registry has turned up the key
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp]
and a value of "ProgramFilesPath"="C:\\Program Files"

It seems a fair bet that this is the key I need to set the Program Files directory, and another fair bet theat XP will use the same key. Anyone like to confirm that?

There is also a environment variable %PROGRAMFILES% which I assume is set via the above reg value, and is probably used by installation routines to decide where to install things. All this is of course supposition, yet to be tested.

I'm having less luck with My Documents, I can't seem to find the relevant reg values or any environment variables.

 

[satrow]

Assuming you already have your data stored on another drive, just use the 'Move' facility to tell XP where your My Documents are once you've installed - it's all I do (I usually run 4-6 partitions over 2-3 drives, two XP installations, all using the same 'My Documents' and 'Program Files' - apart from the 'Common Files', which are tied to each XP install drive).

I think the %PROGRAMFILES% issue is much more complex than a simple reg-hack, due to the aforementioned Common Files contained within.

Are you intending on installing then tweaking or creating a custom XP installation CD?

 

[dglienna]

I have my apps on the D: partition, but have a \Program Files folder on C:, D:, (and G: for my Net apps)

Harder to Ghost, but it works. I just Ghosted a 60 to a 80 and increased all 3 partitions in the process.

-David
2006 Microsoft Most Valueable Professional (MVP)
2006 Dell Certified System Professional (CSP)

 

[torandson]

TopHat2,
You can do exactly what you want to do and the system will run just fine. Unattended Install. Hold that thought. Moreover, it makes backups much cleaner and easier, since you can put the OS on a relatively small partition (5GB is more than plenty. Less will work) and save a compressed image of it with 1:1 reproduction of every bit of every track and sector, and then just image a data partition without all the slack space for the data partitions/drives. Saves a lot of time making system backups. Putting the XP pagefile on its own partition, better yet, the outer partition of a different drive, will speed things up and keep the pagefile from fragmenting the OS (and clogging up OS partition backup images). If on the same drive, putting the pagefile on a 4.1GB D and the OS on 3.5GB E works very well. Ignore the know-nothings who will tell you this is not a good idea. They haven't done it, nor thought through it.

What you need to do is called an "XP Unattended Install".

Google the topic. It will allow you to specify separate drives for the OS, the MyDocuments folder, and the Program Files folder. You will need your installation CD, a clean drive, and a bit of patience. But it's really not that difficult if you do your research. The F6 for SATA drivers problem on floppy was a problem I had to sweat out to solve, but there was a solution. Just keep with it.

This is exactly what you are looking for.

I also recommend installing DOS6.2 on a very small FAT16 C partition with nothing else on it but the XP bootloader. That way you can easily make an image of your boot partition including the boot sector in case anything messes with it. You can get a sealed, never used MS-DOS on eBay.

--torandson

 

[TopHat2]

Thanks torandson. The Unattended Install sounds like the way to go!

One last question. You recomend a FAT 16 boot partition with the bootloader and DOS 6.2. Is there any reason to prefer DOS 6.2 and FAT 16 over DOS 7 and FAT 32? I think I have DOS 6.2 tucked away somewhere, but have never used it.

I think I will keep the pagefile on the same HDD as the OS, but will take your sugestion of placing it on a diffrent partition.

 

[torandson]

TopHat2,
I don't know, but I don't think there's any reason not to use the DOS 7 on a FAT32 partition, unless you intend to multi-boot into a Windows NT OS, which cannot read FAT32. I got my multi-boot ideas from a site that explained how to set up DOS6.22, Windows98 and WindowsNT on one system. XP can read FAT32, so if you don't have WindowsNT you're probably good to go with DOS 7 on FAT32. (Except, I can't compare DOS6.22 with DOS7. How complete is your DOS7 installation? Is it compatible with all legacy applications you may ever wish to experiment with?)

Regarding the pagefile partition on the OS drive, my recommendation is this: put it on the next-LOWER adjacent partition to the OS partition. This is because the OS will occupy the lowest portion of the OS partition. If the pagefile is located at the top of the next lower partition, the OS and pagefile will be close together, minimizing the head movement for pagefile R/W. Create a pagefile partition that is about 4.1GB, and then create an OS partition that is large enough for the OS and its default pagefile ABOVE it (I have a 3.5 GB OS partition, which, with the other things elsewhere, is more than enough. I only use about 1.9GB of the OS partiton with XP-SP1.). A 4.1GB pagefile partition will cover the largest needed pagefile with a tiny bit of headroom. Then, after you install the OS, before you begin much using it, determine how much pagefile you will need based on system memory, etc. Then, say for example you want to set a fixed pagefile of 2GB: create a dummy file of some kind that is 2GB large. Copy that file to the empty pagefile partition. It will reside in the bottom half of the partition. Set it to read-only to prevent accidental erasure. Then go into the Control Panel and set up a fixed 2GB pagefile (or variable from 750MG to 2GB, or whatever) on the pagefile partition. Keep a small, fixed pagefile on the OS partition for crash logging, say about 50MB. In this case you may wish to set the crash logging to its minimal configuration. (I use 72MB.) then, after rebooting, the system will create a 2GB pagefile on the pagefile partition, and voila! It will sit right next to the OS! If you only want a 1GB pagefile, first put a 3GB dummy file in the clean pagefile partition. The only purpose for the dummy file is to cause the pagefile to reside as close to the OS as possible. If you add memory later and decide you need a 4GB pagefile (I wouldn't ever set the pagefile larger) then you can disable the pagefile on the pagefile partition, reboot, delete the dummy file, and then create a new 4GB pagefile. This way, the pagefile is always as close (or closer) to the OS files as it could ever otherwise be while residing in the OS partition, except that it will never fragment the OS nor interfere with making a backup!

--torandson