Should I use a separate HDD partition?

Joomlanator

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Nov 14, 2013
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I just recently did my first desktop system build. In it, I'm running Win 7 Ult as a clean install on a 128 GB SSD (C:\). I want to keep only OS's on the SSD and user files and other programs on the HDD (D:\), which I have done. Everything at this point is operating OK.

NOW...
I want to dual boot 7 with 8.1, still keeping only OS's and a few important applications on the SSD (which would make 8's partition there as F:\).
It seems to me that I should give the 8.1 installation its own partition on the hard drive to interact with (ie., Win 7 gets half the drive (D:\), and Win 8.1 gets the other half (which would be G:\). Am I correct?

Thanks for your help...
 
While I don't think its actually needed to do it this way I would highly recommend it for the sake of tidiness. All installed applications are seen within the registry so you would be able to install a program on the windows 7 OS and in windows 8.1 you wouldn't be able to see it in the start menu for instance.

One word of warning if you decide not to go through with the partition, when installing duplicate programs you need to specify a new location for them to go otherwise they will just overwrite your "older" version.