How do I separate my programs from my OS?

Is there a way to load my programs into a separate partition and my XP Home Edition into another partition on the same HD? Can anyone shed some light on this feat? Thanks... Kevin

i made a 6 gb partition and installed windows to it and had the rest of hdd for other stuff. its not very convenient sometimes because everything tries to install itself to the place where the windows installed so i always have to rename the path.. but i think the biggest advantage of making windows in a different partition is that u dont have to touch all of ur saved files when ur computers has a fatal error or smthing.

WHOA Partner, Only thing I understood of your message was Microsoft and Google... What do you mean change the default install dictory (Ithink I know this one), benchmarking? What is that? I am not a geek, just fatigued from having to reformat my HD (19 times in the last three months) I guess I need to learn to compute smarter. My C drive is full now, keep getting low disk warning flags. I need to remove my programs off the C drive and install them to another drive or partition. Would you mind helping me in this? Can you reply directly to my email address: Cowboy0001@Aol.Com? Your help is very much appreciated. Thanks, blessings. Kevin
PS: each time I reformat the HD, it takes me three days to get the programs I use back on it. I do a lot of audio and video in my ministry.

I'd suggest you increase the size of your C to accomodate all your programs. If you have to re-install your OS, you're best off re-installing all the programs as well. Use the 2nd partition to store you files, e.g., documents, music, photos, whatever. These won't be affected when you format and re-install on your C drive. If you can afford it, get a second hard drive just for storage. It also sounds like you need good antivirus and antispyware programs. I'm using Spysweeper and it seems pretty good. Also you'll need to run several antispyware programs, none of them pick up all spyware, both AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy are free. You might also want to look at programs like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. You can image you C drive after a fresh install and if you have to do a new install, just copy the image over. Finally, suggest you do a google on safe surfing

What size hard drive do you have, looks like 10 gig. XP takes about 4-5 gig.

Have you thought of adding a larger or second hard drive.

And what KingLoftusXII said.

The only thing that should be on the Windows(C) partition is Windows, updates, and drivers. Everthing else should be installed on a different partition.

Some folks like to isolate Windows on a small partition as well as use multiple small partitions both for creating clean file organization and to minimize drive head movements. From an engineering standpoint smaller partitions will be kinder to hard drives. For most people in the real world it's more trouble than it's worth. On the other hand, I use a 20gig C: partition for WinXP, its page file set min=max=4gig, and a few utilities. I put everything else...well elsewhere.