Does it make sense to have a separate documents partition in Win 7

cycleback

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I am setting up my new computer this weekend with Windows 7. In my old machine I had a small drive for the OS and Programs and placed all my files on a separate drive. I could then very quickly make backup images of the OS drive using Acronis. For my new install I have a 1 Tb drive and I am trying to figure out how to do backups quickly.

Does it still make sense to create a separate partition for my documents in Windows 7? How does one move the user profile to do this in Windows 7.

I like to use imaging for backups but it seems like like it will be very slow on the full 1 Tb drive even with incremental images. What is the recommended technique for backing up in Windows 7 in case I get some virus or malware?
 

Zenthar

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I personally keep most of my data (documents, etc.) on a separate partition so in case of OS problems, I can quickly reinstall OS and still have all my data intact. I don't know if it's "necessary", but it is very convenient :p.
 

Jonmor68

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I would partition the new drive in two, 250Gb for W7 and programs and the rest for data, media and backups. Using Acronis set it for auto backup the W7 partition at an interval to suit, daily weekly or monthly, whatever suits you. Acronis is pretty quick and you can keep using the pc while it's doing it's thing, or go and make a cup of coffee.
The Documents, Pictures etc. folders can be easily relocated to the data partition. Click on start, your name which contains these folders, right click the folder of choice, select properties/location and choose move.
 

cycleback

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My only concern is if there is a speed hit from partitioning the drive.
 

cycleback

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Actually I think there maybe a speed hit for seeks as the harddrive head goes from the data partition to the OS partition for system calls and accessing the swap. I am not sure how big the hit will be. Unfortunately, I already bought the hard drive and can't afford a SSD.
 
It's not going to be a significant hit... unless you happen to perceive a couple of milliseconds here or there. Data is never stored contiguously on a hard drive to begin with anyway... so there will always be a seek overhead regardless of the amount of partitions you have.
 

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