how to separate data from windows

I have just reinstalled windows and as yet have nothing else on the drive except a few programmes I have reinstalled. I have read where data and windows can be separated, but never how to do it. My C:\ drive is only 40gb and I have read it's best to leave at least 30gb for windows install. I believe the like of 'my docs', 'my pictures' etc are called default folders, so do they have to moved to another drive by changing the 'path' of the folders? There are really so many questions I have about it (and how to do it). Does anyone know of a link to anywhere that gives full instructions for doing this? Thanks for reading and in advance for any help offered. hedley

If you're talking about partitioning your hard-drive please visit: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

If not, could you please be more descriptive on what you are talking about.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for any confusion. I have a second hard drive that I can put data on. I presume I would have to have my documents, my pictures folders etc. I have read where clicking on the my documents folder on the desktop will only take you to the folder on the C:\ drive. Do I have to change the path so that it would open the folder on my second drive and does this apply to all folders that normally show in C:\ drive that are part of windows, or is creating a folder on the second drive and changing the folder in the 'save in' box to the second drive enough. I know when I save a document, music file or save an internet page in word I can put it on whatever drive I want. Does the same apply to anything that would be downloaded, with the exception of programmes, which I would want on my C:\ drive anyway or would I run into problems with anything. As another example I have a 'Bluetooth folder' on my C:\ drive which is the default folder of the programme for my mobile phone for pics etc. Do I have to change the path of that folder to put it on a second drive to direct the pictures to it. My main reason for wanting to do any of this is so that if I need to reinstall windows again, I won't have to move everything somewhere else before I reinstall. For instance, I moved some of my .exe files from my C:\drive my documents folder to my second drive before this reinstall. When I put them back again the .exe files would not work. I got message boxes that the programme(s) 'could not be found' or 'did not exist at this location' or 'does not work with this OS', yet they worked perfectly before this. I had to find them all and reinstall them from the original source (download, disc, floppy etc). Is there a way to keep the .exe files so they can be put back on the C:\ drive ready to install. Hope this explains more what I want to do. If you need more info, please ask. Thanks for the help. hedley

I wouldn't be too sure about this, but I think I know what you are asking. If you were to reinstall Windows, you would have to reinstall all programs because of registry values etc. You will have no problems with your music, pictures etc. The reason why the .exe files you put back would not work is because they have been modified and were once located in a different place. Just for a backup, you should get an external hard-drive and everything that you download, including .exe files, save it to your external hard-drive so that you will not have to waste your time in downloading them again. Do you need to reinstall Windows again or is this a "just incase" situation? Sorry if I wasn't any help, I don't know much about this topic.

Hi hedley93. GaryOR-LFC gave you good advice, so I'll toss in my standard "Backup Strategy" post for you to look at.

Now is a great time to implement a good backup strategy that will protect you from a hardware or software failure in the future.

I'd recommend getting an external USB 2.0 drive enclosure, with fan and at least a 250GB hard drive (IDE) (or in your case, use the 2nd hard drive you already have). The you can buy Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost or go the free route and use DriveImage XML.

If you go the DIXML route then you will want to also get and build Ultimate Boot CD For Windows (UBCD4WIN). It is a bootable CD that you create on your computer using your own copy of Windows XP. One of it's included tools is DIXML so in the event of a hard drive failure you just replace the drive, boot the UBCD4WIN CD and restore from your external USB drive (or 2nd hard drive).

Keep the backup current. I use Acronis and keep two full backups and replace the oldest. I do this usually once every two months unless I've made some significant changes to my system in which case I do it immediately. I also have the Acronis Secure Zone setup and automatically backup just my boot drive every night at 9:30PM. I do a full backup on Sunday night then incremental backups the rest of the week. That way Acronis can manage the SecureZone space so I don't have to manually manage it.

Looks like I didn't get that quite right. What I meant to say was since you already have a 2nd hard drive, you can just mount it as a slave drive in your computer and use it for backup. The only advantage to putting it in an external enclosure is you can turn it off when you're not using it. This can significantly extend the life of a hard drive, as well as isolate it form any power surges you may get. The disadvantage is it's quite a bit slower than mounting it internally as a slave drive.