WindowsXP on one drive, Apps on another.

[dave8311]

I want to install WindowsXP on a small (30GB) drive/partition, that will be the C: drive (duh) .

I want to install my Apps on another drive or drives.

If I have to do a clean install of Windows again in the future, will I have to reinstall all of the Apps again?

If not, how will the new install know where they are?

 

[jbrock31]

If you do a clean install, yes you will have to install the apps again as they effect your registry settings. What i do is keep my os installed on my C partition. Make a directory on my D partition for backup programs. Then after my clean install, i just run all the files from my secondary parition.

 

[dave8311]

Make a directory on my D partition for backup programs......
.......... i just run all the files from my secondary parition.

Can you please elaborate on this.

 

[EeyoreX]

Make a directory on my D partition for backup programs......
.......... i just run all the files from my secondary parition.

Can you please elaborate on this.

Yes, can you please? Because to me this sounds exactly what the OP wants to do. Unless you just mean your data goes on the D:\ drive. But then your statement is confusing, saying you "run" something implies your programs...

At any rate, you will need to reinstall all your applications after you do a clean install of Windows, regardless of what partition Windows and your applications are installed on. As was said, many applications add entries to the registry and a clean install creates a clean registry without your application's settings. I install all my applications to my system drive, as there is no practical reason not to. My data, on the other hand, goes on a seperate partition.

\Dan

 

[Sunner]

"All applications" would be a bit of an overstatement.
I'd say it's a 50/50 split between apps that will and won't run on a fresh Windows install without being reinstalled themselves.
Of course depending on apps, YMMV.

 

[Budman]

Best way for me, install OS on c: drive,then install all your programs on D: drive.

Then Use Norton Ghost to image your C: drive contents to d:\ .

Now if your OS gets hosed you can simply ghost back your c: drive & all apps will work fine again.

 

[dave8311]

When you Ghost C:\ to D:\ doesn't it overwrite the stuff on D:\ ?

If not, do you then boot from the D:\ drive?

Do you need to make it (D:\) the C:\ drive first, via a cable swap?

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: dave8311
When you Ghost C:\ to D:\ doesn't it overwrite the stuff on D:\ ?

If not, do you then boot from the D:\ drive?

Do you need to make it (D:\) the C:\ drive first, via a cable swap?

No you ghost from partition ( c: ) to image on d: drive.

then if you want to recover you ghost From image on D to partition ( C: ) .

 

[dave8311]

Ok, but any Apps you installed after you ghosted the C:\ to D:\ will have to be reinstalled, right.

That's what I was trying to get away from.

Every time I reformat and do a clean install, it takes me many hours/days to get all my Apps back on, never mind all the time it takes to dig out those CD's and find the serial numbers, etc.

 

[Budman]

no you dont understand, you can ghost your c into a image file on your other drive.

this will not wipe the other drive,it will only put the contents of C: into 1 file on your d: drive not changing anything on your D: drive.

That's why I said from partition to file image..... to create a backup.

To restore you just do the oposite,from image to partition, nothing ever gets changed on your d: drive,so no need to reinstall your apps.

 

[HdwGuy]

Keep your Ghost up to date and all programs will work. The way I do it is to install XP and all apps on c: 30GB drive and Ghost to D: a 60gb drive for pics, games, dvd encoding ect. It takes 20 min to do the ghost aprox 10gb and only 15 to restore. Of course I have to reinstall any games after the restore but it cuts down the time to get back to about 45 min to 1 and 1/4 hours. Instead of the 6 to 8 hours a full rebuild takes with install of all apps , games, ect. ect.