Hi, I apologies as this is a bit lengthy but it may help with your understanding.
Why partition a hard disk?
A partitioned hard drive is just a way to take one physical hard disk and chop it up into multiple logical hard disks known as partitions. The operating system (windows in this case) will then display these partitions in explorer as individual hard disks.
Without getting to involved choosing whether to partition a hard disk and how, is personnel choice BUT there are benefits to doing so, such as the potential to relieve computer related issues.
One of the most common reasons for partitioning is to create two logical disks one for the operating system and one for personal files or data (My Document, music, video etc). The benefit here is that you are free to reformat the operating system partition without worry that your data (stored on the other partition) which you had forgotten to backup will also be gone.
Strictly speaking, it is best to modify the Windows installation media, which by default wants to install everything on one partition (normally C:) so during installation it will install operating system files on C: and My Documents and various other system files on the other partition (normally D:). The reason for doing this is that there are many other files, directories and registry keys , not just My Documents etc which will also be installed on or pointed to the D: drive that you may want to preserver if you decide to reload the OS.
By default, Windows will do the following
- Install new programs into the C:\program files or C:\program files (x86) dependant on whether they are 32 or 64 bit
- Saving files, most program but especially Microsoft programs save them to C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents aka Documents or My Documents
If your windows operating system is pre installed and your documents aren’t being saved to the second partition and you want them too don’t panic, you don’t need to re master an OS DVD or re install Windows.
As with most things Microsoft there is more than one way to do things but one of the easiest ways to “move” my documents is as follows (this is a per user process).
- Click Start
- In the Search Programs and Files box type %userprofile% and press enter
This will open a window with your My Doc, Video and Music folders etc - Right Click a folder whose location you want to change. My Documents in this case, then Click Properties from the context menu
- from the My Documents properties window Click the Location tab
- Click Move. Generally its preferable to have already created a folder in the new location but if you haven’t browse to the new location and Right Click in the window and Click New, select Folder and name the folder. What you name it doesn’t matter as will be explained later
- This folder should be highlighted by default but if not Click on the newly created folder, to highlight it, now Click Select Folder
- The next action will move your files, Click Apply
- Click Yes to the message about moving files. Click OK
OMG!!I click Documents on the start menu and my documents aren’t displayed? Worse than that I can’t find the folder I create to move them too!!
Firstly, no matter what you called the folder when you created in the above steps, Microsoft will have renamed it to correspond to the folder name you are moving. So if you move My Music to I:\temp001 you will need to look for I:\My Music.
Secondly, when you click on My Music on the Start menu this is just a location containing links or Libraries. These Libraries can be added or removed so just Click
Include a folder and browser to the new location, remember your not looking for the name you gave the folder,
Highlight the folder by Clicking on it then Click
Include.
NOW, all should be well.
If at some point you want to put everything back to defaults, i.e. move the
My Music folder back to its default location this is very simple.
Follow the above guide till step 4. Then Click
Restore Defaults on the My Music Properties window. Click
OK to any messages and when it’s finished your done. No need to worry about libraries as they will have be changed back to defaults too
Hope this helps with the learning curve