On a partitioned HDD , does it matter which part Windows gets installed on?

[BentValve]

I accidentally installed windows on D: instead of C: like I usually do. Its a 120gb Seagate HDD with 2 partitions.

Does it make a difference at at?

 

[Nothinman]

Nope and actually putting it on something other than C: will make you exempt from several exploits because they assume default settings and locations.

 

[InlineFive]

It only matters if you are picky and like things to be the same way, like me. 🙂

 

[Nothinman]

It only matters if you are picky and like things to be the same way, like me.

Well here he would be fine in that respect, our Windows build doc has the system root put on D:.

 

[BentValve]

Well my gaming benchmarks are down a bit and one of the changed I made was this so I am in the process of elimination.

 

[BentValve]

Hmm. ..could I make a little fake Windows folder sort of like a rat trap?...maybe check it every so often and see if I caught anything. 😀

 

[ColKurtz]

Actually, the next machine I build I'll probably do just that (Windows on D🙂. I won't have to change the install path of those programs that automatically want to install to "C:\Program Files..." (if you keep your data and OS seperate).

 

[SUOrangeman]

Actually, if programs still default to a specific location *without prompting your, it will likely use %SystemRoot% or %ProgramFiles% variables set in the registry, so it will still show up on the D: drive.

I purposely have my home PC use D: for all of my Windows operating systems, even though they are not the same D: partition in each OS. Using this method takes some serious planning and discipline.

Regardless of what version of Windows you use, it needs to write boot information to the C: volume. I always use FAT16 for my C: drive, as it is usuable by all versions of Windows from 3.1 and NT4 (3.51, if you want to get technical) through the latest 2003 Server releases. I can only imagine that Longhorn and friends can easily handle FAT16 as well. On this C: volume, I will put common files that I may want to use across all OSes, like bookmarks/favorites, temp files, and virtual memory (swap space, page file). I also put DOS utilities like Ghost and Ranish, in case I really FUBAR something.

NOTE: C: does *NOT* have to be the first partition on the drive, if you intend to run non-MS operating systems. I currently have FreeBSD on the first partition of my drive, with a second partition set aside for Solaris. Since I intend to use an extended partition and logical volumes, I had to make my thrid partition the FAT16 C: volume. With any Windows, C: must be a primary partition.

If you want to do "natural" installs (as in, the way MS "intended", without the use of third-party tools), it is a general rule to install the oldest Windows release first. Start with all of the DOS-based release (Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, 98SE, ME), and then do the NT-based releases (again, oldest-to-newest: 3.51, 4.0, 2000, XP, 2003 Server.) I think you can only install one DOS-based Windows release without using third-party tools.

In order to ensure that all of my Windows partitions had their own D: volume, I effectively had to create those logical partitions in reverse order. In other words, I have to get the D: volume for my oldest Windows release "further" into the drive. To make it a little easier for myself, I essentially made dummy Linux partitions to consume the space I would use for the newer Windows releases. No release of Windows will assign a drive letter to the Linux partition.

Since I've probably lost a few of you, I am writing a post that will be the start of a new thread. Standby while I get my thoughts together. 🙂

-SUO, partition guru?