Windows 10: Partition Question

On Windows 10 is it possible to partition your hard drive and then have a separate user profile created that only uses that partitioned part of your hard drive. For instance, I have a 2tb hard drive on my laptop that is my personal machine. Then if I wanted to use the laptop for work could I partition my hard drive and then with my new "e" drive create a separate user profile for work, also administrator level, but would only effect and save information on this new partitioned drive. Is that possible? Main reason, my work pc is slow as can be and I would like to use my laptop instead. I just don't want anything from my personal user account to criss cross with what I would be doing with my work user account, especially if my IT guy is giving me remote intranet access and stuff like that. Is what I'm asking even an option? And if it is, is partitioning the drive even necessary? I would think if my work user profile had it's own 100gb of dedicated space on its own partitioned drive, that would be safer than just creating a new profile that is going to be writing, saving, and updating files on same c drive. But again i don't know if any of this is even possible. Im sure you could partition the hard drive but i dont know if you can create a user account and make it so that account only uses the new partitioned drive. Sorry for the rambling, believe it or not in this day and age this is my first time on an internet Forum asking a question. So please excuse if I did something wrong or if this question has been answered already.

:)

 

Laptop Partition Questions

Hi,

I will be glad to help you with the issue you have with the issue you have about allocate space.

The disk space which doesn’t belong to any partition is regarded as unallocated space by computer. This refers to no applications are able to write to the space. But it is a logical space on the hard drive so it can be used by putting the system to put files
on. In order to make full use of unallocated space, you have to build a new partition with the space or add it to other partition.

Thank you.

 

Reserved partition question

So how can I see it. It's not visible in disk management.

stll not convinced it is there.

 

Hi, just to clear up a misconception:

Can a user profile and all that relates to it exist solely in one partition?
No.

You can relocate library folders and files belonging to a user, so that data could be moved to a particular partition.
(There's a tutorial in the Tutorial section).

But what comprises a user profile is much more than the library folders.
For example:
- Each user has folders on the C: (system) drive that are created for that user.
- The registry contains keys solely related to a particular user, and the registry files are on C:.

 

So I guess when you partition a drive it isn't actually giving you a 2nd system drive that can act independently from your original c drive. I guess I will just create a separate user account for work that will also use my c drive. I'm guessing that is my only choice so no need to partition anything. My computer learning pretty much ended while still using good old Windows NT server. That's why I asked. Thank you for the help.

 

When you create a partition, it can be used for anything. For example, I have a partition D: on my system drive. I choose to install programs there (partly for historical reasons).

Partitions E,F,G,H on my 2nd drive all contain different sorts of data. I don't keep personal data on C:
E: includes some configuration data for particular programs, Thunderbird emails and my desktop.

Only if you dual boot would you have a partition that's a second system drive.

Recommendation: create a partition and keep your user data off C:. But in your case you'd need to be sure about permissions- that only the appropriate user has access to the relevant folders. You can do that manually, or relocate user libraries there, or both.

Why keep user data separate from the OS? Because if you have to clean install Windows, your user data is untouched.

(Although you will usually lose something when you clean install- even if it's just settings).

I started with a paper tape-base microprocessor system when Microsoft had yet to invent Windows, and MS-DOS then became available with 8086 systems with 8" floppy drives- when floppies were really floppy.

 

Dual-booting is the answer; however would the end-user be allowed to use the same Windows license in both boots, or, would a separate license be needed? I'm only asking because I want to learn more about this.

 

Technically that would achieve the separation into distinct partitions, true, but it seems overkill if it's not absolutely necessary.

 

Well here is an interesting point.

Suppose you want two versions of 10 Home say as dual boot e.g. one setup for private use, and one for work use, then strictly, you need a separate licence according to EULA.

Now here's the thing - with digital licences being tied to mobo id, when you install second instance it activates automatically ie you do not get opportunity to enter a key.

You can only have one digital licence per edition of Windows 10 per pc. So even if you tried to be 100% EULA compliant by having a licence per install, the reality is you do not need that, and how could you do it anyway?

A more subtle case if eg if you had Windows 8.1, and installed Windows 10 as dual boot, using 8.1 key to activate it. Again this is not EULA compliant according to some people, but in reality it works.

What is permitted is to uninstall 8.1, install 10, the later uninstall 10, install 8 etc. as you are only using one licence at a time.

When you dual boot, you can still only run one OS at a time except you are not physically removing other OS. What is obviously not allowed is to install 8.1 on one pc, and 10 upgraded from same 8.1 as then you could run two separate sessions simultaneously but only have one licence.

So is dual booting with only one licence wrong? According to strict definition of EULAs, probably yes.

In a moral sense, (and this is only my personal opinion), I think you are still observing the spirit of EULA ie you cannot run simultaneous OS sessions. Others will say this is irrelevant, as you are not in accordance with EULA.

Ultimately, this becomes a moral conscience issue, and for avoidance of doubt, I neither encourage or discourage the above.

As an aside, it is not against EULA to dual boot release Windows 10 and Insider Windows 10, as Insider versions have their own EULA, and the requirement to remove other versions does not apply.

Of course, you could ague that it the release version is not EULA compliant, even thoughth e Insider version is - I leave it to the lawyers to untangle that one - lol.

Another inconsistency with Windows 10 is that it seems you can transfer digital licences from one mobo to another even if original licence was oem, which clearly violate the EULA.

However, it was MS who introduced the activation troubleshooter, without (it seems), preventing people from transferring oem licences.

The only plausible conclusion is that MS do not care about minor EULA infringements and their primary objective is to keep people on Windows.