Windows 10: Using system and Data partitiobs

Hi,

I am new to splitting the hard drive so please bear with me here.

Currently installing Windows 10 on a HP Pavilion 15 laptop which was purchased preowned. Spoken to various people who have all said this it's recommended you split the hard drive into both system and data presumably to separate OS and data.

Well, the drive (1.25TB) has been partitioned with a C drive at 400GB and the D part for the rest.

That was simple enough however surely I need to do something else to tell the OS to install programs on the D drive and change location address?

Am I on the right track or making this process overly complicated ?

Thanks Scott

:)

 

"System" using a ton of data

ya phone providers do, so much speed for so much data and then slower speeds.

So I am confused, if they have their own phone provider Verizon than why would they connect to your ISP, or do you live with them and share same ISP service ??

If they have ISP service, then how is the data on your PC with a different ISP provider ???

If you all live together and share same ISP and Modem/router, then you have 3 people using Phones and PC's for that usage and then your usage on your PC

Good Luck take Care!

 

"System" using a ton of data

75GB came from a similar post I found about a user trying to find out what gets counted as "System" under data usage. I wonder... if Windows Update, Windows 10 file backup, and Windows 7 Backup & Restore all get counted here, that over 600GB used within
the last 30 days would start to make sense. It would also mean, similar to the point you are making, that local traffic and internet traffic gets counted here. It would be very useful for Microsoft to break down this information further.

 

Hi, it's a very good idea to separate your data from the OS.

There's normally little value in installing traditional desktop programs to a separate partition or disk- and exception might be where the program is very large. All programs bar portable programs almost inevitably create entries of some sort on the same partition as the OS.
- registry - start menu - working folders in e.g. Documents, Videos... - other folders in Program Files etc & the %appdata% folders.

There is no recommended way to 'tell' the OS to install programs to another partition or disk. Most programs allow you to specify the installation folder, as I expect you know, but that still leaves all the rest as above.

Turning to universal apps, it is posisble to move their location- there's a tutorial which addresses that in the Tutorial section which you are welcome to browse and search. (Many very practical tutorials of high standard).

Data is much more significant.
Whilst it is possible to relocate the typical set of library folders to another partition or disk, some people have encountered difficult issues with this. Again, there's a tutorial.

My personal approach is
a. Leave those on C: They are filled with folders created by programs I've installed, so I regard them as 'their' folders not 'My' folders!
b. I create and use my own on another disk.

 

I agree with @dalchina, just too lazy to type it all out The only thing I would move to the data partition are the personal files that I would want to make sure and keep if I had to re-install Windows - not programs and apps. Documents, spreadsheets, music, movies, etc, those would go to the data partition. Also like dalchina stated, I would not worry about redirecting the "library" folders to the data partition, like the Documents and Downloads libraries. When I save a movie or document, I just select "Save As" and point it to my data storage location (for me, instead of a data partition, that would be a network attached storage drive).

 

Small partitions for the boot/system/C: drive can be a problem for installing large programs, an example: I installed 4 programs yesterday on the D: partition and they occupy a bit over 3GB storage.