Isolating data on my data disk

As probably most of you readers, I’ve been using separate disks for applications and data for ages. I usually name the volumes with an old programming segment convention: CODE and DATA :)

Since Windows 2000 I’ve trying a different approach: moved “c:\Documents and Settings\<my account>” into d:\ , unmounted d: and mount it back as a mount point on “c:\Documents and Settings\<my account>”. With this strategy I also recovered from re-installs pretty fast, though some few apps mysteriously failed – ok, not so mysteriously, this folder holds the hive and SID references…

So now I’ve just tried  yet another strategy: first, and using explorer, I moved all the special folders I could into “d:\users\<my account>” (like “Documents”, “Desktop”, “Music”, …). But AppData was a big thorn on my side and explorer didn’t a UI to move it, so I try using a junction point manually.

For that I’ve used SysInternals’s junction utility, and started by the bigger subfolder, Local:

c:\users\mario.romano\AppData> robocopy /yourfavoriteoptions Local d:\users\mario.romano\AppData\Local

c:\users\mario.romano\AppData> move Local Local.old

c:\users\mario.romano\AppData> junction Local d:\users\mario.romano\AppData\Local

 

For now my system seems stable enough. Let’s see how it goes.