Use separate partitions for the operating system and your personal files

[hackerman1]

Having all personal files (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, Downloads etc.) separate from the O/S is a very good idea.
Fx. if you decide to upgrade the O/S to a newer version fx. to W10 (and later decide to go back to the previous version),
or switch to a different O/S, then all your files will be safe, and very easy to "import" to a new O/S.
This also allows you to restore the O/S from a system-backup, without loosing any personal files.

Since the files are on another partition,
everything that you have created (or downloaded) after you created the system-backup are not affected by a system-restore.

Having O/S and personal files separated also allows you to create very frequent backups of just your files,
without having to backup the O/S every time, which of course will save you a lot of space on your backup-location.

And if you have more then one O/S, it also makes it possible for multiple operating systems to share the same folders,
allowing you to reduce the size of all those systempartitions, which then will save a lot of space on your harddrive.


Create a new partition for all your files (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, Downloads etc.)

1. If you have a mechanical harddisk, (not an SSD !),
First defragment the disk to free up the space you need to create the new partition.

Startmenu → Computer
Put the mousepointer on your Windows-disk, and wait until it is "greyed out"
Right-click and select Properties → Tools → Defragmentation
Wait until it has finished...

2. Use Disk Manager.
Control Panel → Administrative Tools
Right-click on Disk Management, select Run as Admin


Alternative for steps 1 and 2 (simpler...)
Open the Startmenu
Type cmd in the command-box in the lower-left corner
Right-click cmd, select Run as Admin

1. Enter dfrgui.exe
Wait until it has finished...

2. Enter diskmgmt.msc
Shrink your Windows-partition to get space for your new partition
Create the new partition
Assign a driveletter (fx. D)

3. Copy each folder to the new partition.

4. Change the locations of those folders.
Open the Startmenu
Right-click on each folder
Put the mousepointer on the current location
Click the button Remove ( Note: Don´t worry, this does not delete any files, just the link to them)

Select Include a folder
Navigate to the new location
Click the button Include a folder (lower-right corner)
Click OK
Repeat this until you have "moved" all folders.

Open your browser(s)
Change the location of your download-folder

When you have confirmed that everything is working you can delete the files in the original location.

Note: if you have a mechanical harddisk (not an SSD !),
Before you create a system-backup of your O/S, first defragment the disk to "clean up" the partition after removal of all your personal files.
Depending on defragmentation, this can make the partition a lot smaller, which then will save time and space when you create backups...

[HappyAndyK]

Using separate partitions for Windows OS and personal/document files is something I always do (Y)

[hackerman1]

I also have 2 other partitions, one for programs (the only programs i install on the O/S-partition are those that must be installed there).

And the other for the pagefile...
Startsize for the pagefile is 16 MB, but expandable up to 3.9 GB.
This setup gives me some "extra" space that i can use temporarily if the media-partition should get full.
I have 8GB RAM, so i normally don´t need any pagefile, but i have one just in case it might be needed.