No matter where you put programs they require the registry which will be your OS drive/partition usually C:

Therefore if you format or clean install the OS you will need to reinstall your programs.

A Repair install will not format but just replace the OS files and in that case your programs would be fine as the registry would not be erased.

ahh thanks for that info. however, some games do work though after a clean reformat. but it might sometimes crash, which i would think is because of what you said.

Its only ZIP downloads with the executable in them that don't require the registry. Everything that you used an installer for i.e. *.msi file, would require reinstallation after a registry format or reset. If the software is not found in the registry hives, it's like being uninstalled and the required DLL files etc will not be found.

But wouldn't the .dll files that come with the installation be lost if you format the partition and have to reinstall windows? If there is any .dll files included that is...

EDIT: lol. Yeah, that's what I thought. So I would have to reinstall almost all of my programs if I format the partition with the OS on? Then what's the tradeoff from going through the trouble of partitioning the drives so that I have the OS on a partition of its own?

for me, i just want my songs and movies and such safely tucked away. so that i don't have to purposely backup all the files again before i reformat. and every once in awhile i'll clean my games drive as well.

other than that usually my programs ARE in the OS partition.

Originally Posted by Nevon

But wouldn't the .dll files that come with the installation be lost if you format the partition and have to reinstall windows? If there is any .dll files included that is...

EDIT: lol. Yeah, that's what I thought. So I would have to reinstall almost all of my programs if I format the partition with the OS on? Then what's the tradeoff from going through the trouble of partitioning the drives so that I have the OS on a partition of its own?

If your format any part of a system HDD, it becomes obsolete and everything is wiped out. If you format another partition but not the one with the OS on it, you don't loose the OS but what was on the partition you're deleting. If you have programs installed, majority of them if not all will be deleted and need to be reinstalled from scratch completely.

Whereas backups are concerned, they're for your files and folders, rather than your programs and settings.

Then I guess two partitions would suffice. All I really need is one partition for the OS and installing stuff on, and another for storing anything else.

Uhm, another noob question, how do you partition your harddrive?

wehn you do a clean reformat, or you can use the Norton Disk Partitioner or something.

Thanks, but nevermind. I just realized that I'm gonna have two harddrives. The one I ordered and the one that's in the computer right now. So I'm just gonna store my files on the new one, and install stuff on the old one.