Anyone know if I can do this and enforce it?
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OriginalGriff wrote:
Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"?
You'd need some heavy registry editing for that; and even if you do, not all installers adhere to it. If you own a Paradox Game (Stellaris, Crusader Kings), Heroes of the Storm, or Oxygen not Included; they save their games and put the mods in the "Documents" folder, which is part of the Windows environment. I have the OS on the SSD, since it was "static" data in my mind, hardly ever written to. Not true with all those updates. Aw, my worst mistake was not moving the "temp" folder. You'd also need to move "downloads" and the like. I'm still moving folders. The best way to make it work is using virtual machines.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
>>hardly ever written to Don't forget the bazillion log entries generated every nanosecond.
>64 If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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I've decided to upgrade the desktop with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, and start fresh with a clean Win 11 install* (hence the upgrade, the current desktop isn't compatible as it doesn't have TPM). But this time ... I want to split OS, apps, and data rather more. So I've also ordered a new SDD (480GB) to go with the existing 1TB SSD and the 1TB HDD. At the moment, OS and apps are on the SSD, data is HDD, so the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data. That's close to what I had last time but it became something of a mess because apps don't always "play nice" and stick data wherever the heck they want. Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"? * Not because its that great, but because it's "OK, pretty much" and it'll be forced on me at some point. So rather than a cluttered upgrade install, I'd rather kick it into the weeds and do a clean first install. I suspect my current one started life as Win 7 ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
OriginalGriff wrote:
the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data.
I think you'll end up with relatively little on your apps-only drive. Despite your best attempts, installers will continue spewing data all over your OS drive and registry. If it was possible to place all apps on a drive by itself, so you could rebuild the OS and point it to the app drive so you don't have to reinstall apps...that would be a worthy endeavor. But I don't see the point given that it's practically impossible to separate apps from the OS. A data drive, however, makes total sense to me. I try not to save things locally on any machine, and save everything to a system across my LAN acting as a NAS.
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Quote:
Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"?
What about controlling it through permissions? But I suspect %appdata% may not play nicely.
// TODO: Insert something here
Top ten reasons why I'm lazy 1.
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I've decided to upgrade the desktop with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, and start fresh with a clean Win 11 install* (hence the upgrade, the current desktop isn't compatible as it doesn't have TPM). But this time ... I want to split OS, apps, and data rather more. So I've also ordered a new SDD (480GB) to go with the existing 1TB SSD and the 1TB HDD. At the moment, OS and apps are on the SSD, data is HDD, so the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data. That's close to what I had last time but it became something of a mess because apps don't always "play nice" and stick data wherever the heck they want. Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"? * Not because its that great, but because it's "OK, pretty much" and it'll be forced on me at some point. So rather than a cluttered upgrade install, I'd rather kick it into the weeds and do a clean first install. I suspect my current one started life as Win 7 ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
My "manually" administered and cleaned OS drive (W10) is at 194 GB; that's the best I can do with what I use. (There may be default SQL server database space that can / should be moved).
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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I've decided to upgrade the desktop with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, and start fresh with a clean Win 11 install* (hence the upgrade, the current desktop isn't compatible as it doesn't have TPM). But this time ... I want to split OS, apps, and data rather more. So I've also ordered a new SDD (480GB) to go with the existing 1TB SSD and the 1TB HDD. At the moment, OS and apps are on the SSD, data is HDD, so the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data. That's close to what I had last time but it became something of a mess because apps don't always "play nice" and stick data wherever the heck they want. Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"? * Not because its that great, but because it's "OK, pretty much" and it'll be forced on me at some point. So rather than a cluttered upgrade install, I'd rather kick it into the weeds and do a clean first install. I suspect my current one started life as Win 7 ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
You would think, wouldn't you, that some 30 years on Microsoft might have added a feature to enforce an "Op.System-only drive" and provide intelligent defaults for applications that try to put their stuff somewhere else. I have a hunch that in some cases it might be feasible to create a W:/ partition, install Windows on there, and just leave "legacy" applications to install on the C: per default. (Changing %AppDir% etc might help too...) My understanding is that Windows won't let you install it on an A: or B: drive because it still reserves these letters for floppy drives. Perhaps installing your "real" Windows in W: whilst also providing a C: drive would give greatest compatibility with those badly-behaved apps that one actually needs...
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You would think, wouldn't you, that some 30 years on Microsoft might have added a feature to enforce an "Op.System-only drive" and provide intelligent defaults for applications that try to put their stuff somewhere else. I have a hunch that in some cases it might be feasible to create a W:/ partition, install Windows on there, and just leave "legacy" applications to install on the C: per default. (Changing %AppDir% etc might help too...) My understanding is that Windows won't let you install it on an A: or B: drive because it still reserves these letters for floppy drives. Perhaps installing your "real" Windows in W: whilst also providing a C: drive would give greatest compatibility with those badly-behaved apps that one actually needs...
Bingo! Win 11 does let you set a default location for new apps: Back to Basics: How to change the default save location in Windows 11 - gHacks Tech News[^] I'll try it - and if I set the bootable SSD as "W:" and the app SSD as "C:" then redirect all the non-data locations to C: it could help. Thanks for that - good idea ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Bingo! Win 11 does let you set a default location for new apps: Back to Basics: How to change the default save location in Windows 11 - gHacks Tech News[^] I'll try it - and if I set the bootable SSD as "W:" and the app SSD as "C:" then redirect all the non-data locations to C: it could help. Thanks for that - good idea ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
In fact Win10 has a similar screen, which I found by chance the other day when my C: (SSD) was getting perilously full. I already moved all my documents, photos, dev websites etc to D: (HD) and applications that ask are also all installed to D:. I've updated all the "default save locations" as per the screenshot but not installed anything since so no idea if it works; I suspect it still depends on apps being "good citizens" of Windows. As I keep falling over well-hidden (to me) Win10 hacks I assumed everyone else was familiar with this screen! :laugh: :-O :doh: Just don't blame me if the W: drive turns out to be a really bad idea long-run...
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I've decided to upgrade the desktop with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, and start fresh with a clean Win 11 install* (hence the upgrade, the current desktop isn't compatible as it doesn't have TPM). But this time ... I want to split OS, apps, and data rather more. So I've also ordered a new SDD (480GB) to go with the existing 1TB SSD and the 1TB HDD. At the moment, OS and apps are on the SSD, data is HDD, so the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data. That's close to what I had last time but it became something of a mess because apps don't always "play nice" and stick data wherever the heck they want. Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"? * Not because its that great, but because it's "OK, pretty much" and it'll be forced on me at some point. So rather than a cluttered upgrade install, I'd rather kick it into the weeds and do a clean first install. I suspect my current one started life as Win 7 ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
It's possible to change the location for things like 'My Documents' to keep in on a separate drive / partition. Usually when installing you can choose the destination directory, so just make sure you point it to the non OS drive. You can try to use portable versions of apps as well.
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I've decided to upgrade the desktop with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, and start fresh with a clean Win 11 install* (hence the upgrade, the current desktop isn't compatible as it doesn't have TPM). But this time ... I want to split OS, apps, and data rather more. So I've also ordered a new SDD (480GB) to go with the existing 1TB SSD and the 1TB HDD. At the moment, OS and apps are on the SSD, data is HDD, so the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data. That's close to what I had last time but it became something of a mess because apps don't always "play nice" and stick data wherever the heck they want. Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"? * Not because its that great, but because it's "OK, pretty much" and it'll be forced on me at some point. So rather than a cluttered upgrade install, I'd rather kick it into the weeds and do a clean first install. I suspect my current one started life as Win 7 ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
I do something similar, but the opposite way round. I have 2 systems that I swap between 2 monitors and a wireless keyboard. The way I do it is with a USB switch similar to this one: [USB Switch Selector,USB 2.0 KVM Switcher Box Switch Hub for 2 PC Sharing 4 USB Devices,One-Button Swapping for Keyboard, Mouse, Scanner, Printer, Computer … : Amazon.co.uk: Business, Industry & Science](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07MNZ1FVS/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_asin\_title\_o03\_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) It basically has 4 usb inputs on the front, and 2 usb outputs on the back, allowing me to just press the button on the top, so that what ever is plugged into the front is only seen on the selected output. Since everything is USB A standard connections, it's likely you can reverse it (Although I've never tried) and I do recall when looking for this I did see some that worked the opposite way round too. I would say that if you put your 2 separate drives into USB enclosures, you should in theory be able to switch the drives between the two independent outputs, so that each OS install only sees the drive you want it to. Failing that, it shouldn't take to much effort to actually make a suitable switch using an MCU and a digital switch IC of some description.
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I've decided to upgrade the desktop with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, and start fresh with a clean Win 11 install* (hence the upgrade, the current desktop isn't compatible as it doesn't have TPM). But this time ... I want to split OS, apps, and data rather more. So I've also ordered a new SDD (480GB) to go with the existing 1TB SSD and the 1TB HDD. At the moment, OS and apps are on the SSD, data is HDD, so the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data. That's close to what I had last time but it became something of a mess because apps don't always "play nice" and stick data wherever the heck they want. Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"? * Not because its that great, but because it's "OK, pretty much" and it'll be forced on me at some point. So rather than a cluttered upgrade install, I'd rather kick it into the weeds and do a clean first install. I suspect my current one started life as Win 7 ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
My initial concern would be that anything you do today to enforce it, could break tomorrow with an update. The "C" drive has always been a problematic thing with Windows. Sometimes, I am tempted to just make one giant C drive raid array and be done with it.
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I've decided to upgrade the desktop with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, and start fresh with a clean Win 11 install* (hence the upgrade, the current desktop isn't compatible as it doesn't have TPM). But this time ... I want to split OS, apps, and data rather more. So I've also ordered a new SDD (480GB) to go with the existing 1TB SSD and the 1TB HDD. At the moment, OS and apps are on the SSD, data is HDD, so the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data. That's close to what I had last time but it became something of a mess because apps don't always "play nice" and stick data wherever the heck they want. Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"? * Not because its that great, but because it's "OK, pretty much" and it'll be forced on me at some point. So rather than a cluttered upgrade install, I'd rather kick it into the weeds and do a clean first install. I suspect my current one started life as Win 7 ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
Junctions are your friend! For instance, Outlook always likes to use the system drive for some things (ie. C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook). Let it set it up. Shut down Outlook. Move the data to the drive you want and create a junction in place of the original directory Outlook created. I do this with a few applications, ensuring that my data is on an 8TB Raid 5 array instead of on the system volume. The only caveat is that it CAN give you deceptive disk usage numbers from some utilities that don't understand junctions.
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I've decided to upgrade the desktop with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, and start fresh with a clean Win 11 install* (hence the upgrade, the current desktop isn't compatible as it doesn't have TPM). But this time ... I want to split OS, apps, and data rather more. So I've also ordered a new SDD (480GB) to go with the existing 1TB SSD and the 1TB HDD. At the moment, OS and apps are on the SSD, data is HDD, so the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data. That's close to what I had last time but it became something of a mess because apps don't always "play nice" and stick data wherever the heck they want. Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"? * Not because its that great, but because it's "OK, pretty much" and it'll be forced on me at some point. So rather than a cluttered upgrade install, I'd rather kick it into the weeds and do a clean first install. I suspect my current one started life as Win 7 ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
I tried this a couple Windows versions ago and had nothing but pain. There were apps that didn't work and settings kept flipping back to their default location. I now blithely accept where Windows wants to put things and my machines just seem to work better.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
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I've decided to upgrade the desktop with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM, and start fresh with a clean Win 11 install* (hence the upgrade, the current desktop isn't compatible as it doesn't have TPM). But this time ... I want to split OS, apps, and data rather more. So I've also ordered a new SDD (480GB) to go with the existing 1TB SSD and the 1TB HDD. At the moment, OS and apps are on the SSD, data is HDD, so the idea this time is the 480 for OS only, the 1TB for apps only, and the HDD for data. That's close to what I had last time but it became something of a mess because apps don't always "play nice" and stick data wherever the heck they want. Anyone know if it's possible to tell Windows that "this disk is for you, and you only"? * Not because its that great, but because it's "OK, pretty much" and it'll be forced on me at some point. So rather than a cluttered upgrade install, I'd rather kick it into the weeds and do a clean first install. I suspect my current one started life as Win 7 ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
So.... let me see if I understand this correctly. You have some notion that apps that don't behave well will suddenly work as desired through trickery at the OS level??? Seriously, if you have an app that stores data without giving you a chance to interject, why do you think the app will still work when you block its desired location?? It will break the app if it can't write to the location. If the developer didn't let you choose the place for storing something it will not likely recover from being blocked. Most software today stores settings information in the "AppData" folder. I place that in quotes because the location is (or was up through 10) a virtual location that could be changed through a registry key. Most of the locations used are (or were) virtualized so you could change the location. This would include the default location(s) for programs to be installed. (There is one for 64 bit and another for 32 bit last I checked.) But if a developer doesn't know about the virtual locations - then such will get blindly ignored. And if a developer: 1. Didn't bother to learn to use the system call for the desired directory and hard coded it 2. Didn't bother to prompt you for the location Then chances are the same developer doesn't have code to gracefully handle your attempts to protect against said developer. Now that could be a good thing since the software likely sucks anyway. But that is anotheer discussion.
