Anyone know if I can do this and enforce it?
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
