I don't uninstall application programs unless I intend to make major changes
to the setup using their 'custom' install feature.

The main reason I can come up with for putting application programs on a
separate partition (separate drive is better yet) is to prevent fragmented
drives.  A carefully planned install can last a long, long, time.  Since the
areas where applications are installed is functionally read-only (programs
don't write to their dll's, only read them) you get a nice unfragmented
partition that should stay that way indefinitely.  If you have an
application that saves its user data in the same folder where it was
installed, just use its setup to point to a new folder on a different
partition.  The only warning I have come up against is some programs allow
you to put the data in a separate drive, but not change the folder name.
For example, Peachtree Accounting likes to use PEACHW as the folder, but
D:\PEACHW can have the installed program, and C:\PEACHW can have the
financial transaction data for your business or home.

If you are the user type that likes to try out a lot of programs, so much
the better.  After you uninstall a couple of times, you can defrag the
application program partition without any of the hassles defrag programs
sometimes give you when they run into non-movable files and folders in the
system area.

Since so much disk thrashing can take place on a windows system partition,
this can save a lot of defrag time, and give you a percent or two of
performance enhancement.  Plus, if your making routine backups, to cdrw's
for example, it keeps gigs of folders that don't need to be backed up out of
the way.

Because practically all windows application programs put shared dll's into
the system folder, this method has little effect if you choose a clean
install.  I prefer to recover the system folders if they get damaged, which
preserves my registry and all my shared dll's, etc.
Tom Turak

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2002 5:28 AM
From: "Demetri Kolokotronis"
Subject: [PCBUILD] Multiple Partition Reinstall OS


> I have OS, Win98, on one partition, programs on another. Several pointed
> out that if I reformat and reinstall OS, I will have to reinstall
> programs that are on other partition. Should I uninstall programs before
> reinstalling? Is there no advantage in having programs on separate
> partition?
>
> Demetri Kolokotronis
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