This applies to all 64-bit versions of Windows, but I'm putting it in 7 sub-forum because that's what I'm using. (Note to mods: Please consider making a "Windows General" or "Windows All" sub-forum, cause often times the post applies to all versions and I don't want to limit the number of eyes that see it simply because I'm forced to post about a specific system.) So I always like to separate my data and OS on separate partitions. One of the issues I encounter every time I do an install is, what do I do about the Program Files and Users folders. Traditionally, on 32-bit XP, I would have just changed that registry key for program files and common files location to the D: drive, make a folder there, and it was finished. Now on 64-bit versions of Windows we have x86 and the normal Program Files too. I've tried doing it two different ways. They both appear to work, but I want input from an expert on whether one way is buggy/problematic or not. So one way is to create hard links in a Windows PE boot environment (like Hirens boot CD or Bart PE). I really think more people should do this cause you can wipe Windows and get your data/user account back with a clean install. The hard links makes Windows believe the folders are still on the C: drive, but they're not. It's a more "real" version of a shortcut that's for the OS itself, not a normal shortcut - that's just fancy user based icing. I think this is a pretty solid way to do it and I have not had problems. The other way is the old fashioned way with the reg key, but I do it for both Program Files and Program Files (x86) and I put them in the same folder. This is where I wonder if problems develop? Can you route both program files directories into the same folder? It appears to work for me, so I don't understand why Microsoft had to make both given that I appear to be able to run 32/64 bits software from either location. The one thing I have had to do is make two separate common files folders (x86 and normal) - cause those clearly have conflicting files - like 32 and 64 bit versions of stuff, but all the other apps I install, I just use one version or the other, not both. So what do you think? Am I going to have problems if I just keep lumping everything together?
The whole windows installation is made by hard links, the only problem is that traditionally Windows users and also many windows coders w/o a Unix knowledge, don't know what they are. Regarding the program(s) folders is just a convention, so there isn't thecnically any reason to have them separate. Except that some (especially MS things) follow that convention, so there is a 32bit version and a 64 bit version of explorer of office common files and so on, which are placed in folders named the same way. Nothing that can't be fixed but still a source of problems, or a potential source of problems. Last but not least moving an old user profile to a fresh installation is something very easy, once you know what to do, but now it's many years that tools like forensit allow to do that with a couple of clicks. So there isn't any need to reinvent the wheel here. It's an already solved problem