Creating dual boot on Raid 0

"Inter Hagel" wrote in message
...
Keep your data (and as many programs as you can) off C drive (partition
for
C and D) so when Windows gives up the ghost (or one of your drives fails
which is highly unlikely if its a newer one) you're up and running right
away. If its Windows fault you can reinstall and not have to reinstall
your
programs that were on D (the ones that don't scatter remnants all over
your
computer like in Documents and Settings, etc).

Sorry, that's not correct. Except for a very occasional very small
program, all programs have entries and references within the registry
and elsewhere in \windows. It can't be run under Windows unless it was
installed in that copy of Windows. You will have to reinstall your
programs from the original media after you reinstall Windows.

I've found almost all my smaller programs seem to install perfectly fine
outside of C drive. But I wonder how I could check if there are files
scattered on C after the install? Would a Search bring them all up I
wonder? I have experimented after a new install and copied and pasted a
program from another hard drive and most of the time it works perfectly.
I think that proves that there are no other files anywhere else. I think
all Microsoft programs have to be installed in Program Files on C though.
But almost all other programs can be installed in grouped folders in
C:\Program Files so there is a semblance of organization. I've found this
a great help, especially with programs you rarely use. Also its nice to
realize that if one program doesn't do the job, you can go back to its
folder in Program Files and pick another program. Why Microsoft and Apple
don't organize programs in groups is beyond logic. For instance
C:\Program Files\Players might contain Win Media Player, VLC, Real Audio,
Quicktime, SM Player, etc. When you install in your own specified folder
make sure your installing in its own folder (C:\Program Files\Players\VLC
instead of C:\Program Files\Players) otherwise you'll have a mass of files
and you won't know which are associated with what.

It's usually best to have installed programs in the same partition as
Windows.

So when Windows goes down and needs to be installed you have to do a lot
more work. Right.
My way - just copy and paste and you're up and running in seconds.
Snip

Some applications are called 'portable apps'. If they are truely portable
apps, then they can just be copied and pasted to any drive, even a USB drive
or a camera's flash card in a computer's flash card slot, and will run from
there. Some applications that are not called portable apps also behave this
way because they also don't rely on info stored in the registry. They rely
on all the necessary files' being located in a specific location relative to
the executable's location. Perhaps this is true with all of your
applications. It is not true for most boxed software applications. For
these, if you reinstall Windows, the registry is lost and you must reinstall
the boxed software applications for them to work properly.

-Paul Randall

Keep your data (and as many programs as you can) off C drive (partition
for
C and D) so when Windows gives up the ghost (or one of your drives
fails
which is highly unlikely if its a newer one) you're up and running
right
away. If its Windows fault you can reinstall and not have to reinstall
your
programs that were on D (the ones that don't scatter remnants all over
your
computer like in Documents and Settings, etc).

Sorry, that's not correct. Except for a very occasional very small
program, all programs have entries and references within the registry
and elsewhere in \windows. It can't be run under Windows unless it was
installed in that copy of Windows. You will have to reinstall your
programs from the original media after you reinstall Windows.

I've found almost all my smaller programs seem to install perfectly fine
outside of C drive. But I wonder how I could check if there are files
scattered on C after the install? Would a Search bring them all up I
wonder? I have experimented after a new install and copied and pasted a
program from another hard drive and most of the time it works perfectly.
I think that proves that there are no other files anywhere else. I think
all Microsoft programs have to be installed in Program Files on C though.
But almost all other programs can be installed in grouped folders in
C:\Program Files so there is a semblance of organization. I've found this
a great help, especially with programs you rarely use. Also its nice to
realize that if one program doesn't do the job, you can go back to its
folder in Program Files and pick another program. Why Microsoft and
Apple don't organize programs in groups is beyond logic. For instance
C:\Program Files\Players might contain Win Media Player, VLC, Real Audio,
Quicktime, SM Player, etc. When you install in your own specified folder
make sure your installing in its own folder (C:\Program Files\Players\VLC
instead of C:\Program Files\Players) otherwise you'll have a mass of
files and you won't know which are associated with what.

It's usually best to have installed programs in the same partition as
Windows.

So when Windows goes down and needs to be installed you have to do a lot
more work. Right.
My way - just copy and paste and you're up and running in seconds.
Snip

Some applications are called 'portable apps'. If they are truely portable
apps, then they can just be copied and pasted to any drive, even a USB
drive or a camera's flash card in a computer's flash card slot, and will
run from there. Some applications that are not called portable apps also
behave this way because they also don't rely on info stored in the
registry. They rely on all the necessary files' being located in a
specific location relative to the executable's location. Perhaps this is
true with all of your applications. It is not true for most boxed
software applications. For these, if you reinstall Windows, the registry
is lost and you must reinstall the boxed software applications for them to
work properly. -Paul Randall

Thanks Paul for the good explanation. What would also help would be to know
if the app is "portable" before I install it. Does anyone know if this is
possible to determine somehow? Or how to test a packed install program
before I install it? Can't quite wrap my little mind around this. As I
remember, most of the larger programs are not portable. I wonder if some
seem like they are portable but are creating new preferences when they are
copied from another location instead of being installed correctly? (This is
getting complicated!)