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Requesting new organization ideas for fresh windows installation

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nite_monkey:
I think I may end up using the quick launch a lot more, before I was putting folders in the start menu, and organizing my stuff that way, with the quick launch, I can just drag the stuff in it, and get to it better.

nite_monkey:
I just reinstalled windows, and replaced my wpa.dbl file, but it didn't do anything. >:( I still have to activate windows, but I can't, because I have already activated it to many times, and I can't talk to the Microsoft tech support, because I can't understand what the Japanese person is saying.

edit: ...ok, I don't know what I did, but now it let me activate windows, so now I think I have it working... I wish I knew what I did to get it to work so that I can do it again next time I re-install windows

Daleus:
I just did this last week, and I'm trying a system of partitions that I hope will help to minimize future problems.  Of course, with three parts on the same drive, if the drive goes I'm screwed....

First Part is ~50gb.  This is where I install windows and programs and nothing else!
Second Part ~100gb. This is where Data that *I* create goes.  docs, sheets images etc. etc. in a custom My Documents folder.

Third Part ~100gb.  This is mass storage.  Downloads, music archive, like it says bulk storage stuff or stuff that will get served to the media player, junk waiting to be burned.

The first partition could conceivably be smaller or larger, depending on how much crap you install.  I tend to install a lot of stuff, but then rip out most of it afterwards as programs are big on promise and mostly short on delivery.  In my case, this could probably be smaller, even though I have some big pigs installed.  Smaller means the image you take for backup is a manageable size. It's also good to segregate windows from anything valuable like data, so that when it finally implodes it doesn't take anything of actual value with it.

The second and third partitions are highly variable and I expect to alter the sizes of these two partitions as time goes on.  As the most valuable thing on the hard drive, I want to segregate my data from the OS, and also from the parition in which I hold downloads or junk ready to be burned. It also leaves partition sizes that are easierto backup via imaging.

If you have a Big Assed Music Collection (tm) you will probably want that on a completely different drive rather than just a different partition. I am working on getting it off the main machine altogether and onto a dedicated box.  In the menatime, a partition works for me.

Last thing, I want to go back to the custom Documents folder.  I *always* move this to a short name folder somewhere, because the length of the path to the doc folder inside your windows profile is stupidly long - you'd be surprised how many zip programs will choke on the length of this dog pathname, and as many backup programs use zip, I see alot of failure in that areas as well.  To boot, a lot of the failures occur when you attempt to restore rather there when attempting to do a backup, so be aware.

For me the folder is MyDocs and is in the root of the document partition.

Good luck in wrangling your Windows. Lord knows anyone of us could do a better job than the way the thing comes packaged ;)

PlayPhil:
A rather neat trick (I think) with the Quick Launch toolbar is to create a Folder, say ...\Quick Launch\Admin and drag it to the left of the QL menu area. You can also create Sub Folders under this Folder. I call mine "Admin" so it's alpha-first but it and the the sub-dirs can be any name.

One caveat, if at some time you selected "Sort By Name" for the Quick Launch menu you are stuck with an alpha-numeric name to keep the Folder visible at the left, whether "Admin," 0Cool (zeroCool) or some such.

Hold down the CTRL key and Left-Mouse-Click to expand the "Admin" Folder as a menu rather than opening it as a Folder. Works great, very fast. The "Admin" folder can contain as many Folders and Menu Items as you like.

I pretty much keep this to regularly used programs, specifically not as a substitute for the Start Menu system. The same programs (or Links) exist in my Start Menu. In fact, the shortcuts are copied from the Start Menu structure...

1101doc:
If you're thinking of a better way to organize the desktop (Quick Launch and all), take a look at this: http://www.5starsupport.com/ipboard/index.php?showtopic=7857

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