Hi,

I'd like to re-submit here a question posted by Benjol on Aug 17at 5:57 "Moving users folder on Windows Vista to another partition - bad idea?"

(I can't post one than one link until I earn "10 reputation" and removed my "answer" there to post my follow-up questions here).

I am anxiously getting ready at long last to to carry out a clean install (using custom install option) from Vista to Windows-7 Home Premium 64bit with the free upgrade I received late October.

For my Vista system I successfully set-up last Summer a multi-partitions scheme with Users and Program Data on a a different partition than the operating system (see link below, and its subsequent links in my comment for details).
http://tuts4tech.net/2009/08/05/windows-7-move-the-users-and-program-files-directories-to-a-different-partition/comment-page-1/#comment-562

I was planning a similar set-up for windows 7, a little more streamlined, with OS, Program Files on C:, Users and Program Data on D:, and TV media recording on a separate partition.

Reading the Question submitted by Benjol, I am second guessing too. Is moving Users and Program Data on a different partition than the default primary partition with OS and Program Files such a good idea?

The couple of people I talked to at the official Microsoft Windows 7 booth at CES 2010 gave the same answer to the intention of moving the Users profile folder to another partition.
In a nutshell, they all told me that they used to do this in XP and less in Vista but not anymore with Windows 7... "It is stable, after two months still no problem" I had the feeling it was a scripted answer to emphasize how Windows 7 is so stable and efficient... (Will Windows-7 system not become bugged down over the course of several months to a year or two? Only time will tell)

Long story short, I share the same view than Benjol expressed with respect to being "able to backup and restore system and user data independently." I just received a 2TB usb2, eSATA external hard drive as a back-up drive, which includes NTI Shadow 4 (4.1.0.150) for back-up solution. I took note of the issue with NTUSER.DAT and I will read more about Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for Windows 7.

I am willing to put the effort if placing Users and Program Data on a different partition would allow to restore a fresher OS+Program image when the system gets bugged down.

Questions:

Is it such a bad idea?

What is the "easy route" referred by Benjol in his post? Is it to just relocate folders to another partition using the Folder property tool?
(It is not practical for several users and might not provide a straightforward restore process of just OS and Program Files when needed.)

I am starting to learn about Windows 7 libraries. Would Windows 7 libraries be another alternative to achieve this?

All this reading to decide how to organize the partition scheme for my custom system is starting to be confusing. I apologize for this lengthy Question. It is my first day here on SuperUser and I am just learning how different from a discussion thread it is.

Thank you in advance for all your suggestions and comments.

Donat