Gail, I'd like to add my two ha'penn'orth if I may.
Firstly, I think you seem to have understood that a partition is to a hard disk like a drawer in a filing cabinet is to the cabinet itself; partitions can be formatted individually and work independently, rather like separate hard drives though they are not. The one problem is that if the hard drive electronics go down they take all the partitions on that drive down. The point of using separate partitions is fundamentally to separate different types of recorded material. This has several benefits, principally (but not only) relating to backups. So, the C partition is used by Windows for all its programs - it's the operating system. You can back it up if you want to using a program called Norton Ghost - absolutely invaluable if your C partition gets corrupted somehow, or you keep trying out new bits of software but want to return to the simple system without all the bits that uninstalling leaves behind. The next partition is the D drive, usually used for storing data, and only data. You make the 'My Documents' folder point to it by Right clicking on 'my documents', select properties, and changing the target folder to D:\. Some programs don't have an option to specify where data is stored (as Legacy does in Options-customise-locations), but will reload the last file used. I then copy the whole of my D partition regularly to DVD as a backup - and so have backed up all my data. If you've left 'My Documents' where windows puts it by default, your data is all muddled with your programs. I myself then also have separate partitions for Temporary files and the Swap file, but this may be going a bit far for most people. Do of course back up to a separate hard drive nightly, but do please also make backups to hard media, CD or DVD also and put copies regularly somewhere away from your home so should your drives get stolen or you have a fire, God forbid, you haven't lost all your hard work, which may of course include other data such as your letters and accounts. Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
