Hard Drive Partitioning - To separate OS and Program Files or not?

Hi,

Wasn't sure where else to put this, and I am using Windows XP SP3, so here we go...

Can anyone tell me the advantages of splitting up the OS and Program files into separate partitions?

If I put Windows XP and Program Files on separate partitions, and I have to re-install Windows XP on its partition down the road for some reason, would I also have to re-install some or all programs on the Program Files partition as well?

No matter what partition or disk you place Program Files on, some programs seem to be automatically connected to the OS partition and become dependent on it. So if you re-installed the OS, would it not delete critical files fo some programs, making them unusable?

The registry, for example, lives on the OS partition. Some or all programs end up with entries in the registry. So after you re-installed the OS, the registry would seemingly be that of a fresh OS install, and be missing information from several of your previously-installed programs sitting on your Program Files partition. And these programs would no longer work, right?

Please let me know if I'm missing something in my above assumption

Does splitting these two up really give you an edge when it comes to having to re-install the OS, or is the advantage in putting them on separate partitions only performance-based, and not for simplifying re-installs of the OS?

I'm trying to figure out what advantage there really is to separating the OS and Program Files in separate partitions, and if I should bother or not.

As a minimum, I will have 3 partitions:

OS and Program Files

Data

Page File

Or I could have 4 and split out Program Files from the OS:

OS

Program Files

Data

Page File

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks,

Scott

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