Desktop for Data Storage?

fmuellerfmueller Auckland, NZ Icrontian
edited January 2007 in Science & Tech
My wife seems to have developed a habit of storing all her data on the desktop. I just took over her old laptop, and there were about 600MB of data on the desktop - more than half of what she had on that machine. With her new laptop she is already approaching 100MB on the desktop again. It just doesn't seem right to store all your stuff in this system folder, but apart from philosophical considerations are there any tangible disadvantages of doing this? Her new laptop seems to take like forever to load and save personal setting when booting and shutting down. Is that related to the huge desktop? I need some facts to convince her to stop doing this - if that's what she should do. :tongue:

Frank

Comments

  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    Hi Frank,

    As far as where the DESKTOP is in her file system structure relative to where her MY DOCUMENTS is; they're actually on the same level in her user profile.
    c:\Documents and Settings\%UserProfile%\My Documents
    c:\Documents and Settings\%UserProfile%\Desktop

    I see this all the time. I've long since given up trying to "change (the users') ways". In fact, I've reconsidered and decided the problem doesn't lie w/ the users but w/ me and my over-developed Capricorn, linear sensibilities. :rolleyes2

    In the end, it's really not a problem. The fact that a significant part of her data is centralized (even though it's on the desktop) is actually a good thing. Centrally located data, no matter where it resides, makes backing up and recovering files from a failing HDD much easier.
    • In extreme cases, I find I can't resist creating a folder on the desktop.
    • Name it DESKTOP DATA, for instance.
    • Then move all the data on the desktop (just DATA mind you, not shortcuts, etc.) into that folder.
    • I will warn you, even this minor change will throw many users into the jaws of confusion and disorientation and you'll have to move it all back...
    Having said all that, you could move her desktop entirely. The change would be transparent to her but her data would reside in another location. (e.g. a dedicated DATA partition.) This is what I do w/ all my systems and many of my clients' as well. I seperate all of the data from the primary (OS) partition and onto a dedicated DATA partition. This doesn't effect how the user interacts w/ his/her data for the most part. As far as s/he is concerned, it's never changed. The advantage is a centralized and isolated data location. If the primary partition ever needs to be restored (from image archive, for instance) or repaired, the data remains intact and unaffected.
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