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Unable to boot up? Failed hard disk? Reformatting? Or just simply migrating your comp? If you have been through one of these scenarios, you will understand that the preservation of your personal data is of utmost importance. The following is a best practice which will make the recovery and migration of your personal data that much easier. It will be 15 minutes spent, which you won’t regret.

Step 1: partition your disk

This step is optional and most modern day desktop or laptop should already come with your disk partitioned.

If you got no idea how to partition your hard disk, it is still ok to continue with a single disk. However, as you can see above, partition allows you to separate your “system” and “working” files, in this case the “Storage (D:)”. For help in partitioning your disk, refer to here.

Step 2: relocate “my documents folder”

By default, the My documents folder in locate inside C: As we said, we want to keep C: to system files only, all your working files should be in Storage (D:) to keep things organized. Firstly, go to Storage (D:) and create a new folder named “My Documents”. Next, go to “Start” => mouse over “My Documents” => right click and select “properties”. You should come to the screen below:

In “Target Location” point to the location of the My documents folder which you have just created in your storage drive. That means from now onwards your default my docs will be residing in your storage drive. So there’s one less reason for anyone to go into C: By now if your My Documents folder is not show on your desktop, go to, “Start” => mouse over “My Documents” => right click and select “show on desktop”

STEP 3: REMOVE “MY DOCUMENTS AND SHARED DOCUMENTS FROM YOUR WINDOWS EXPLORER

This step will remove the “Shared Documents” and “My Documents” folder from your My Computer screen. Why do you want to do that? Well this is just to force other users of your workstation not fiddle around and save their files into the “My Documents” folder only, and remove access to the useless “Shared Documents” folder.

First select “Start” => “Run” => type in “gpedit.msc” and it will open up a group policy window. On the left panel, look for “User configuration” => “Administrative Templates” => “Windows Component” => “Windows Explorer” => Finally on the right panel, look for “Remove Shared Documents from My Computer”, fourth from last on my machine. Double click that and select “enable” => then press “Apply”. That’s it.

STEP 4: Tell other users of your comp about it

If you have followed the steps above, you will not be able to see the “My Documents” and “Shared Documents” folder in My Computer. However you will still be able to access it from the common task on the left pane of the Windows Explorer. What’s most important is to now inform your brother, wife, or children sharing your comp that they should only store their files and documents in the My documents folder, accessible from the desktop.

To control it even tighter, remove the “My Computer” icon from the desktop by going to Start => mouse over “My Computer” => and uncheck “Show on Desktop”. That way average user will not have access to your C: easily and mess it up.

That’s it, next time if you need to recover your hard drive, rest assure knowing that all the users files and data can be found in D: My Documents. Even if you choose to reformat your comp, you can go ahead and do it immediately without concern about losing personal data as the Windows installation on touches the C: and after the windows installation, execute Step 2 again and everything will be back to normal.