Ever since Windows 98, Microsoft has provided a My Documents folder for you to store all your files in. Most programs written for Windows automatically open the Save As and Open dialog boxes to the My Documents folder so that if you don't know anything about how folder structures work, then you will save it in My Documents where you will mostly be able to find it again. In Windows 2000/Me, Microsoft added a My Pictures folder, in Windows XP along came the My Music and My Videos folders and in Windows Vista it expanded so that there was a Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, Favourites, Links, Saved Games and Searches folder (many of these were already there, but hidden to the user before Windows Vista) in addition to the Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folder. Windows 7 Added a Podcasts (If You Install Zune 4.0) and Virtual Machines (If You Install Windows Virtual PC).
These are known as Shell Folders, because while they are folders, you can change the location of them and the programs which use them will automatically use the new location. The issue with these Shell Folders is that they store their files on the C:\ drive (normally in the Users or Documents and Settings Folder). If you need to reinstall Windows or format the C:\ drive, then unless you copy these folders to a backup location, they will be wiped out when you format or reinstall Windows. They also can slow down performance slightly being located on the C:\ drive because of fragmentation etc. While you could move these shell folders to another partition (normally the D:\ labeled Data), it often caused problems because sometimes programs didn't follow when they were supposed to and the setting didn't always stick. Windows 7 brings along a new feature called Libraries - and this makes storing your data on a different drive quite easy and allows you to reformat or reinstall Windows without losing your data.
Step 1 - Creating a Data Drive
If you followed my article on how to Install Windows 7 then you'll remember the screen where you can pick partitions. Well if you created a C:\ partition of about 40-50% of the total drive space and then create another partition (D:\) and give it the remaining 50-60% of space then you're set. If you have a D:\ drive on your computer at the moment because Dell or someone put it there, you're also set. If not then you're probably going to have to shrink your current C:\ drive. You can do this by clicking the Start button and typing "disk" into the search box and picking 'Create and format hard drive partitions' from the list under Control Panel.
You'll then see this window called Disk Management. From it find your C:\ drive (it will be on the row labeled Disk 0 on the left and have words such as System, Boot, Page File etc written on it.) if you right click it and choose Shrink Disk, Windows will tell you how much you can shrink it by. As I said above, leave about 40% of what was originally there, that's a good amount. This process will take a while to complete.
Once you've done that, then right click the new area called Free Space (it's green) and choose New Simple Volume. Just follow the steps in this wizard. You can leave all the screens alone and keep clicking Next (except on the Format screen where you can rename "New Volume" to Data) and then Windows will set up a new partition for you to put all your documents on.
Step 2 - Configure The Libraries
Once you have a data drive with lots of room on it, then open it up and create a Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folder on it and then put all your documents, videos, pictures and music into the corresponding folders you just created.
Once you've done that, then we just need to point the libraries in the right direction. Goto the Start Menu and type "Libraries" into the search box and then pick it from the top of the results. Then right click the Documents library icon and choose Properties. This dialog has a list of folders currently part of the library. Just remove the ones in the list by clicking them and clicking Remove and then click Include a Folder, find your Documents folder on the Data drive and select it. You'll see it in the list. Click OK. Then follow the procedure for the Pictures, Music and Videos library too.
You're Now done. When you go to reformat or reinstall Windows you'll still need to copy the Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, Favourites, Links, Saved Games and Searches folders if you put anything into them, but the majority of your files will be safely away on your Data Drive.
