All of our development machines have multiple drives mapped to specific functionality: C: System D: Data (business data and main work area for product

All of our development machines have multiple drives mapped to specific functionality: C: System D: Data (business data and main work area for product design data) F: Library (stuff you rarely touch, PDF's, books, references, "knowledgebase", etc.) G: Backup (external) S: Swap and Scratch Files (this is actually a RAM-based 128 GB drive for speed) Z: Development (mostly for web development, VM storage, etc.) The idea is that the C drive can be taken out and shredded and the most valuable part of the computer, the data, is unharmed. Decades ago I learned --the hard way-- that storing your data on the same drive as the OS/system files is a dangerous thing. The other thing this facilitates is backup. You can backup and restore each of the logical/functional units separately, as full drives. This also makes upgrading the system or the entire computer far simpler. The separation between OS and data makes it so. Way back when, before the registry was a thing, you could upgrade your OS without having to reinstall the applications. While I understand the advantages of common DLL's and the centralized management of common settings and code, I do miss the ability to not only separate data from the OS, but also applications. I don't think that is ever coming back.