Question on Seperate Partitions & System Image

Thanks to this site I am regular Macrium user for System Images.

I have read here that it is a good idea to split your OS (C Drive) and your music/docs/videos (to say D Drive) into separate partions. This results in a faster System image to create and restore due to the reduction in size.

In the event of a virus/ransom attack; I would restore my C drive only (OS) using MR. My D Drive with my music/docs/videos would remain 'untouched'.

But here's my confusion with this strategy;
Couldn’t a nasty virus etc be hiding on D Drive somehow and cause problem when I restore my C drive? If so, why separate your music/docs/videos?
Why not leave music/docs/videos on C drive & do a full system image including my data? Which is what I am currently doing.

Not sure I'm following you.

The reason to do the separation has little to do with viruses.

Keeping everything on C would not insulate you from a virus.

You ask why separate data after having given one of the primary reasons to separate in the third sentence of your post.

You certainly could keep everything on C and do an image that included your data. The main issues with that are that the image would probably be quite large, take more time, and might take up more space than you'd like and that if you restore that image it would overwrite any new data you had acquired since you made the image. If you made an image on April 3, the pictures you took on April 6 would be over-written---unless you had otherwise backed them up.

For safety you need to backup up all data to an external drive and store that drive in a safe location

I keep my system & program files on a separate partition to user files. I do keep a separate compact copy of just the system files on another drive on my PC for fast recovery from Windows problems, but I also backup to an external drive as noted above.

ignatzatsonic said:

Not sure I'm following you.

The reason to do the separation has little to do with viruses.

I understand the reason for separation has little to do with viruses. Also I know to copy my system images and personal files to external drives for safety.

I’ll try again.
Lets say I implement this strategy and subsequently I suspect I have a virus. So I decide to restore C drive via my System Image.

Since I did not restore D drive, is it possible that a virus could be lurking still on my D drive?
If so, this separation strategy does not seem suitable to restore your PC in the event of a virus attack?

Thoughts?

Jeddie said:

Since I did not restore D drive, is it possible that a virus could be lurking still on my D drive?
If so, this separation strategy does not seem suitable to restore your PC in the event of a virus attack?



Thoughts?

I guess a virus could be lurking anywhere at any time, if a malware guy has the talent and inclination.

There's no earthshaking advantage to using separation. I'd guess 10% or fewer users do that, probably higher for enthusiast types. If I had qualms about it, I wouldn't do it.

Even images may be infected, that you might presume are virus and malware free. You could unwittingly restore an infected partition, overwriting a virus-free partition.

To each his own, but I would be more concerned with keeping viruses off my hard drive in the first place. Prevention rather than cure.

I've only restored a few times and never because of a virus or malware issue. I've had only 2 or 3 such issues in my life and none were a major complication. It's certainly possible I have a virus right now, but I don't agonize over it.

I keep data on a totally different drive and don't image it at all.