Question : Problem: Hard drive partitioning for the best performance and reliability

 I wasn't sure where to ask this question, either here or under OS.  I am about to reinstall Windows XP Pro since my 120GB SATA drive physically went bad and I lost all the data I had. (yeah I know I need to do backups more often, but I got it replaced.)  One thing I want to do now is partition it so that if something like this happens again and just the boot sector or the system files are causing the partiton not to be read, I can still get information off the section of the drive where all my data is stored.  
 
  I had Windows installed on the SATA drive because I figured my machine would boot up faster and run better like that.  So would it make sense to set up a 3GB partition as the C: drive just for the Windows directory and have the other 117GBs of HD space as storage? Or, will it not make a difference if I just install Windows onto my 100GB 7200rpm, 8mb cache, IDE HD and leave the whole 120GB SATA drive as primary storage?  I guess I am just looking for recommendations on how to maximize my performance and still be able to retrieve data off my main storage drive (which will be the 120GB SATA) if I have another HD crash.  
Here is some info on what I have to work with.
1 - 120GB SATA HD
1 - 100 GB 7200rpm 8mb cache IDE HD
1 GB Dual Channel DDR RAM
P4 3ghz
Thanks for any help you can provide.

Answer : Problem: Hard drive partitioning for the best performance and reliability

Installing on a different drive: There is no easy answer to that. Some apps have the C:\Program Files coded, others use system variables. You probably have to modify the install path.

Now which files/folders NEED to be on that same drive as the Windows system directory?
c:\*.*, C:\Winnt (or whatever it is called).
The Documents and settings "CAN" be moved to another drive. I do that on my W2K all the time (It is user data!) The way to do it on XP will be in the M$ Knowledge Base.