One of the first things I do with a new pc is create two partitions, install windows on one and store the rest of my junk on the other, never touch the windows partition again unless programs really require to be installed on it. Desktop folder is in the same partition as windows, that's why it's bad :P. Only use it for shortcuts.
1. The argument here was if the desktop folder was any less safer than your rest of your hard disk folders. Arguing if 2 partitions is better than 1 is a totally different topic. After all, you can always re-direct your desktop folder to a location in a different partition if you really want to.
2. The desktop folder is unique for every user on your pc like all folders in the "Documents and Settings" directory, so in some way the desktop folder is actually a little bit safer.
3. Partitions aren't all that safe as you think they are and in my opinion a bit of a pain. As Phemox said, when your hd crashes then 1 or 1000 partitions won't make any difference. There's only one scenario where I think partitions help.. When you're re-installing windows people tend to (and I agree) format their disk first instead of just slapping the new windows on top of the old ones. If you have 2 partitions then you won't have to format the 'data' partition if you will. However, if you install all programs on your data partition too, then you'll have to re-install those programs anyway, so you end up with a big non-working 'Program Files' folder. The right thing to do is use the 'Windows' partition for
all your programs and leave your 'data' partition for all your actual data (gamestudio projects, save games, pictures, music, etc..). But in that case, how do you know in advance how much space you'll need for each partition so you won't be left with 1 partition full and another almost empty? And re-tweaking your partition sizes is definitely not my idea of fun, especially when your life's work is at stake..
4. In general, you can survive just fine with just one partition and a few friends to transfer your data on their computers when shit hits the fan. And of course, if you can spend 30-40 bucks for a small-sized hd only to be used for your back-ups then that's pretty much the way to go..
The reason I'm being so anal about all this is because I hate when everytime someone has a problem then all these people will immediately join in and make sure everyone knows that this would never had happened to them. I think that's a bit of a bullshit... First of all, I know puppeteer and I'm sure he's not your everyday windows noob guy to be patronized like he has been (ex.
I know I'm always harsh to you, but the truth is the truth - It was your fault by a big extend.). And second, raise hands for all of you who knew that deleting a freaking firefox profile deletes all the damn files and folders in that folder. So if you've saved that on your root folder of your safe 'data' partition, your whole partition would be gone. So truth is, this could have happened to pretty much everyone, because Firefox is an app. we trust and that this is a major bug which should be reported immediately.. So, instead of an answer to his question about Terms Of Use, he instead gets to bear through all this nonsense:
how can you place 1000hours of work on your desktop?
Perhaps he first should learn how to use a computer and then start working with it...

Storing everything on the desktop... Reminds me of those 50+ people I used to help with their computers.
I know I'm always harsh to you, but the truth is the truth - It was your fault by a big extend.
That's why I even don't use the "My Documents" folder. I don't think anything on C:\ is very save. And if I want to temporary test something I create a folder named "New folder" instead of using the Desktop folder

Anyway, I know I made a big deal out of this, especially since not even puppeteer cared about this, but it did kinda bug me so I felt like getting it out of my chest.. Thanks for bearing through my rant :P