The philosophy is still correct IMO. I still have my data partition as well as a xCopy-program executable directory tree/partition, but programs are nowadays so closely linked with the particular OS install that I switched over to try for separate VM's. ESATA did not fulfill my hopes, but USB3 makes it possible to sometimes leave the laptop on the desk and just carry a 2.5' or even an USB3 stick, but still to work in a familar setting. Currently XP VM's (smaller VHD size), but during the next year planned to switch to upgrade all to W8.

>Thanks. I have followed a similar philosophy for some time now -- keep the C: drive as lean, mean, and non-volatile as possible. The one thing that is an ongoing challenge is every program in the world now wants to install itself in C:\Program Files.
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>>My core install - Win 7, SQL Server 2008R2 and VS2010 and VS 2012 will fit nicely. The second drive (now the first drive) is 500 gb so total I'll have 750 without using the multiple terabytes of storage elsewhere on my network.