I am configuring two laptops for family members. I have been doing this for so many years (work and home) that perhaps I do it a certain way more out of inertia than any other reason. I'm going to describe my config system and if anyone has any opinions (for or against) I'd like to hear them.
In this case, the laptop is an ASUS K53. It comes with a 500 gig hard drive partioned as
25 gig recovery partition
160 gig C (OS) partition
### gig D (DATA) partition where ### is whatever is left over
This is the first time I have seen a laptop come from the factory with a separate C and D partition so perhaps that is an indication that I am doing the right thing (based on current opinion). After I am done "tinkering" I end up with
25 gig recovery partition
64 gig C (OS) partition
### gig D (DATA) partition where ### is the rest of the disk
User folders "My Documents", "My Music", "My Videos", "My Pictures", "Downloads" moved to corresponding folders on D
I take a disk image of the recovery and C partitions before I start, then another C image after installing applications, applying updates and tweaking system settings. After that I turn the machines loose. I keep a copy of all images and leave the most recent C image hidden on D. At some point the machines always get pooched. My father-in-law installs everything under the sun and my brother has grandchildren. On their previous machines I'd just slap the old image back on and apply outstanding updates, take another image and walk away leaving their data on D untouched.
So that's been the method so far. I have heard opinions before from both camps (one partition/two partitions) so I'd like anyone here to please weigh in with their own advice.