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Jason
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Definitely store your data on a separate partition or physical drive if possible.dirtydog said:Maybe you should consider having the OS on its own partition, and your valuable data on another partition, so that reinstalling the OS doesn't mean you lose data. Also backup your data regularly if it's important. That goes for Windows as well as OS X or any other OS; hard drives can and do fail without any warning.
Windows XP - on a good hardware platform, with no faulty or unreliable components - and using all signed device drivers (WHQL approved) is as solid as a rock imho.
I've been using my XP PC since 2001 and have had to reinstall XP only once. I've never had virus problems and spyware was the reason I did the reinstall. I can honestly say XP is pretty good, as long as you take care of your install and know what you're doing on the web.
I still can't wait to get my PowerBook though!