In my oppinion standars are very importent. I (among a couple of collegues) manage 500+ sql-servers. The servers that requier the most time from us are the ones that does not follow standard (there are a few).

We've have arranged the server like follows:

C: OS and SQL binary

D: SQL systemdatabases

E: Pure backupdisk

F: User SQL logfiles

G: User SQL datafiles

H: Application disk

We have split the log-, data- and backupdisk on three different diskes in order to be safe whenever/however one server might crash or crash caused by diskcrash.

And like previous commeter says, it's so easy to find information on each server. Mapping a drive and not finding the information I need there (on non-standard servers) will make me go crazy for the extra time I need to spend to find what I need.

robbac