NTFS doesn't store its file allocation table at the center of the disk does it?

Perhaps not at the center, but NTFS definitely keeps at least one backup copy of the file allocation table elsewhere in the partition. I learned this recently when I accidentally deleted a partition containing over 20GB of someone else's files. I was able to recover it, though.

On another note, I have a separate partition on my single hard drive, which stores nothing but personal and media files. Win2K's Disk Defragmenter also shows green stripes for me on that partition. No system file of any kind has ever been put there by me, nor were any by Windows AFAIK.