Partitioning ?
- Thread starter Spy
- Start date
Outerarm
Well-known member
I'd suggest this as well and is in fact how I've arranged my current machine.
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
I haven't done so yet but I do intend to partition my 120GB SSD. I plan to have a 50GB partition for Windows and programs and the rest for "highly active" data, basically the My Documents folder and a few other folders I have with data I use very often. Less active data (and music, videos and most images) will go on the HDD.
My reasoning is:
1. Windows and programs are best backed-up using a disk image tool (I use Macrium Reflect) and user data is best backed-up using a file-by-file tool (I use SyncBackSE from 2BrightSparks). Two partitions allow me to separate programs (and Windows) from user data and use the best backup tool for each.
2. Separating Windows (and programs) from all user data means that I am able to format the Windows partition and restore the most recent backup (a disk image) at any time without affecting my data. This is something I do whenever I suspect that Windows has problems, either because I've installed and then removed a program I was testing and didn't like or because I suspect I may have a viral/trojan/rootkit infection. I never bother trying to clean infections, I just restore the most recent image backup (or an earlier one if necessary).
3. 120GB is simply to big a disk to allocate it all to Windows and programs, especially since my highly active data will benefit from the SSD access time.
If I could have bought a 60GB SSD I'd have used it all for Windows and programs, but since I've got all that SSD real estate sitting there doing nothing I plan to use it for data and the most sensible way for me to do that is to run two partitions on there.
My reasoning is:
1. Windows and programs are best backed-up using a disk image tool (I use Macrium Reflect) and user data is best backed-up using a file-by-file tool (I use SyncBackSE from 2BrightSparks). Two partitions allow me to separate programs (and Windows) from user data and use the best backup tool for each.
2. Separating Windows (and programs) from all user data means that I am able to format the Windows partition and restore the most recent backup (a disk image) at any time without affecting my data. This is something I do whenever I suspect that Windows has problems, either because I've installed and then removed a program I was testing and didn't like or because I suspect I may have a viral/trojan/rootkit infection. I never bother trying to clean infections, I just restore the most recent image backup (or an earlier one if necessary).
3. 120GB is simply to big a disk to allocate it all to Windows and programs, especially since my highly active data will benefit from the SSD access time.
If I could have bought a 60GB SSD I'd have used it all for Windows and programs, but since I've got all that SSD real estate sitting there doing nothing I plan to use it for data and the most sensible way for me to do that is to run two partitions on there.
Programs will benefit from being on the SSD, as well as some kinds of data depending what you do - it's a question of how much room you have on the SSD I guess.
So if you do that, there are then benefits to partitioning as ubuysa, but up to you - I used to do this, but these days don't bother, as the annoyance of "one partition was made too small" outweighs the advantages (if I want to reinstall Windows, I can always then do a copy of the data on the SSD to the 2nd hard disk, which is much bigger in size, plus I have daily backups to it anyway).
So if you do that, there are then benefits to partitioning as ubuysa, but up to you - I used to do this, but these days don't bother, as the annoyance of "one partition was made too small" outweighs the advantages (if I want to reinstall Windows, I can always then do a copy of the data on the SSD to the 2nd hard disk, which is much bigger in size, plus I have daily backups to it anyway).
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
Entirely your choice of course but there are performance improvements. Any data you place on the SSD (in a separate partition or not) will be accessed at SSD speeds, for some large data files residing on the SSD can make a huge difference to the speed at which they open. And you paid a lot of money for your SSD so it makes sense to utilise it.
You don't have to partition to put user data on the SSD, though as I mentioned earlier it makes more sense to partition. And these days you don't need to be afraid to get partition sizes wrong, both Windows 7 and 8 can shrink and extend partitions (under certain circumstances). There are also several (free) partition manager tools that can adjust partition sizes for you. I have had good results with the Easus Partition Manager Home Edition tool which is free. Of course, you still need to be sure you have good backups of your programs and data before modifying partitions but it's not the big deal that it used to be.
There is no right answer of course, whatever works for you is right!
