To Partition HDD or not?

[NdMk2o1o]

OK, here's the deal I got my new 2TB HDD today to replace 2x500Gb drives so now I have my 90Gb SSD as OS/some programs and a 2Tb drive.

Previously I had 1 500Gb drive for downloads and the other for programs/pagefile. What I want to know is should I partition the 2Tb into a similar arrangement or just "throw" everything on it unpartitioned so:

8Gb (Pagefile)//985Gb (Downloads)//985Gb (Program Files)

Or:

1.91Tb Pagefile, Downloads, Program Files

[Goodman]

Partitions will make easier to organize your files & so does folders it's up to you really

As for the page file i would keep that on the SSD

[NdMk2o1o]

As for the page file i would keep that on the SSD

O rly? I heard you shouldn't place the pagefile on an SSD because it can do a lot of reads/writes? :confused: same as IE temp files etc.

[lilhasselhoffer]

O rly? I heard you shouldn't place the pagefile on an SSD because it can do a lot of reads/writes? :confused: same as IE temp files etc.

How much roulette do you want to play?


Some people recommend removing the page file from an SSD, while others do not. The truth to this is removing the page file from the SSD will increase SSD life.

Initial batches of SSDs did not have a great life expectancy, so early adopters always removed the paging file. As life expectancy increased, fewer people see the need to move the paging file. You have to decide if this is right for you.


As far as partitioning, there is no use. A partition will only increase the number of drives you see. Any decently thought out organization is better than having multiple drives. That said, you might be wise to keep one of those 500 GB drives for thrashing. While it may not be as fast as an SSD, a dedicated paging drive (and extra program storage space) is nice to have.

[Goodman]

O rly? I heard you shouldn't place the pagefile on an SSD because it can do a lot of reads/writes? :confused: same as IE temp files etc.

Yep! page file on the fastest drive possible
As for reads & writes it will out lives any HDD by 10 times to 1

It may take you 5+ years of reads & writes every minute of your life to reach the limit of a cell , if not longer? (Maybe i am pushing it a little but you get the point?)

People should stop worrying about SSD they are much better now

Durability

The short answer is I wouldn’t worry about it.

For applications which are heavy on random writes, you’re OK (meaning a life span of over 5 years) up to about 25 million writes per day per drive, which is nearly double the IO capacity of the fastest hard disk drives. For sequential write heavy applications (which benefit far less from SSDs), you’re OK (same 5 year life cycle) assuming the application re-writes each block on average no more than once per half hour

http://maxschireson.com/2011/04/21/debunking-ssd-lifespan-and-random-write-performance-concerns/

Although like the article said Not all SDD are equal...still it will last you long enough to use it daily without worrying about reads & writes unless you got an older/first generation of SSD?

If you worry to much about reads & writes then use your HDD for page file or buy a small & "cheap" 30GB SSD & use it as page file only?

[N-Gen]

I used to find myself in this situation, and it did come as a recommendation before. Now I realise that having extra partitions that are not necessarily needed could lead to some complications when addressing such partitions (in shrinking/extending).

Personally I find a well structured folder system much better than a partitioned drive. I only partition if I need to multi-boot.

[Completely Bonkers]

Partition the HDD with PRIMARY not logical partitions.

Why?

1. Organisation
2. Better, faster, defragmentation
3. Easier to backup or copy specific partitions
4. If you have a drive problem, SEPARATE PRIMARY partitions are easier to recover and are essentially ringfenced. (unless fail is catastrophic)
5. With separate partitions (into separate drive letters) you save yourself one level hierarchy in your directory/folder structure. IMO that is neater AND faster at the command line or search across a network


I use d:/ for data
And g:/ for games
And m:/ for media (music and video)
And s:/ for setup files