[SOLVED] Fewer Hard Drives or More?

[Oasis Curator]

Talking mainly about SSD and NVMe here, butt traditional hard drives could also play a part.

Also I don't really want to go down the "use for backups" as that should be taken care of.

Just wondering whether people prefer one large drive (partitioned as necessary) or smaller individual drives?

Would you have one 3TB NVMe or three 1TB NVMe drives?

My motherboard takes 3 NVMe drives. I have a spare 500GB SSD. Was thinking about whether it's worth putting in and powering compared with getting a 2TB NVMe and partitioning into smaller pieces.

 

[CountMike]

Talking mainly about SSD and NVMe here, butt traditional hard drives could also play a part.

Also I don't really want to go down the "use for backups" as that should be taken care of.

Just wondering whether people prefer one large drive (partitioned as necessary) or smaller individual drives?

Would you have one 3TB NVMe or three 1TB NVMe drives?

My motherboard takes 3 NVMe drives. I have a spare 500GB SSD. Was thinking about whether it's worth putting in and powering compared with getting a 2TB NVMe and partitioning into smaller pieces.

I prefer several drives over one larger and each one dedicated to particular type of storage. One,obviously as fast as possible for OS and programs/APPs and games that benefit from speed most. I used to have another one dedicated to other programs/games but with proliferation and price drop of NVMe SSD, now I install them all on same SSD.
Others that can be much slower (and cheaper) each one for storage of files of same character, like for instance one dedicated to multimedia, one for saved/downloaded programs and installations as well for saved drivers etc.
As of late few years, I use one of my older SSDs just for downloads of any kind and periodically transfer those files to preferred destinations or just delete them.
One of reasons is that all drives have finite life span and can die at any moment (specially SSDs) and even with regular backup (to external drives) still stand to loose data. That as opposed to "All eggs in one basket".
Right now, I have 3 x M.2 drives, 2x SATA SSDs (in removable trays) and one 2TB HDD which I plan to replace with an SSD, most probably a 2GB M.2 or SATA drive, M.2 SSDs are my favorite because of lack of wires/cables.
I'm not some neetness freak but like to have everything organized and easily accessible.
PS. I gave each drive a distinctive name to avoid confusion.
PS2. I don't throw away old and properly working drives but reuse them for backups.

 

[USAFRet]

Just wondering whether people prefer one large drive (partitioned as necessary) or smaller individual drives?

Yes.

Different people prefer different things.

Some, one single large drive.
No silly partitions, just one big space.
Keep things simple.

Others, like me, prefer multiple drives.
Currently, there are 6 in my main system.
2x NVMe, 4x SATA III SSD.


There is no singular best way.
But whatever way you do it...a good backup routine is your friend.

 

[DSzymborski]

I have a blend of large drives and small ones.

No monkeying around with multiple partitions, however, unless there's a very specific reason. In most cases, one shouldn't be using a partition to do a job that a folder does just fine.

 

[PEnns]

A partition is just a folder by any other name.

 

[DSzymborski]

A partition is just a folder by any other name.

When used correctly, sort of. There's more management. You should see how many new users we get here who play with partitions, don't understand why Windows won't merge non-adjacent partitions natively, and sometimes haplessly lose their data.

A filet knife and a butter knife are more or less the same thing. I don't butter my toast with a filet knife.

 

[USAFRet]

A partition is just a folder by any other name.

Folders are not size limited.
Partitions are.

200GB 'Game' partition.
150GB consumed.
50GB free space.
New game will consume 60GB.

oops....

 

[Lafong]

Ideal situation to me:

OS and apps on 1 drive, subdivided by whatever partitions Windows sees fit to make. No more, no less.

Data on another drive; single partition; subdivided by whatever folder names make sense to your sense of organization. Maybe work; pictures, MP3s; video; downloads; investments; any area of intense interest.

My data drive has 10 top level directories and over 7000 sub-directories under those 10.

As USAFRet said, partitioning can get you into a jam if you don't correctly estimate future growth rates of the occupied space within the partition.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

A partition is just a folder by any other name.

Over-simplification of what a partition is, in my opinion.

 

[CountMike]

Over-simplification of what a partition is, in my opinion.

Yes, very much so,specially with mechanical HDDs where platter(s) are physically divided and not only logically. That has some effect on speeds, so called "Short stroking" where heads move just within partitions. Bad part is that i causes some loss of available space.

 

[Oasis Curator]

No monkeying around with multiple partitions, however, unless there's a very specific reason. In most cases, one shouldn't be using a partition to do a job that a folder does just fine.

I'm fairly comfortable partitioning.

I put Windows on a 1TB NVMe and then split it in half using the Disk Manager.
Usually I split and merge before putting any data on them, that way I can always start again if I have gone wrong.

But I am a little lazy too - if the drive (or folder) is there in My Computer (or whatever it's called this week), then great! I don't want to click into a drive, to have to click into a folder And I can't afford to buy 4 x 1TB drives (plus my motherboard only accepts 3!).

Are there any other reasons not to partition (if you know what you're doing)? Bearing in mind, my "games" partition is barely a quarter full (it's 500GB) and I rarely buy new games. The last I bought was Planet Zoo. So I'm not worried about the size of the partition being too small, but good point by @USAFRet

 

[USAFRet]

Are there any other reasons not to partition (if you know what you're doing)?

Extra work for no real purpose.
Potential lost space that would otherwise be usable.

What are the reasons you might want to?

 

[Oasis Curator]

Extra work for no real purpose.
Potential lost space that would otherwise be usable.

What are the reasons you might want to?

Laziness and neatness.

In Windows 11, I set the Explorer icon to Open "This PC".
In "This PC", I have 5 drives split between two physical drives - but it means I can quickly navigate to wherever I need to go. For example, in the Documents drive, I have 3D Prints, Documents, Photos, Videos as well as a few other folders - basically a sort of clone of My Documents, which means if I come to reinstall Windows, I don't have to worry about my Docs being affected. I know I can tell Windows to include those folders within the "Documents" folders but I don't want Windows to manage my documents.

I also pin each drive to quick access, so I can right-click on the Explorer icon and quickly get to any drive. I understand I could pin the folders though, so that's a bit of a moot point.

 

[USAFRet]

Laziness and neatness.

In Windows 11, I set the Explorer icon to Open "This PC".
In "This PC", I have 5 drives split between two physical drives - but it means I can quickly navigate to wherever I need to go. For example, in the Documents drive, I have 3D Prints, Documents, Photos, Videos as well as a few other folders - basically a sort of clone of My Documents, which means if I come to reinstall Windows, I don't have to worry about my Docs being affected. I know I can tell Windows to include those folders within the "Documents" folders but I don't want Windows to manage my documents.

I also pin each drive to quick access, so I can right-click on the Explorer icon and quickly get to any drive. I understand I could pin the folders though, so that's a bit of a moot point.

Individual drives do the same thing.

Its just that partitions often end up in wasted space, as noted above.

My system has 6x drives, each for their own use.
OS+applications
Video word
CAD/3D printer
Photo
Games
Docs and random junk

If running out of space, any single drive can be replaced by a larger.


But, partitions can work, if done right.


A while ago, there was a guy here wondering how to access more than 26 drive letters.
Why?
24 partitions across 6-7 drives.
Partitions of:
Music 1, Music 2, Music 3....all on the same physical drive.

That is a case of done wrong.

 

[Oasis Curator]

If running out of space, any single drive can be replaced by a larger.

That's the consideration, although I think I'll be okay for a while. None of the below were over 40% full - most are sitting at around 20% - 30%.

I did have:
1 x 500GB SSD - Windows
1 x 2TB HDD - Split 500GB (games), 500GB (documents), 500GB (downloads), 50GB (short term storage/junk), the rest (stuff waiting to go to the HTPC or external drives.

Now I have:
1 x 1TB NVMe - Split 500GB (Windows), 500GB (Games)
1 x 2TB NVMe - which I don't know how to split yet.

I have the original 500GB SSD that I had my old Windows on, which I'm thinking of using for my documents OR for the stuff waiting to go to the HTPC or external drives. Thinking the latter so the faster NVMe will be used to store things I use more frequently. The other alternative is that I use the 500GB SSD as a copy of the Documents drive, so whenever I copy something to the Documents Drive, it also copies onto the SSD but not sure how that would work as I wouldn't want some software to continually scan both drives to check and copy stuff all the time.

It's worth around £20 - £30 I reckon so barely worth selling. I guess I am just a bit lucky that I am now in the position where I have too much storage!
The old HDD will sit in the drawer empty until I need to use it for backing up (I have a pool of five 2TB HDD which are used for backing up media + 2 versions of my Documents folder).

 

[USAFRet]

If partitioning works for you, then go for it.

I'm just saying for me, it does not.
And for other people, often leads down the path of fail.