[SOLVED] How many partition should I make?

[R4YN3X]

I'm doing a clean installation of Windows 10. I have two disk 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD. How many partition should I make, for OS, programs, VMs and Games.

With 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD to play with, how should I distribute the partitions? It's a 64-bit system with 16 GB of RAM.

What would you do guys and girls?

 

[faalin]

None, OS and programs on SSD Games and VM's on HDD

For my setup

512Gb M.2 NVMe OS and programs
1TB M.2 NVMe for any game i always play
6TB WD red for steam games
6TB WD red ripped on CD/DVD games into ISO's, Epic, Origin, Blizzard games
6TB WD red bulk storage and VM's

 

[popatim]

I would install windows with only the boot disk connected and let windows make the partitions at it see's fit. You'll have one large C: drive and some smaller system partitions.

For the remaining drives I would make one partition on each drive. You can organize using folders if you need to, there's no real reason for a lot of partitions on these drives.

 

[USAFRet]

Agree with the above. Partitioning is mostly a waste of time and space.

Let Windows install what it needs.
Leave the other drives as one single partition.

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[Grobe]

In this particular setup with 3x HDD I agree partition is not needed.

If you had one large HDD for everything, then I'd suggest all long time storage files should be put in a partition at the end of the drive because it's slower.

Also I'll say if you have a clear plan and intension behind a partition scheme then go for it, but if you have no idea why you would want to do that, then don't.

For an advanced user it could be that you left behind a hidden partition at the end of each disk for cross-backup in case of one drive fails whilst protected against crypto-viruses too. But for gaming, that doesn't seem to have any purpose either.

 

[cryoburner]

Partitioning is mostly a waste of time and space.

When using traditional hard drives as the system drive for my own systems, I would typically partition to keep the more performance-demanding things near the start of the drive, which can offer up to double the sequential performance of the very end of the drive. For example, having small OS/data partitions first, followed by a larger game partition and then a bulk data partition. That way, the OS and applications would be guaranteed to keep all their files stored within the fastest 10% or so of the drive, which would also minimize drive-head movement to reduce seek latency and make the system more responsive. And then games would generally be stored after that within the first half of the drive to keep their loading performance above average, followed by bulk data, which generally isn't as performance-sensitive. Sometimes it would be necessary to use software to adjust the sizes of partitions later though, which could take many hours to process.

With SSDs though, the performance should be similar across the drive, so there's no performance to be gained from partitioning. And you would still likely have to deal with adjusting partitions later, which can also potentially result in issues. So it's probably best to just install your OS, applications and most-played (or longest load-time) games to the SSD. Then, bulk data and lighter or lesser-played games can go on the hard drive. It's possible that there could be some performance benefit gained from having separate partitions for games and bulk data on the hard drives, but it wouldn't make nearly as much difference to load times as putting a game on the SSD, and you would likely need to mess with adjusting partitions later, so I'm not sure it would be worth bothering with. As for VMs, I guess it depends on how much performance you need out of them, and how large they are. If you have a good idea of what size they need to be and don't think that will change too much, putting them in a partition at the start of the hard drive might be worth considering.

 

[USAFRet]

When using traditional hard drives

Yes.
I should have been a bit more verbose.

Partitioning used to be sort of a good idea. Single drives were the norm, and drive space was expensive.
OS on the first (outermost) partition. That is faster rotationally.
And (long long ago), you could reinstall the operating systems and NOT affect applications.
Today, since applications are so intertwined with the OS and Registry...you need to reinstall those as well with a new OS.

On an HDD, partitions are physical delineations. Literally different portions of the drive.
At a constant RPM, the outer tracks go past the heads faster.

On an SSD, the partitions you see are merely a logical visualization. The OS shows you the partitions. The physical drive does not care. All work at exactly the same speed. The drive firmware moves data around as it sees fit, for wear leveling and TRIM.

Space.
Trying to predict the needed sizes WILL end up in a lot of wasted space.

A 1TB drive, 200GB partition devoted to 'games'.
110GB consumed with 2 games. Leaving 90GB free space in that partition.
Want to install a 3rd game, of 95GB? Not gonna fit. That game partition is too small, and now needs to be adjusted.
Or, you install that 95GB game in some other partition. Negating the concept of "this one is for games".

And messing with partitions can lead to multiple variations of "oops".

 

[Krotow]

In your setup you can freely put OS, software and games on SSD and the rest on HDD. No partitions are required in this case.

 

[Bob.B]

I'm doing a clean installation of Windows 10. I have two disk 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD. How many partition should I make, for OS, programs, VMs and Games.

With 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD to play with, how should I distribute the partitions? It's a 64-bit system with 16 GB of RAM.

What would you do guys and girls?

KISS.
One partition each disk.
If you need to you can break them up with folders.

 

[hotaru.hino]

One for each drive. Put everything you don't mind losing or can re-install on the OS drive (this is in case you have to refresh the OS). Put everything else on the other two as required.

 

[Endre]

I'm doing a clean installation of Windows 10. I have two disk 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD. How many partition should I make, for OS, programs, VMs and Games.

With 512GB SSD and 1TB HDD to play with, how should I distribute the partitions? It's a 64-bit system with 16 GB of RAM.

What would you do guys and girls?

As a good practice, make 2 partitions out of your fastest SSD. Install the OS on one partition, and put files that take advantage of a faster SSD on the other partition.
(Usually, a bigger SSD is the better option for the OS partition because it has a bigger LPDDR cache).

Make single partitions out of your other drives.

Put music, photos, and other files that don’t take advantage of a high-speed drive, on your slowest drive.

 

[Krotow]

500GB is too small for 2 partitions. 2-3 large decent games (80-120GB per game) will kill all idea. better is to keep all 500 GB in one chunk.

 

[Colif]

Buy a bigger hdd for games, although it really depends on what types of games you play as while AAA games are getting silly big, you can still find games that don't want 100gb space, or even close to that. I would get a 3tb drive as they aren't that expensive and then you stop wondering about space.

Then you can put win 10 on the ssd and VM on the 1tb.

Let windows have ssd as if you ever need to reinstall win 10 again you only need to touch the ssd and other 2 can stay as is. Install anything on ssd that would need to be reinstalled with windows anyway, so mainly program files.

 

[MrSam_Derp_Man]

You do not have to make partitions for the OS.
Windows 10 setup will do that for you.

You need to clean every partition of the disk you want to install in on to, then just click next.
Windows will make all the partitions for you.

For the secondary drive, just partition it after your install of windows via diskmgmt.msc and make one big partition.

 

[Endre]

You do not have to make partitions for the OS.
Windows 10 setup will do that for you.

You need to clean every partition of the disk you want to install in on to, then just click next.
Windows will make all the partitions for you.

For the secondary drive, just partition it after your install of windows via diskmgmt.msc and make one big partition.

If he wants to install the OS on the 1TB drive, he should make 2 partitions: one for the OS, and the other for personal files. Otherwise, he’ll lose the personal files when doing a clean re-install of the OS!

 

[MrSam_Derp_Man]

If he wants to install the OS on the 1TB drive, he should make 2 partitions: one for the OS, and the other for personal files. Otherwise, he’ll lose the personal files when doing a clean re-install of the OS!

That is not best practice.

Files and documents are usually stored in the user profile on the C Drive.
The way you do this is by backing up the files to another drive or to cloud storage, then install and partition.
After that you bring back any important data. all the old stuff(such as appdata) you do not want to back up.

 

[Endre]

That is not best practice.

Files and documents are usually stored in the user profile on the C Drive.
The way you do this is by backing up the files to another drive or to cloud storage, then install and partition.
After that you bring back any important data. all the old stuff(such as appdata) you do not want to back up.

Most people (that I know of) aren’t doing it that way.
Even if we do backup those files on another drive, we still prefer having a separate partition for the OS.

 

[USAFRet]

There is no single "One True Way".

Some people like one large drive and partition, for everything.
Others like one drive and a couple of partitions.
Others (like me), prefer individual drives, one partition each. Each physical drive is mostly used for one thing.

The MAIN thing that needs to happen, no matter what method you take, is backups.

 

[ying0410]

I suggest you get a smaller SSD, 256 or perhaps 128G, exclusively for operation systems, it should cost less than $50. You can use the 512G for games and applications, and the HDD for whatever else you need to store.

 

[USAFRet]

I suggest you get a smaller SSD, 256 or perhaps 128G, exclusively for operation systems, it should cost less than $50. You can use the 512G for games and applications, and the HDD for whatever else you need to store.

NOT 128GB.
That is too small, and WILL become a pain in a very short while.

In addition, the better brands don't even sell 120/128GB anymore.

240/250GB minimum.

 

[Colif]

He should have made it a poll. I bet op never expected 21 replies before he answered again.

maybe we should wait.

 

[wpgwpg]

One thing about making partitions is that they increase the distance the HDD's access arm has to move thereby increasing seek time and adversely affecting performance. One more reason to avoid them most of the time.

 

[Endre]

One thing about making partitions is that they increase the distance the HDD's access arm has to move thereby increasing seek time and adversely affecting performance. One more reason to avoid them most of the time.

You mean, for those who are still using HDDs...

 

[cryoburner]

I suggest you get a smaller SSD, 256 or perhaps 128G, exclusively for operation systems, it should cost less than $50. You can use the 512G for games and applications, and the HDD for whatever else you need to store.

One potential issue with that is that there will be less room for wear-leveling, and in many cases somewhat lower performance compared to the same drive in a larger capacity, either of which is less than ideal for an OS drive. And generally, those smaller drives offer relatively poor value from a cost-per-GB standpoint, especially when you consider that the OS and applications will typically only be occupying a portion of the drive's capacity.

Buy a bigger hdd for games, although it really depends on what types of games you play as while AAA games are getting silly big, you can still find games that don't want 100gb space, or even close to that. I would get a 3tb drive as they aren't that expensive and then you stop wondering about space.

Then you can put win 10 on the ssd and VM on the 1tb.

Let windows have ssd as if you ever need to reinstall win 10 again you only need to touch the ssd and other 2 can stay as is. Install anything on ssd that would need to be reinstalled with windows anyway, so mainly program files.

A 512GB SSD would be overkill for the OS and applications alone though, and most of that space would be sitting around unused. There's little reason not to use much of that remaining space to improve load times for at least some games. An SSD will generally cut load times by more than half compared to hard drive storage, which can make the loading sequences in certain titles a lot more tolerable. And that's only likely to become more of a factor as games begin targeting the new consoles, potentially making SSD storage a requirement. I don't think they are looking to buy a drive right now either, but are just looking for some input on where to put things on their existing drives.

One thing about making partitions is that they increase the distance the HDD's access arm has to move thereby increasing seek time and adversely affecting performance. One more reason to avoid them most of the time.

That would only be the case if you were doing some task that accesses multiple distant partitions simultaneously, which usually isn't the case. More often, it should keep similar files near one another, reducing head movement and improving access times, especially once a majority of the drive's capacity is in use. And seeing as at least the OS and applications will be going on an SSD here, there should be little concern about the head having to swap back and forth to an OS partition regularly. Though again, partitions may not be worth bothering with for the hard drive if those most performance-sensitive files are on the SSD.