Is it worth it? Small SSD for OS, Large one for Programs?

[OCGL16]

Somwhere, I have no clue where, i heard that it is a smart idea to get a small (30gb or so) ssd to put your os on, in addition to a larger ssd for programs, because you can just wipe the small ssd if your OS ever fails and just reinstall it and your good to go. But can't you just partition a larger drive and use part of it for your os? If so, how would you just wipe one side of the partition?

 

[ndositwe]

Somwhere, I have no clue where, i heard that it is a smart idea to get a small (30gb or so) ssd to put your os on, in addition to a larger ssd for programs, because you can just wipe the small ssd if your OS ever fails and just reinstall it and your good to go. But can't you just partition a larger drive and use part of it for your os? If so, how would you just wipe one side of the partition?

You are 100% correct that you can just partition a larger drive and use part of it for OS plus programs/applications and the other part for your data. QUESTION: What do you mainly use your computer for?

 

[OCGL16]

Haven't built it yet. But i will primarily be using it for gaming and surfing the web.

 

[RealBeast]

I would not go that way. The small drives are slower and if your OS breaks worse than what a repair install will fix, you will have to reinstall your programs anyway for them to work with the newly installed OS, other than something like STEAM games.

A better solution if you are concerned about that is to buy a second SSD of the same size and periodically clone your main SSD to the backup. I use an ICYDOCK MB971SPB to do that and Ghost 15 or True Image so I can unmount the back up as soon as it is done cloning. HotSwap is a very useful application (free) if you go that way: http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/index_enu.htm

Data is a different story of course, and should be backed up routinely anyway in the event of hardware/OS failure.

While you can partition a large SSD, it will not give you any benefit in protecting programs from reinstallation, same as the second drive won't -- IMO partitioning an SSD makes no sense as it will not improve performance.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

^5 +1 what RealBeast said.

The current sweet spot is 120GB. Recently there have been some sales in the USA where the price was down to $59.99.

 

[nhasian]

That's a bad idea and will shorten the life of your backup SSD. instead of getting an identical drive, simply save your backup image to the larger HDD. then you can easily restore the image if and when you need to. if the SSD fails in the future, then you can buy a replacement one for cheaper and then restore the image.

A better solution if you are concerned about that is to buy a second SSD of the same size and periodically clone your main SSD to the backup.

Clonezilla is a Free & Open Source Software for Disk Imaging and Cloning. You can make a Full System Backup or transfer the entire contents of one drive to another if you are doing a Hard drive upgrade.

How to use Clonezilla Step By Step instructions with pictures!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I use the Windows backup/restore feature. You can change the settings to periodically do an automatic backup and it can be stored on your hard disk drive. That's what I do. I have it set so Backup runs automatically every Sunday morning. It runs in the background. No muss, no fuss, no bother.

 

[ndositwe]

Haven't built it yet. But i will primarily be using it for gaming and surfing the web.

There are several ways you can setup your drive(s)... what is your plan on the drive(s)/storage solutions (e.g. SSD and HDD or just HDDs and how many are you planning on setting up in your future build)?

 

[RealBeast]

"That's a bad idea and will shorten the life of your backup SSD."

That is just a myth -- modern SSDs will last far longer than you will want to use them, in any use other than an enterprise storage situation it is almost impossible to wear them out. I've written dozens of terabytes to a Crucial M4 256 and it shows no wear. All the heavy wear tests, like those done by Anand, support this and actually show better performance after hundreds of terabytes of writes to the drives they tested.

 

[OCGL16]

Best answer selected by OCGL16.

 

[OCGL16]

Thanks for all the info guys. Almost all of it is new too me. And thanks for you post RealBeast, that really helped me out.