New System - Best way to partition?

[ctasich]

I just upgraded to a Sager NP9150 (Thanksgiving day special)! I purchased a Crucial M4 128gb mSATA to install my OS on. I also have a 750GB (7200 rpm) drive as well. I am trying to determine the best way to partition the system. I've read quite a bit, but the conversation seems a bit convoluted. As of now, this is what I was considering:

Partition 1 (mSATA): Windows 8 OS (possibly dual boot with Ubuntu later)
Partition 2 (mSATA): Applications + Games
Partition 3 (HDD): Data (videos, pics, music, etc...)

Thoughts on this? I do have some slight concerns.

1) I'm not certain of the benefit of partitioning other than making it easy to re-install an OS. In this case, I may consider putting all applications on the HDD and saving the mSATA for only OS's. This would allow me to dual boot Ubuntu later. However, would I lose significant performance on games that read often?

2) If I make a separate partition for application and games and then re-install an OS, how do I rebuild all the registry information for those applications in the OS? Is there an easy solution? Sorry if this seems like a easy question. I just have always kept my machine with 2 partitions (Partition 1: OS and Apps; Partition 2: Data) and I've never had to deal with this.

 

[zdbc13]

Install Windows on the mSATA drive with the hard drive disconnected. Use the whole drive as that will make OS and program integration easier. After windows is installed, drivers loaded, and all updates applied shut down and connect the hard drive. Don't make it more complicated than you need to. If you later install Ubuntu it will take care of the partitioning for you. Only load the games you want to load speadily on the SSD. Load all other apps on the hard drive. Don't fill up the SSD to much....

 

[ctasich]

Thanks for the advice. What is the reasoning for removing the HDD while installing to the mSATA? I heard this mentioned elsewhere, but never understood why. Unfortunately, I already installed Windows and left the HDD a unformated when I installed and the installation didn't seem to touch it. I can go ahead and reformat if there is an added benefit to doing so.

Edit: I found the boot drive was installed to the HDD. I assume this is why you want to remove the HDD when installing Windows? Does this mean that my boot time is based on the HDD and I'm not getting the full benefit of the SSD?

 

[ikaz]

Yes basically the reason why is so windows is forced to install the OS on the SSD, though I didn't run into this problem when I installed windows 7 from scratch with two unformated drives (1 ssd and 1 HDD).

 

[ikaz]

Yes basically the reason why is so windows is forced to install the OS on the SSD, though I didn't run into this problem when I installed windows 7 from scratch with two unformated drives (1 ssd and 1 HDD).