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Question What size partitions should I have on a new 2TB drive ?
- Thread starter axlrose
- Start date
- Mar 16, 2013
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What other drives are in this system?
What will it be used for?
Generally, you leave it as one large partition. Trying to split it always ends up with one or the other partition as TooSmall.
turtletarget111
Honorable
- Dec 24, 2018
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Realistically, partitioning a hard drive doesn't change the drive in any meaningful way. You're just making Windows pretend that a single large drive is actually multiple smaller ones. If you are building a PC from scratch and that is your only drive available to you, I would recommend you partition 500GB for your Windows installation, and you can save the remaining 1.5TB for games, programs, or other files you wish to store.
If you have a PC already built with a storage device dedicated to Windows already, like an SSD, then I would not partition it at all and simply plug it in as an additional storage device. If you must partition it, then a single partition to split the drive into two separate 1TB storage devices would be a good route.
If you have a PC already built with a storage device dedicated to Windows already, like an SSD, then I would not partition it at all and simply plug it in as an additional storage device. If you must partition it, then a single partition to split the drive into two separate 1TB storage devices would be a good route.
I want to take my 1tb drive that has been for my games and turn it into my boot drive. Can I make a partition of 500gb for the boot drive clone (a 500gb drive) or do I just clone the whole drive and just leave it without partitions?
My new 2tb drive is for games, but I suppose other storage that isn't games (nothing specific) too. Is there a reason to partition the new 2tb drive? It's purpose really is so that I don't have to selectively remove old games so that new games fit as much etc.
My new 2tb drive is for games, but I suppose other storage that isn't games (nothing specific) too. Is there a reason to partition the new 2tb drive? It's purpose really is so that I don't have to selectively remove old games so that new games fit as much etc.
- Mar 16, 2013
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Again, what type drives are these?
SSD, HDD, something else?
You currently have a 1TB, and are now adding a 2TB?
What is on the 1TB?
What is the OS drive?
Details, please.
A screencap of your current Disk Management window would help here.
You have a total of 3 drives?? 500 gb, 1 tb, and 2 tb?
There is rarely an over-riding reason to deliberately make MORE than 1 partition on any drive. It's an option.
Many would just tell you to use a single partition, subdivided by a folder structure....rather than multiple partitions.
The Windows installation will make a few smallish partitions as it sees fit.
"Cloning" generally means ALL of a drive, rather than certain partitions.
There is rarely an over-riding reason to deliberately make MORE than 1 partition on any drive. It's an option.
Many would just tell you to use a single partition, subdivided by a folder structure....rather than multiple partitions.
The Windows installation will make a few smallish partitions as it sees fit.
"Cloning" generally means ALL of a drive, rather than certain partitions.
Disk management meaning what drives I currently have installed etc.?
All three drives are m.2. newest drive is a crucial p3 I think. 1tb is maybe an xpg 8200? 1/2 TB is a 960 evo I think.
1tb is just games I think, unless something default installed there. I had planned to go into steam and uninstall every game and see what things looked like after that.
- Mar 16, 2013
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Okay. So it sounds like probably don't partition anything.
Clone the half gig boot drive onto the 1tb drive (new boot drive) and just clone it all without a partition.
Install the new 2tb boot drive without partitions and start reinstalling games.
Clone the half gig boot drive onto the 1tb drive (new boot drive) and just clone it all without a partition.
Install the new 2tb boot drive without partitions and start reinstalling games.
- Mar 16, 2013
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Why change the OS drive from the 500GB to the 1TB?
But to clone a 500GB drive into a 1TB, you have to take certain precautions in the process.
See specific steps below.
- Mar 16, 2013
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-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up
It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.
If it works, and it should, all is good.
Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.
Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up
It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.
If it works, and it should, all is good.
Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.
Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------
Grobe
Splendid
- Jan 22, 2009
- 4,341
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- 25,590
You asked why partitioning a hard drive. I have one practical example (not relevant for ssd) and tries to explain why.
Thing about hard drives is that the RPM is the same regardless of the R/W head position. Because of this physical constraint, the hard drive have much greater throughput performance at the beginning of the disk (the outermost track is defined as start, and the innermost as the end of storage).
You said you have a 2TB hdd. Say you partition the disk as two equal sized partitions, you could use the first partition to install games on, since it is typical more important with good disk i/o performances, and then the other partition may be used for images, videos and other files where transfer speed to disk is less important.
Have a look here to see an example on what a typical hard drive performance graph look like:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/ques...r-track-vs-inner-track-performance-benchmarks
Thing about hard drives is that the RPM is the same regardless of the R/W head position. Because of this physical constraint, the hard drive have much greater throughput performance at the beginning of the disk (the outermost track is defined as start, and the innermost as the end of storage).
You said you have a 2TB hdd. Say you partition the disk as two equal sized partitions, you could use the first partition to install games on, since it is typical more important with good disk i/o performances, and then the other partition may be used for images, videos and other files where transfer speed to disk is less important.
Have a look here to see an example on what a typical hard drive performance graph look like:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/ques...r-track-vs-inner-track-performance-benchmarks
SkyNetRising
Titan
- Jan 4, 2016
- 31,414
- 4,365
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So you're not even sure, what drives you have.
Please show screenshots:
Device Manager - disk drives and storage controllers sections expanded,
Disk Management - with all drives visible.
(upload to imgur.com adn post link)What is model name of your motherboard?
Does it even have enough M.2 slots to connect 3x M.2 drives?
You can find model name with CPU-Z - motherboard section.
- Mar 16, 2013
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