To Partition or Not - one more time

Hey guys. I just bought a new Dell laptop with a Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. With my past HDD PCs I've not been in the multi-partition camp because I felt doing that was not as storage-efficient as simply keeping the OS, programs and data inside their respective folders on the C-partition.

However one of my USAF buddies advises me to create a separate partition on my SSD for personal data-files 'because Win10 assigns a separate OS thread to each drive letter; so doing that will result in faster overall disk-access'.

I've never heard or read that before! Is he actually correct?

 

that's not true. just create one partition for the os and one for your personal files and data. so it will be easier and faster to back up and restore the os partition.
and one more thing: always store your important files/data in the cloud.

 

Thanks for the sanity-check. I never hear/read about that but thought it might possibly be true for SSD operations.

 

no problem.

 

I always thought separate drives was recommended over just separate partitions.

 

Correct.
Separate partitions provide no protection against hardware failure and really doesn't achieve much.

 

yes and it's true for ssd's too but the op has a laptop with a single 100tb ssd, so that's a practical solution.

 

Having data separated from the OS partition makes for more efficient backups.

Let's say you have 150 John Wayne movies. If these are in the OS partition they will be backed up every time you create an image. If they are in the data partition they only need to be backed up once. Using data backup software. For example, Robocopy.

Keep the OS partition lean and mean. Fast backups and restores.

 

my point exactly.

 

Thanks guys, I didn't think my old USAF buddy's remark was correct - you all have confirmed that. I will heed your advice and create a small C-partition (around 100GB) for Windows and Programs, and a D-partition for my data, documents, etc.

 

Agreed with the others. Multiple partitions on the same drive are only useful for backup purposes. There will be no performance improvement. With multiple drives maybe. Not as much with SSD vs mechanical drives. I do not recommend installing something like Microsoft Office or software that makes extensive use of the registry to an alternate partition. You may corrupt that installation if you restore the system partition. Media files are absolutely better on a different partition or drive. Like @imdb said, put copies of important stuff in the cloud.

 

I do use MS Office (Outlook, Excel, Word) extensively. Are you saying that it's data/doc files should not be relocated to the D-partition?

 

No, you can put the data files there, just do not install the program itself there. Put Word docs on there, but not Word itself.

 

I never even considered putting any apps/programs on any partition other than 'C'.

 

Good idea yes.

Also I'd recommend to move user's folders for convenience.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-move-default-user-folders-new-drive-windows-10?amp

 

Thanks for that suggestion and link.

 

...and I recommend against this as it wasn't too long ago that a Windows 10 update deleted the user's files if they weren't in the default location.
One example referenced here:
https://www.cleverfiles.com/howto/recover-files-windows10-update.html

 

agreed. can cause backup and/or restore issues as well.

 

This scenario?

 

Such as?

I'm asking cause I haven't faced issues...

 

I couldn't agree more. ...although I use DS to also image my data partition.

 

Better organization of data too.

 

More specifically this but it is enough that I would not trust Microsoft enough to go moving things around.

It was rare so folks can do whatever they want with their own data. I have backups of mine.

 

Yes, I've been doing that since WinXP days. It's the first thing I do after installing an OS. Mr.X has a link which is very similar to the method I use. Here is my summary...

In Win10, double click This PC
Under This PC in the left column you see (don't use the Quick Access icons)
Desktop
Documents
Downloads
Music
Pictures
Videos

Right click Desktop icon, Properties, Location tab
Change C to D (so you now might have D:\Users\Brian\Desktop)
Apply
Yes to "Create Folder"
Yes to "Move Folder"
OK

Right click the remaining 5 items in turn, Properties, Location tab
Change C to D
Apply
Yes to "Create Folder"
Yes to "Move Folder"
OK

I don't use games and I install everything in the C: drive. My son uses large games and does install them into the D: drive.

I mentioned using Robocopy for backing up the data files in the D: drive. You can image that partition too or use both methods. I have 400 GB of data files and a scheduled Robocopy backup takes less than a minute. The initial backup will take much longer of course but subsequent backups only backup files that have changed.

Code:

set source=D:\My_files
set target=H:\DATA_Backup
set rlog=H:\data-rclog.log
robocopy.exe "%source%" "%target%" *.* /mir /copy:DAT /dcopy:DA /r:0 /v /xj /mt:32 /log:"%rlog%"
set source=
set target=
set rlog=

If you want to try this batch file, just edit the first 3 lines.

There is a long term bug in using Robocopy when copying from a drive letter. So if you had...

set source=D:

Then you would have to add this as the last line (edit to your folders). This will prevent H:\DATA_Backup being a hidden folder. The folder will be there except you can't see it. Easily fixed.

attrib -s -h H:\DATA_Backup

 

Me too. Been working flawlessly to me.