500GB SSD OS/Games partition
- Thread starter Casterina
- Start date
There isn't really a compelling reason to use a separate partition. For a 500GB drive, just have it all as C:. If you let Windows partition the drive during install, you'll end up with 3 or 4 partitions, but only one visible partition, which is assigned the letter C:. Just let Windows take care of it.
The only real reason to make a separate partition is if the laptop is your primary computer where all your data lives then it's nice to divide your O/S from your Data so that you are able to backup and restore Windows without the worry of wiping your data which sits protected off in its own partition.
In this example you would still install all your games and programs in the Windows drive but you would map over My Documents, My Saved Games, My Pictures etc to the second partition. Doing this would mean that in the event your O/S gets borked, hacked by the Russians or another similar disaster you would be able to recover Windows with minimum effort.
If you have another computer that houses your important data and perhaps an external USB drive that you can use to backup the laptops O/S then as FoxEye says you may as well leave the SSD as one partition but if the Laptop is the hub of your digital empire then creating a second partition could prove very useful down the line if your Windows installation gets mangled!
In this example you would still install all your games and programs in the Windows drive but you would map over My Documents, My Saved Games, My Pictures etc to the second partition. Doing this would mean that in the event your O/S gets borked, hacked by the Russians or another similar disaster you would be able to recover Windows with minimum effort.
If you have another computer that houses your important data and perhaps an external USB drive that you can use to backup the laptops O/S then as FoxEye says you may as well leave the SSD as one partition but if the Laptop is the hub of your digital empire then creating a second partition could prove very useful down the line if your Windows installation gets mangled!
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Mapping My Docs, etc, to a different partition than Windows is installed to is known (was known?) to cause issues in Win10. Not sure if its fixed or not, I reverted to a single drive/ single partition and my problems went away.
Additionally anniversary edition allows you to reset your PC to factory state without nuking the partition, or losing your personal files.
Ultimately, the days of a 2nd partition being useful in case you wanted to reinstall Windows are probably over. The only reason for multiple partitions is now dual booting, etc.
For years I've run with multiple partitions and multiple drives, but there really isn't much point anymore. For non-expert users, the extra workload and confusion of a data partition is not advisable. I would not recommend supplying a device with anything more than a C: drive to most people.
Additionally anniversary edition allows you to reset your PC to factory state without nuking the partition, or losing your personal files.
Ultimately, the days of a 2nd partition being useful in case you wanted to reinstall Windows are probably over. The only reason for multiple partitions is now dual booting, etc.
For years I've run with multiple partitions and multiple drives, but there really isn't much point anymore. For non-expert users, the extra workload and confusion of a data partition is not advisable. I would not recommend supplying a device with anything more than a C: drive to most people.
I agree for people running multiple drive systems but for those users who live entirely off a single drive then the benefits off configuring the system so that user data is shoved off into a separate partition far outweigh the brief effort involved.
If you think about it most OEM single drive laptops come with at least 2 partitions, the first one is a hidden "system restore" partition and the second is the main C: drive. In this single drive system that hidden partition is providing a benefit to the non expert user in that should disaster strike they are able to reset their laptop back to factory fresh.
So I am still advocating two partitions on a single drive system where the user doesn't have an external backup because if the O/S gets mangled, virused or just clogged up with wear and tear it's nice to have the option to restore Windows O/S from a backup sitting in the separate partition and I'm not just talking a vanilla OEM install or Windows 10 special new reset I'm talking a custom windows install with all the drivers, programs/apps apps, filters, extensions installed with Windows fully updated and tweaked exactly as the customer likes. The user data is untouched . . .
This is all in theory of course as not many folk here are stuck on a single drive, it must be over seventeen years ago since I used a partition myself but I have made them on peoples laptops that I fixed so that I am able to quickly fix them again in the future using a Acronis backup. If I can't make a partition for data it starts to make things a lot more complicated in the event of borked city and getting the users PC/Laptop ship shape again in the shortest possible time.
Don't be hating on those partitions, in certain scenarios they still have their place!
If you think about it most OEM single drive laptops come with at least 2 partitions, the first one is a hidden "system restore" partition and the second is the main C: drive. In this single drive system that hidden partition is providing a benefit to the non expert user in that should disaster strike they are able to reset their laptop back to factory fresh.
So I am still advocating two partitions on a single drive system where the user doesn't have an external backup because if the O/S gets mangled, virused or just clogged up with wear and tear it's nice to have the option to restore Windows O/S from a backup sitting in the separate partition and I'm not just talking a vanilla OEM install or Windows 10 special new reset I'm talking a custom windows install with all the drivers, programs/apps apps, filters, extensions installed with Windows fully updated and tweaked exactly as the customer likes. The user data is untouched . . .
This is all in theory of course as not many folk here are stuck on a single drive, it must be over seventeen years ago since I used a partition myself but I have made them on peoples laptops that I fixed so that I am able to quickly fix them again in the future using a Acronis backup. If I can't make a partition for data it starts to make things a lot more complicated in the event of borked city and getting the users PC/Laptop ship shape again in the shortest possible time.
Don't be hating on those partitions, in certain scenarios they still have their place!
Associate
I have 2 partitions as it makes it much easier/quicker to image the OS (to another drive) without having to backup my large Steam folder (which can be easily recreated). I have everything on C: apart from my Steam folder on D:.
Until you have to support such configurations.
"I've run out of space, you said this drive was massive?"
C: drive is full.
D: drive is completely empty.
When dealing with non-expert users, keep it simple. Any additional complexity is bad. That includes having a D: drive for data. Never overestimate how much people are capable of figuring it out or following simple instructions.
If the question purely relates to expert users, I still don't think a D: drive gives you anything these days.
Nuke (or rename) \programData, \Windows, \ProgramFiles x2, \boot and you're ready to reinstall Windows.
There is very little functional difference between a c:\MyData folder and a D: data partition.
I'm sure you know, but having another partition does not protect your data from viruses
Any virus that has infected C: will have infected D: as well.And if you install programs to D: you need to make sure that the NTFS permissions mirror those of c:\programFiles, which most users won't know to do.
FoxEye,
it should be perfectly obvious to any tech that in certain situations a partition is useful, there is no shame in creating a partition if it can help make life easier.
Your objection to this is a rather contrived example of a low level user using a single drive computer which has been configured by an inept techie who hasn't partitioned the drive correctly and hasn't mapped all the user data folders to the correctly proportioned data partition, and yeah in this "Theoretical" your absolutely right its causing more problems than its saving . . . . however that's not the situation I had in mind!
In your example what is going to happen should, heavens forbid the low level user plugs in a USB drive!? . . . how will they ever get their head around the concept of another drive just appearing, it will be like a UFO just landing from space.
So with all that said I think you are just not getting this whole partitions and custom backups thing, most techs probably have multiple drives and I'm sure even low level users are now getting their heads around multiple drives, especially if the new users have a kick ass mate who knows what he is doing and can explain basic file management and drive structure to them.
Partitions in reality mimic a separate drive albeit large copy and pastes take a lot longer as do backup and restores but in certain situations it is just useful if you can move all the important user data off the system partition so you work on the borked OS with no worries.
I understand your point about being able to nuke Window's 10 from orbit and end up with a clean install but that is still not good enough. As a techie I don't want to be dealing with a Virgin OS more than once and this is the beauty of custom backups sitting safely on another drive or *partition*
Instead of being lumped with a Virgin install a basic computer user can "Restore" the OS from any snapshot they like, Windows 100% updated, tweaked, all the users applications games and software installed, all the plug ins, all the preferences, patches, tweaks . . . . that's quite a lot of work and it's so boring to do more than once hence the reason for carefully making backups and sticking them on another drive and if there is no other drive then a partition will do a very good job.
There is nothing you are stating which will make me change my position on this but I hope some of what I am saying sinks in a little with anyone reading because it's something which could keep you out of trouble or save hours in the future and that can only be a good thing.
In the situation I am describing where a single drive is partitioned into two, the tech knows how much data they have and are likely to have and they also know roughly what programs are to be installed. You always leave plenty of room for the OS and apps but then dedicate the rest to user data. In Windows 7 its a 5 minute job to remap all the colourful icon user data folders over to another drive or partition but I don't know about Windows 10?. On Windows 7 the whole process is transparent to the end user, they still install programs and software to the default C: location so no change there and they still save their downloads to "My Downloads", they still find all their office work in "My Documents" etc
Your concerns over what I am suggesting don't seem to be legit but if you're still not seeing the light on why it's so advantageous to be able to "time travel" your system back to one of several predetermined times when it is rocking then I'm too tired to paint you anymore of a picture, vanilla installs in times of trouble is not the best way, having user data mixed in with a failed OS is no fun at all, maybe when everyone is running Windows 10 special nuke edition things will be easier but bespoke O/S backups are still a techies best friend and a super timesaver and if they have to be stored on a partition along with "My Documents" then so be it, O/S backups and Data backups are two different things haha!
it should be perfectly obvious to any tech that in certain situations a partition is useful, there is no shame in creating a partition if it can help make life easier.
Your objection to this is a rather contrived example of a low level user using a single drive computer which has been configured by an inept techie who hasn't partitioned the drive correctly and hasn't mapped all the user data folders to the correctly proportioned data partition, and yeah in this "Theoretical" your absolutely right its causing more problems than its saving . . . . however that's not the situation I had in mind!
In your example what is going to happen should, heavens forbid the low level user plugs in a USB drive!? . . . how will they ever get their head around the concept of another drive just appearing, it will be like a UFO just landing from space.
So with all that said I think you are just not getting this whole partitions and custom backups thing, most techs probably have multiple drives and I'm sure even low level users are now getting their heads around multiple drives, especially if the new users have a kick ass mate who knows what he is doing and can explain basic file management and drive structure to them.
Partitions in reality mimic a separate drive albeit large copy and pastes take a lot longer as do backup and restores but in certain situations it is just useful if you can move all the important user data off the system partition so you work on the borked OS with no worries.
I understand your point about being able to nuke Window's 10 from orbit and end up with a clean install but that is still not good enough. As a techie I don't want to be dealing with a Virgin OS more than once and this is the beauty of custom backups sitting safely on another drive or *partition*
Instead of being lumped with a Virgin install a basic computer user can "Restore" the OS from any snapshot they like, Windows 100% updated, tweaked, all the users applications games and software installed, all the plug ins, all the preferences, patches, tweaks . . . . that's quite a lot of work and it's so boring to do more than once hence the reason for carefully making backups and sticking them on another drive and if there is no other drive then a partition will do a very good job.
There is nothing you are stating which will make me change my position on this but I hope some of what I am saying sinks in a little with anyone reading because it's something which could keep you out of trouble or save hours in the future and that can only be a good thing.
In the situation I am describing where a single drive is partitioned into two, the tech knows how much data they have and are likely to have and they also know roughly what programs are to be installed. You always leave plenty of room for the OS and apps but then dedicate the rest to user data. In Windows 7 its a 5 minute job to remap all the colourful icon user data folders over to another drive or partition but I don't know about Windows 10?. On Windows 7 the whole process is transparent to the end user, they still install programs and software to the default C: location so no change there and they still save their downloads to "My Downloads", they still find all their office work in "My Documents" etc
Your concerns over what I am suggesting don't seem to be legit but if you're still not seeing the light on why it's so advantageous to be able to "time travel" your system back to one of several predetermined times when it is rocking then I'm too tired to paint you anymore of a picture, vanilla installs in times of trouble is not the best way, having user data mixed in with a failed OS is no fun at all, maybe when everyone is running Windows 10 special nuke edition things will be easier but bespoke O/S backups are still a techies best friend and a super timesaver and if they have to be stored on a partition along with "My Documents" then so be it, O/S backups and Data backups are two different things haha!
Soldato
I have no idea what those two are chatting about but i have my 250GB ssd split with 60GB for windows and everything that isn't games and videos. The other 180GB is for games. My videos is on an HDD. Reason being is that I can do daily system image backups and they are only about 20GB each and relatively fast to do rather than 200GB which are mostly the same identical game files compressed and transferred over and over.
Don
I'd just leave it as one large partition.
Keep imaged backups of this on an external drive. If you ever need to format, just restore the games etc.
Better than having to mess around with partition sizes in the future..
Keep imaged backups of this on an external drive. If you ever need to format, just restore the games etc.
Better than having to mess around with partition sizes in the future..
Soldato
If it is an SSD,I would make sure I have a backup on another drive of anything important since SSDs if they do go kaput will usually do so instantly.