Should large hard drive be partitioned?

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On previous Desktop systems, I never partitioned my Hard Drives.

On my current 8 year old Dell Dimension 9200 with a 250GB Hard Drive, I did partition the Hard Drive into 3 Partitions (1 25GB Partition for just 1 piece of Industry specific software & its data files, 1 100+GB Partition for Installation Files only, & a 3rd 100GB+ Partition for the OS & everything else)

All of my backups were separate image backups of each entire Partition – so I never realized any real benefit of having Partitions.

I do make extensive use of folders to organize My Documents (including Pictures), Favorites, Etc.

I am about to pull the trigger and purchase a Dell XPS 8700 (Special Edition)

It will have an enormous 3TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive and a 256GB mSATA Solid State Drive.

I could have gotten only a 1TB Hard Drive, but because of my Dell Premier account as part of a very large Industry group, the cost difference was not that much.

I expect to follow the guidance in Fred Langa’s 1-15-15 story entitled “Mastering Windows 8’s backup/restore system”

Additionally, I expect to use my existing 3 External Hard Drives (250GB, & two 1TB) to continue to do separate image backups of the entire drives.

QUESTION IS:
What is the current thinking as to whether or not large drives should be partitioned?

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Steven,

This is definitely a YMMV subject! IMHO it depends on how you use your machine. I, personally, like to have my data in a separate partition since I play with the OS so much it makes restoring the OS partition, when I mess up, that much easier. It also makes it easier to backup my data as it’s a single partition ( I don’t do this as much since I have a task that fires off every night at 18:30, while the news is on, that uses RoboCopy to copy all my change data to a secondary internal HD and once a day I manually start a RoboCopy procedure to do the same to my NAS {yeah Paranoid}.

Also you’ll find that that new Dell will come with a bunch of partitions already installed, check out Disk0:
38976-DiskPartitions

Partitions are helpful IMHO but not required on modern GPT {the replacement for MBR} hard drives. HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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I’d have the machine set up like this:
SSD = Windows and data
Mech HD = image of SSD, daily backup and very large files – video, etc
External disks = copies of Mech HD

Windows will create multiple partitions on the SSD and there is no point changing that. Leave the Mech HD as a single partition – if you have a failure it will be the disk, not a partition.

Warning: your old PC will now seem like the snail it really is.

cheers, Paul

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THANK YOU BOTH

I was not aware that the SSD Drive would come partitioned.

I guess I will leave Windows 8.1 in 1 partition & put other software in a 2nd partition & then progress from there.

All Software likes to put their data in the same partition where their software resides. So, I am just concerned that the 250 GB SSD Drive might fill up too soon – especially if restricted by a particular partition’s size.

Plus, a 3TB Hard Drive just for data, pictures, etc. seems like a lot of wasted space.

Guess I will have to start off somewhere & adjust as I go along.

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THANK YOU BOTH

I was not aware that the SSD Drive would come partitioned.

I guess I will leave Windows 8.1 in 1 partition & put other software in a 2nd partition & then progress from there.

All Software likes to put their data in the same partition where their software resides. So, I am just concerned that the 250 GB SSD Drive might fill up too soon – especially if restricted by a particular partition’s size.

Plus, a 3TB Hard Drive just for data, pictures, etc. seems like a lot of wasted space.

Guess I will have to start off somewhere & adjust as I go along.

Agreed that data separation is not required BUT IMHO (a software developer for 47 years)…having that “APPLICATION DATA” separation is a good thing as far as backup goes. I keep my data files on a server (so, one of the posters that said programs like to keep their data on the same partition is dead wrong. It makes NO DIFFERENCE. I don’t have an SSD, but if I did…I would keep the OS and installed programs on it (for the fastest access/load times) and keep data on the 3 TB drive. Put all data under some hierarchical structure under a single folder (e.g. D:DATA. Makes backing up ALL of your data much easier that way.

Kevin

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(so, one of the posters that said programs like to keep their data on the same partition is dead wrong. It makes NO DIFFERENCE.

I don’t know if anyone else also made that statement, but I sure did.

The “default” location for data files produced by any software is the same drive / partition that the software resides on. Yes, you can change that, but most software recommends that you do not.

I have 1 industry specific software that “INSISTS” that the same drive / partition be used for both the software & the data. The software will NOT find the data files if that is not done.

The data (several years) for that software can accumulate to quite a bit of data, so I would rather not have it on the SSD drive, but have no alternative.

I will check on my present Desktop System for how much space that data fills up. If it is too much I will be forced to put that software & its data on the 3TB Hard Drive. If that becomes necessary, I would partition out a partition for just that software & its data to keep it separate form My Documents, Pictures, Etc, Etc.

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I don’t know if anyone else also made that statement, but I sure did.

The “default” location for data files produced by any software is the same drive / partition that the software resides on. Yes, you can change that, but most software recommends that you do not.

I have 1 industry specific software that “INSISTS” that the same drive / partition be used for both the software & the data. The software will NOT find the data files if that is not done.

The data (several years) for that software can accumulate to quite a bit of data, so I would rather not have it on the SSD drive, but have no alternative.

I will check on my present Desktop System for how much space that data fills up. If it is too much I will be forced to put that software & its data on the 3TB Hard Drive. If that becomes necessary, I would partition out a partition for just that software & its data to keep it separate form My Documents, Pictures, Etc, Etc.

I think the general thought behind partitioning is “do what is best for you” although I would NOT recommend “lots” of drives”. Maybe you have one partition for data files not changed very often, another for other stuff. Backup could well be easier that way. Maybe one partition for USER1 and another for USER2?

As far as software that will NOT store data files other than on the same partition that the program resides does NOT follow MS standards for software. I, personally, have NOT run across that EVER from memory. Maybe in that case you install that program on the C: drive to account for the lots of data that this program stores. BTW, would you mind telling us what program is?

BTW, I have also NEVER seen any software recommendations that say we recommend ONLY storing data on the same partition as the program is installed and as mentioned before this was my living for 47 years. NOT for personal systems but for computing in general data files are almost always stored on different hard drives.

Kevin

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As far as software that will NOT store data files other than on the same partition that the program resides does NOT follow MS standards for software. I, personally, have NOT run across that EVER from memory. Maybe in that case you install that program on the C: drive to account for the lots of data that this program stores. BTW, would you mind telling us what program is?

You need to get out more. As Paul indicated, programs that store user data in the program folder have not been that uncommon. Intuit, for one, used to have a bad habit of defaulting to the program folder with Quicken and QuickBooks. (Thankfully, Intuit eventually changed their policy and now default to the user’s “Documents” folder.) Neither of those are fringe products so I’d think most seasoned techs would have run across the “data-in-program-folder” problem at some point in their past.

I provide support for several CPAs, an industry in which Drake and Lacerte are popular vendors for tax preparation software. I haven’t found a way to prevent Drake from storing client returns in the program folder. Lacerte also does the same thing, although client data can be redirected elsewhere if you’re willing to jump through a number of hoops. That’s something few CPAs can manage by themselves so you’ll almost always find client data comingled in the Lacerte program folder.

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…I provide support for several CPAs, an industry in which Drake and Lacerte are popular vendors for tax preparation software. I haven’t found a way to prevent Drake from storing client returns in the program folder. Lacerte also does the same thing, although client data can be redirected elsewhere if you’re willing to jump through a number of hoops. That’s something few CPAs can manage by themselves so you’ll almost always find client data comingled in the Lacerte program folder.

I have helped a number of customers with this same problem of accounting programs insisting on storing their data in “difficult” places. Usually I create a shortcut (pointing at the accounting app’s program folder) within a folder inside the customer’s Documents folder, and another shortcut within the app’s program folder point back to the Documents folder. This makes it easier for the customer to access their data files (for backup and other purposes).

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You need to get out more. As Paul indicated, programs that store user data in the program folder have not been that uncommon. Intuit, for one, used to have a bad habit of defaulting to the program folder with Quicken and QuickBooks. (Thankfully, Intuit eventually changed their policy and now default to the user’s “Documents” folder.) Neither of those are fringe products so I’d think most seasoned techs would have run across the “data-in-program-folder” problem at some point in their past.

I provide support for several CPAs, an industry in which Drake and Lacerte are popular vendors for tax preparation software. I haven’t found a way to prevent Drake from storing client returns in the program folder. Lacerte also does the same thing, although client data can be redirected elsewhere if you’re willing to jump through a number of hoops. That’s something few CPAs can manage by themselves so you’ll almost always find client data comingled in the Lacerte program folder.

Get out more? Where on earth did that “insult” come from? I’m trying to help people here not insult them.

Any software which “defaults” to a specific folder is a little different to INSISTING that data files ONLY be stored where the software insists. MS Office programs (and MANY other pieces of software – in fact the majority) “default” to specific places also but don’t insist on data files being stored where the code wants to do it. Those defaults can be changed. Some software uses “sticky” path/file locations. As I mentioned before any software that INSISTS on a specific folder of its desire does NOT follow MS standards. So, maybe that company needs to change its ways.

Has anyone contacted Drake and Lacerte to ask about that? In fact, I just emailed Drake. We will see what they say. Lacerte seems to be owned by Intuit. It is hard for me to believe that Intuit software insists on only storing where IT wants to also.

One of the things that I teach is “to know where your data resides”. People should have a scheme where they know where their data is. That means (seemingly in some cases) either ALWAYS telling software where to store data files, changing a default location or getting of the “bad” software for something that is better behaved. There is plenty of tax software around for the CPAs.

K

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Get out more? Where on earth did that “insult” come from? I’m trying to help people here not insult them.

“Get out more”, as in “you seem to be living in a bubble if you’ve never encountered this before.”

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OK, didn’t seem that way when first reading.

If I have ever seen a piece of software INSISTING on storing data files where IT wanted to keep them, I would NOT be using that piece of software. As I mentioned before, I have been in the IT business for 47 years. The software that insists on this…I would not be using. As also mentioned before, it goes against any reasonable standards for software development.

K

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OK, didn’t seem that way when first reading.

If I have ever seen a piece of software INSISTING on storing data files where IT wanted to keep them, I would NOT be using that piece of software. As I mentioned before, I have been in the IT business for 47 years. The software that insists on this…I would not be using. As also mentioned before, it goes against any reasonable standards for software development.

K

K,

“…a piece of software INSISTING on storing data files where IT wanted to keep them, I would NOT be using that piece of software…” might be understandable considering your experience as a programmer. But the programs generally referred to in this thread as “accounting software” are intended to be used by accountants, bookkeepers, etc., who generally have very limited computer competency.

Most, if not all, the accounting programs I have encountered (not mentioning any names here for obvious reasons) do have functionality to allow the user to create backups of their “company file”, but too often the user lacks computer competency to do even that. These users generally are very competent regarding accounting matters, but really have little competency when it comes to using computers. So, many of the common accounting programs attempt to protect the user from user error, often by hiding the actual data files away where it will be difficult for the user to access them directly.

Update 26/01/2015 10:57PM: this thread seems to have strayed far from the OP’s original subject; therefore I suggest we leave discussion as it stands unless anyone has some further insight into the OP’s original question.

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Amen, Kevin. Couldn’t say it better myself.

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I should have mentioned that, in my recent PC buying experience and helping others with their PC…that all recent PCs seem to have the HD partitioned. This is to enable a Windows recovery partition to be there. This can be used to restore the PC to an “as shipped” condition. May not be ideal as there will likely be a number of updates and reboots to get back to a “current” status, but you can get back to a working PC that way.

K

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Plus, a 3TB Hard Drive just for data, pictures, etc. seems like a lot of wasted space.

No, not a waste of space at all, in fact storage is exactly what they are for.

Keep the SSD your OS resides on as free as possible and fill the TB drive up as much as possible.

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No, not a waste of space at all, in fact storage is exactly what they are for.

Keep the SSD your OS resides on as free as possible and fill the TB drive up as much as possible.

So, would you put ANY software on the 3 TB Hard Drive & leave the SSD with only the Windows 8.1?
Maybe in a small partition & leave the bulk of the 3 TB for storage?

All of the software I will use (excluding Windows 8.1) is fairly easy to re-install & I do regular backups / images of the Data related to each software.

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So, would you put ANY software on the 3 TB Hard Drive & leave the SSD with only the Windows 8.1?
Maybe in a small partition & leave the bulk of the 3 TB for storage?

All of the software I will use (excluding Windows 8.1) is fairly easy to re-install & I do regular backups / images of the Data related to each software.

Installed software belongs on the SSD (fastest drive), never on a slower drive. All your stored program exes can go on the large 3TB drive as storage, along with all the data you generate.

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Do not put anything in the SSD partitions as such – they are for the OS / OEM recovery – just use C: for all programs and data because you want fast access. There is no need to leave lots of space free on the SSD, 20% is plenty of spare for the SSD to do its stuff.
I would not load any software on the 3TB because, again, you want access speed.

cheers, Paul

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I have four partitions on my 480GB SSD: 8MB BootIt Bare Metal boot manager partition, Windows 7 Pro 64bit partition, and two Windows 7 Pro 32bit partitions. Each of the Windows OSs have all their programs installed to that partition as I found years ago that it is a mistake to install a program to any other partition (excepting “native” AKA “standalone” programs that don’t store settings in the Windows registry).

Almost all my data files are stored on a 2TB HDD which is split into two partitions, one for data files, the second for backups. The data files on my Windows partitions are mostly email and often-accessed files like some Word docs, some image files (graphics files, not backup images).

BootIt Bare Metal allows me to boot between the three OS partitions. Each of these Windows installations are self-contained, i.e.: the “BCD” boot files are located on each OSs partition instead of on a separate “System Reserved” partition. This makes keeping track of disk images much simpler.

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Do not put anything in the SSD partitions as such – they are for the OS / OEM recovery – just use C: for all programs and data because you want fast access. There is no need to leave lots of space free on the SSD, 20% is plenty of spare for the SSD to do its stuff.
I would not load any software on the 3TB because, again, you want access speed.
cheers, Paul

I would agree with Paul’s last comment, but I don’t think putting your programs and data on C: is a good idea. It’s because of those image backups. If any partition is going to get messed up, it will be your C: drive. So keep it as small as possible and don’t have any important data (documents, pictures etc) on it. My system partition is 80 GiB and is currently just over half full. You might want more if you have lots of RAM and use hibernation because the hiberfil.sys is on this drive. If anything goes wrong, you should have a recent image to restore from and it won’t overwrite more recent copies of your documents.

Your data partitions are a different matter. You don’t need images of pure data partitions. A file-based backup program like Cobian is best for this. You need only backup files that have changed, and can keep a file history too in case the current copy gets corrupted or you need to go back to an older incarnation of your document.

You can move the My Documents folder to the data partition just by dragging it out of C:Users into a new location. Windows automatically updates the registry so programs that default to My Documents still work. Same applies to My Pictures, My Music etc.

Personally I have a partition just for program installations as well. 10 GiB is enough. But you could do this on the data partition. The point is, don’t install new programs to the C: drive.
I also put my page file in a separate partition — you definitely want it on your SSD though. All to keep my images small and thus quick to make and restore.

With your 250 GB SSD, you could have 80+ for system, 10 for programs and still have 150 GB for your most frequently used documents. The 3 TB disc would be for large files like videos and backups. Though don’t rely on this disc alone, in case a lightning strike or fire puts paid to the whole box. Keep doing your external ones too, swopped out to an external location like your workplace, and you should be well protected.

It might not be fashionable to partition drives a lot, but you will be glad of it when something goes wrong.

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Having a “messed up” SSD is not an issue – it’s an SSD after all. More importantly, having programs and data on the SSD won’t mess up the disk any more than having them on separate disks – Windows temp files are the most likely to cause fragmentation and they are always on C:.
You can still have an image backup for disasters and a daily incremental of the data, or Windows 8 backup, especially with 3TB of space on the mechanical disk.

cheers, Paul

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Just some experience talking. How you do it is up to you but…
*OS should definitely be on the fastest drive you have and it has to be called C: drive to avoid hassles with some applications)
*If you have programs with databases, which call for lots of hits on large chunks of data, they should definitely not be in the same partition or even drive as the OS. But should be on the fastest or at least as fast possible drive(s).
Both of these sets of applications have thousands and thousands of ‘moving parts’ so to speak and so kick off more errors than far simpler data files.
*Data files should not be stored on drives or at least partitions which contain either the OS or the major applications. Simply put, you want to protect your data most and keeping it as far from the apps and the OSes as possible is where you want it to be. Also, data is typically called on the perform on a ‘retail’ basis: the OS or, more likely, an application will call for one data file or a selection of data files, rather than ALL your files at once for a modification.

This technique also really helps focus you on your back-up strategy.
*The most important is your data. Much might be irreplaceable or at least inconvenient to replace — but also has fewest changes over a days or week’s time.
*The next most important are your applications which might cost you big bucks and time to replace and configure.
*Least important are your OS(es) which can be restored rapidly over the internet likely for free.

So on my systems c: has the OS; D: has all the apps including things like my e-mail client; E-H have all the data (photos 60,000+) and emails themselves and downloads. You want to consider downloads as data files because you might need some day to re-install what was working for you and not be able to find it on the net and, heck, it is easier & faster just to double tap an EXE file.
Have fun!

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*Least important are your OS(es) which can be restored rapidly over the internet likely for free.

I would agree with much of what you say, though you forget that the OP has an SSD. But I don’t agree that the system partition (if that is what you mean by the above comment) is easily replaced. If I have to reinstall Windows it takes two days to re-install all my applications and configure the OS and applications to my satisfaction. A system image is a far quicker way to get back on my feet!

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LinusF3, SSDs have changed the landscape so that data separation is no longer required.

cheers, Paul

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one of my main aps died when i cloned the old C disk onto a newer (hopefully more reliable as the old one was 8 years old) HD that was twice as big

apparently the ap could not handle the larger partition it now had

imho it is best to keep the new partition for an old disk at the same size as the old disk which would mean you should partition a new HD before you use it

but if you add an extra one for storage
imho you ony need to partition if the aps cant handle a larger one

On previous Desktop systems, I never partitioned my Hard Drives.

On my current 8 year old Dell Dimension 9200 with a 250GB Hard Drive, I did partition the Hard Drive into 3 Partitions (1 25GB Partition for just 1 piece of Industry specific software & its data files, 1 100+GB Partition for Installation Files only, & a 3rd 100GB+ Partition for the OS & everything else)

All of my backups were separate image backups of each entire Partition – so I never realized any real benefit of having Partitions.

I do make extensive use of folders to organize My Documents (including Pictures), Favorites, Etc.

I am about to pull the trigger and purchase a Dell XPS 8700 (Special Edition)

It will have an enormous 3TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive and a 256GB mSATA Solid State Drive.

I could have gotten only a 1TB Hard Drive, but because of my Dell Premier account as part of a very large Industry group, the cost difference was not that much.

I expect to follow the guidance in Fred Langa’s 1-15-15 story entitled “Mastering Windows 8’s backup/restore system”

Additionally, I expect to use my existing 3 External Hard Drives (250GB, & two 1TB) to continue to do separate image backups of the entire drives.

QUESTION IS:
What is the current thinking as to whether or not large drives should be partitioned?

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I’ve seen quite a few programs that required data to be on the same drive or in a specific directory. Bad programmers are a dime a dozen IMO.

cheers, Paul

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I certainly agree with a having robust backup scheme being up to the minute before tinkering with application (or the Registry for the matter). Images are great if you can make them and if you can run them after the problem presents. Still having a crash which corrupts data is way worse.
I figured everybody had already addressed ‘betting started”.

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K, chilax.

cheers, Paul

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How do we get haters like Paul and dg1261 kicked off these forums. Flames on help forums, really annoy me.
kevmeist in completely correct. From Paul’s reply, I’d bet doesn’t know a junction from a shortcut, much less a hardlink. If someone is in a profession that requires the use of computers, they should LEARN about the those required “tools”. Either do not use such software or actually LEARN how to make it work.

MS made many poor decisions in their OS design. These permitted poor programming design. But, there are workarounds, if you read closely I even included one.

P.S. wikipedia or anywhere on the web (including this forum) should not be considered (as quoted elsewhere in this thread) as a definitive source. It may be correct, but should verify with other sources.

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I’ve mentioned before that the organization I worked for before retiring insisted that no user data be put on the c drive, but on the network drives they supplied. This was for two reasons – first, the c drive wasn’t backed up and second, they could reimage form a standard image in the case of problems. But the question I would ask about data – is it data that’s created by the user using said software? So, for example, a Word document. Or is it data used by the software to run and give the user a better experience? For example (a poor one) cookies. This is data not created by the user but by the software as it’s being used.

If it’s the former then that would seem to be poor programming, if the latter then it’s understandable. It’s not obvious to me which is being talked about above.

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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Agreed that Drake software implementation is a poor example of programming standards. My prior organization (a three letter Government agency starting with an “F”) did the exact same thing with data files being on network drives and imaging the PCs themselves.

I did email Drake and they confirmed that their software did only support data files being under the Program Files structure. Their statement was:

“Client data files must be kept within the software file structure. ”

and

“When you begin moving the client files to different partitions, different hard drives, the Drake Program is not able to access them. This is the way the programming has been since 2012. The network setup (for multiple computers) that Drake suggests is to install the program on the root of the C:drive on the server then share that with the workstations, then map the workstations back to that drive. ”

I did email their suggestions department and suggest that they change this to a standard method of working. For me, this situation would mean that I would NOT use their software.

K

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On previous Desktop systems, I never partitioned my Hard Drives.

On my current 8 year old Dell Dimension 9200 with a 250GB Hard Drive, I did partition the Hard Drive into 3 Partitions (1 25GB Partition for just 1 piece of Industry specific software & its data files, 1 100+GB Partition for Installation Files only, & a 3rd 100GB+ Partition for the OS & everything else)

All of my backups were separate image backups of each entire Partition – so I never realized any real benefit of having Partitions.

I do make extensive use of folders to organize My Documents (including Pictures), Favorites, Etc.

I am about to pull the trigger and purchase a Dell XPS 8700 (Special Edition)

It will have an enormous 3TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive and a 256GB mSATA Solid State Drive.

I could have gotten only a 1TB Hard Drive, but because of my Dell Premier account as part of a very large Industry group, the cost difference was not that much.

I expect to follow the guidance in Fred Langa’s 1-15-15 story entitled “Mastering Windows 8’s backup/restore system”

Additionally, I expect to use my existing 3 External Hard Drives (250GB, & two 1TB) to continue to do separate image backups of the entire drives.

QUESTION IS:
What is the current thinking as to whether or not large drives should be partitioned?

Hi StevenXXXX,

As expected, when it comes to drive partitioning (and backups), there’s definitely no one-size-fits-all.

There’s been a lot of great suggestions/recommendations along with good arguments to support them. Your choice of backup method(s) will ultimately determine whether or not partitioning the drives is ideal. Personally, the only reason I can see it being worthwhile to partition the 3TB hard drive is if you opt to install applications on it. Keeping it separate from user data will make it easier to create backup images of the applications partition.

As far as image backups, I’ve rarely seen any benefit to using drive image tools on user data. There are plenty of file-based backup tools that are much better suited for the task (i.e. better overall compression, easier to restore individual files, less risk compared to a backup image being corrupted, etc.).

Since it sounds like the Dell XPS 8700 you’re considering will be your first computer with a solid state drive, I’d like to offer a few recommendations:

[*]It’s normally not necessary to defragment a SSD. Unlike on spinning media, file fragmentation is not a major problem because the access times remain the same for every block (there are exceptions, but we’ll leave that as a separate topic). Frequently defragmenting a SSD will cause excessive wear.

[*]Consider disabling NTFS file indexing (at least on the SSD). The indexing is intended to speed up searching for files but it comes with a few disadvantages including increasing CPU load, reducing available RAM, and in the case of SSDs, excessive wear from the disk writes to the file index.

[*]Relocate the pagefile to the hard drive to reduce the wear on the SSD (don’t forget to disable the pagefile on the SSD). Although the hard drive will be slower than the SSD, with RAM prices hovering at around $10/GB, it’s a better investment to buy more RAM if there’s frequent swapping regardless of the type of disk being used.

[*]Because the SSD is your C: drive, consider turning off hibernation. The Windows hibernation file (C:hiberfil.sys) can’t be moved and its size is equal to the amount of system RAM + video RAM — if the computer has 16GB of RAM, that’s >16GB of space eaten up on the SSD. Also, the time to write/read the contents of RAM to/from the hibernation file could easily exceed the typical boot time: 32 seconds to recover from hibernation vs. maybe 20 seconds to boot from a cold start if the SSD is capable of 500MB/s read speeds. Then there’s the wear on the SSD from writing 16GB of data every time the computer hibernates. And as a bonus, memory leaks won’t pile up over time reducing the amount of free RAM, and ironically, forcing the system to swap to disk causing excessive wear on the SSD and/or even slower performance from swapping to the hard drive.

[*]Try to leave enough free space on the SSD for more efficient wear leveling. The amount will vary from user to user so it isn’t a fixed percentage. Good SSDs will even out wear on each block by relocating data from blocks that don’t change as often in order to spread out the writes. The more free space there is, the longer it takes before the SSD has to shuffle data around, keeping the overall performance up.

One thing that’s odd about the specs for the Dell XPS 8700 Special Edition is the 256GB mSATA SSD. If it really is mSATA, I would see if there’s an option to switch to a full size 2.5″ SSD. It will make it much easier to migrate to another computer, do data recovery, and/or reuse in an external enclosure at some point in the future.

Chung

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All good points, Chung. I learned something here also (none of my PCs have an SSD), so I’ll keep your comments handy for the future.

K

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I’ve crossed Drake off my list of any potential purchase. My data is MY data; my computer is MY computer. Yes, three are generally accepted and necessary formats and procedures for applications (although these are becoming more flexible) but NOT data. Does Drake support Cloud storage? What about small office and home networks? If not, they probably aren’t long for this world any way.

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OK, I have received & set up my New Dell XPS 8700 Special Edition Desktop System.

Below is a Screen Shot of the Partitions on the System as shipped.
I have NOT made any changes.

39266-Screenshot-3

Please Help me understand what all of these Partitions are for.

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The EFI partition is for boot data. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_System_partition
The recovery partitions are to boot and store data and OS files. Generally used to recover to factory default.
The rest is your C: drive.

Nothing is simple any more – I’m not sure it ever was.

cheers, Paul

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What confuses me is why 4 of the 5 Partitions on the SSD show that they are 100% Free Space?

I am sure Dell put some Recovery Information somewhere?

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What confuses me is why 4 of the 5 Partitions on the SSD show that they are 100% Free Space?

I am sure Dell put some Recovery Information somewhere?

I am guessing that the four partitions showing 100% freespace are using filesystems that Windows cannot access.

There are six partitions shown in your screenshot, the four showing 100% freespace, and the C: and D: NTFS partitions.

Re your screenshot: press the Alt key then the Print Screen (“PrtScn”) to capture just the active window. The screenshot in your #35 post is unnecessarily wide.

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I’ve found that the Windows snipping tool is the best thing for capturing screenshots. Go to start/and enter “snip” in the search window…then go to the snipping tool. I find it so useful that I put a shortcut in my QuickLaunch area.

Talking about QL…why did MS default this to OFF on Win8? You can turn it back on again (I find it useful) if you wish. Just search the web for “Win8 Quick Launch”.

PaulT….ss for things never being simple…they are not called “confusers” for nothing….LOL

K

I am guessing that the four partitions showing 100% freespace are using filesystems that Windows cannot access.

There are six partitions shown in your screenshot, the four showing 100% freespace, and the C: and D: NTFS partitions.

Re your screenshot: press the Alt key then the Print Screen (“PrtScn”) to capture just the active window. The screenshot in your #35 post is unnecessarily wide.

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I’ve found that the Windows snipping tool is the best thing for capturing screenshots. Go to start/and enter “snip” in the search window…then go to the snipping tool. I find it so useful that I put a shortcut in my QuickLaunch area.

Talking about QL…why did MS default this to OFF on Win8? You can turn it back on again (I find it useful) if you wish. Just search the web for “Win8 Quick Launch”.

PaulT….ss for things never being simple…they are not called “confusers” for nothing….LOL

K

THANKS – I will try the snipping tool next time.

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I am guessing that the four partitions showing 100% freespace are using filesystems that Windows cannot access.

There are six partitions shown in your screenshot, the four showing 100% freespace, and the C: and D: NTFS partitions.

Re your screenshot: press the Alt key then the Print Screen (“PrtScn”) to capture just the active window. The screenshot in your #35 post is unnecessarily wide.

Why would Windows NOT be able to access the 4 Partitions showing 100% free space?
What would be in those 4 Partitions?
How can I ever access the Recovery Data if Windows cannot access them?

Yes, there are 6 Partitions including the D: (Data Partition)
Sorry, I did not mention that one because it is empty with no data in it yet.

My Screenshot is wide because the Alt PrtScn captured both of my 2 monitors.
The Monitor on the right did not have an open window at the time – so it is just the blue background area.
Probably should have used the Windows snipping tool that kevmeist mentions.
I had “resized” the PrtScn image to include only the active monitor screen, but I seemed to have lost that resizing when I put it in my post.

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What confuses me is why 4 of the 5 Partitions on the SSD show that they are 100% Free Space?

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The recovery data is accessed by the recovery system when you boot it. Windows does not need to read that data.
You should make a disk image so you can recover the lot in case of disk failure.

cheers, Paul

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UPDATE on Dell’s Partitions on my Solid State Drive:

This discussion in the “Dell Community” seems to be a good explanation of Dell’s Partitions
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19564604

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Just for the sake of argument: If Microsft felt that having everything on the same drive was “not optimum” would they not have provided a “default setup” scenario that would search for an alternative drive/partition for data and non-OS software during installation of the OS?

Now that “file history” is available in Win 8.1 (and Win 10) and so also the facility for a full system Image Backup, recovery of the most recent data files in the event of a crash is a breeze; similarly recovery of the System Image is quick and easy and safe (particularly if your setup saves the File History data and the System Image backup to a separate drive/removable drive.

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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