Noob Partitioning Questions

noodly

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Mar 16, 2013
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Hi. I just bought an Asus N76VJ and I now have an SSD as primary at 250 gigs and a secondary HDD with 1 TB of storage. I'm using Windows 8. I also have an external 1TB HDD drive for backups.

I would like to use the second as storage for most of my files such as docs, pictures, music, videos etc. Are there any suggestions to number of partitions and volumes I might create and what I might want to put where? I'm currently thinking 3 partitions if necessary. Also, should some of that space allotted on this drive for anything I've overlooked?

At the same time I'd like to make the most of my SSD which still has about 230 GB available. There is a recovery partition already formatted there as well. Operating system, drivers, programs, apps will be on the primary. For the sake of speed, I am wondering if I should have some space where I can keep current files I am using close at hand while having them saved simultaneously to their place on my secondary when I save them on my SSD. I'm not quite sure what's the most efficient way to do that. Someone also mentioned to me that I might assign a pathway to different kinds of files. I'm not sure how to do that either.

Lastly, I suspect that I will have a fair amount of space left over on my SSD and how do you think I best utilize that? Thanks for any suggestions.
 
It is not necessary to partition your hard disk drive. Instead you can create data folders and sub-folders. You can name them anything you want and organize them any way you want. If after a while you do not like a data folder name you can rename it. You can also move the sub-folders around to different data folders. No muss! No fuss! No bother! :)

When you say the ssd has a recovery partition, do you mean you created a partition on the ssd for the Microsoft Windows backup/restore/recovery features? If so, then I recommend a change. The feature won't do you much good if the data is on the ssd and the ssd develops a problem. You can set the Windows backup/restore/recovery feature to store everything on the hard disk drive. In addition, you can schedule backup's and have them done in the background. I've got mine set for every Sunday morning. Again, no muss! No fuss! No bother! :)

What type of data files are the current data files that you work with? Geneally speaking if your operating system, software applications, utilities, and favorite games are on the ssd, then it is not necessary to have current data files you are working with on the ssd. I've tried it both ways. There is a very slight delay when calling up images from a hard drive but once they are loaded into memory it makes no difference. If you are a professional photographer or Hollywood film editor, then it would be different situation and a different solution would be appropriate.

The pathways you mentioned are typically called symbolic links. If you have the operating system, software applications, utilities, and favorite games installed on the ssd, then there is no need for any symbolic links. Windows will not have any trouble finding and starting your software applications, utilities, and games. In addition, there is no need for symbolic links to data folders on the hard disk drive. The symbolic links are very rarely used. They are used when the software installation utility for an application will only install the application on the default C: drive and for some reason you want to install it on a secondary drive. You go ahead and install the application on the C: drive and then move it a secondary drive. Then add a symbolic link. The symbolic link is the equivalent of a change of address notice. It lets Windows know the new location of the software application. It works reasonably well but there can be glitches. Based on the information you provided you do not need to create any symbolic links.

The general rule of thumb is to let about 10% to 20% of the ssd capacity remain free and available for use. Leaving some free space should help the ssd maintain peak efficiency.

 

noodly

Honorable
Mar 16, 2013
7
0
10,510


 

noodly

Honorable
Mar 16, 2013
7
0
10,510
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. The recovery partition on the ssd was created by Xotic PC who set up the hard drive with Windows 8 when I bought it. What do I need to do to put that on my hard drive? Just copy and paste? Should I partition for that to keep it separate from everything else so that it's left untouched to keep it secure from any changes other than backups? Like viruses or other kinds of data corruption? As for everything else it sounds like I'll probably use my HDD for my data and music and such and not worry too much about filling up the SSD with anything more than necessary. I'm sure it'll get populated with stuff over time and still have enough unused space to live by the rule of thumb you cited.

UPDATE. Actually Asus created the recovery partition, not Xotic PC.
 

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