Should I merge my partitions?

[aquielisunari]

I heard that it's a bad thing if my SSD gets full. I think I may have overreacted. I kept 15GB unallocated but I don't think that's really helping because it's not part of Windows. Am I correct in assuming that I should merge the partitions so that Windows 10 will have access to that space? I just didn't want to have to worry about it. No matter what it never fills up but now it seems it may have been a useless gesture. I assumed when I initially installed Windows. Not a good idea right now.

To merge or not to merge...

 

[photonboy]

Overprovisioned space is supposed to be left alone to prevent massive slow-downs.

The last thing you want to do is eliminate that OP space and fill up the drive to near 100% full usage.

I have no idea what you mean by "No matter what it never fills up but now it seems it may have been a useless gesture" but a good rule of thumb is:

a) properly OVERPROVISION to about 15% total capacity, and
b) then you can fill the Windows-accessible space (leaving space for downloads, updates etc)
c) do use System Cleanup etc to move or delete unneeded data

 

[photonboy]

http://www.seagate.com/ca/en/tech-insights/ssd-over-provisioning-benefits-master-ti/

 

[aquielisunari]

I have no idea what you mean by "No matter what it never fills up but now it seems it may have been a useless gesture" but a good rule of thumb is:

I have a 120GB SSD. I left 15GB unallocated. I was trying to say that because I left 15GB unallocated I don't have to worry about it filling up. Windows will only fill up the 90GB partition it has. There is then another 10GB or so that Adata has left as a reserve.

Actually, even without special software, any user can set aside a portion of the SSD when first setting it up in the system by creating a partition that does not use the drive’s full capacity. This unclaimed space will automatically be used by the controller as dynamic over-provisioning.

So it would seem I should leave my SSD as is.

I do try and keep my disks as clean as possible

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3473888/reclaim-disk-space-windows.html

 

[Colif]

leaving space just leaves the ssd room to move data around to ensure read/write actions are evenly shared. Since they don't have physical sectors, where your data actually is on drive is a mystery only the ssd and windows may know.

All ssd have extra space on them, a certain percentage of the ssd is hidden from users as its used for error correction. The bigger the ssd, the more free memory it has for error correction. You don't need to worry about that as its never available to you anyway.

The difference is created by fact SSD is a form of ram, ram measures a 1gb as 1024 MB... HDD meanwhile historically count 1gb as 1000 MB. So a 1tb ssd is advertised as 1000 GB but it actually contains 1024gb of space, the difference is used for error correction. This is why bigger SSD have longer life expediencies as they have more space to use

I didn't know about over provisioning when I first got SSD but since SSD is one big partition, it worked anyway

 

[aquielisunari]

leaving space just leaves the ssd room to move data around to ensure read/write actions are evenly shared. Since they don't have physical sectors, where your data actually is on drive is a mystery only the ssd and windows may know.

All ssd have extra space on them, a certain percentage of the ssd is hidden from users as its used for error correction. The bigger the ssd, the more free ram it has for error correction. You don't need to worry about that as its never available to you anyway.

The difference is created by fact SSD is ram, ram measures a 1gb as 1024 MB... HDD meanwhile historically count 1gb as 1000 MB. So a 1tb ssd is advertised as 1000 GB but it actually contains 1024gb of ram, the difference is used for error correction. This is why bigger SSD have longer life expediencies as they have more space to use

I didn't know about over provisioning when I first got SSD but since SSD is one big partition, it worked anyway

Leave that 15GB unallocated alone then?

How can Google not have unallocated in its dictionary?

 

[Colif]

if you don't need it, leave it there. Other fun part is where is it on ssd? If it is directly behind the C partition, you can merge it. If there are partitions in between it and C, you can't merge it easily. And if its in front of C, it won't work.

Google seems to miss lots of words I use. I just looked up unallocated and its been a word for 400 years... Google isn't that slow? Surely?
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/unallocated

 

[aquielisunari]

if you don't need it, leave it there. Other fun part is where is it on ssd? If it is directly behind the C partition, you can merge it. If there are partitions in between it and C, you can't merge it easily. And if its in front of C, it won't work.

Google seems to miss lots of words I use. I just looked up unallocated and its been a word for 400 years... Google isn't that slow? Surely?
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/unallocated

I have Aoemi http://filehippo.com/download_aomei_partition_assistant_standard_edition/. It makes partitioning easier than Windows because it doesn't have that adjacent limitation.

 

[Colif]

Your choice then. i would try to keep 10% free just cause it still effects speed of ssd if you fill it up

Unless my usage changes drastically, i may never fill my ssd. using 43gb of a 250gb ssd, I guess 170gb of free space is enough to keep drive running for ever... or until i find a reason to replace it. I had too many hdd die 16+ years ago to bother filling drives anymore. I have 2.1tb of space but still have 1.7tb free.