a bit confised on ssd partitioning

I build a desktop (uhul!) and I installed windows for free (no login account, no key) just to see if everything was running smootlhy and it is
That being said I have a 1 TB SS wd_black and I would like to make a partition for the OS (Win Education) and the rest for games and personal files.
However I dont know how to proceed. Ive read somewhere that format a ssd is not a good idea but I dont know how to do it in a diferent way. Plus how do you partition a disk that you are using it, specially if you want to reinstall windows.
Any tips, guides or tutorials on how to proceed would be awesome, thank you.

 

My advice get a separate SSD or HDD for those install to avoid any crashes on the main from affecting your data/files you created. Remember one drive one failure everything is gone. With the second drive any data or files you created is safe from main drive crashes and also if you create a image of the main you can save to the other drive and restore from that drive. That's how I do my recovery and restore. If you add another SSD even HDD you have to format that drive regardless just don't make it a main drive when you format it then you will be fine.

1. Main drive O/S and software install
2. Storage and data storage
3. Possible game install to run from it-sometimes this prevent the main drive from working constantly.

 

@ carol_sama

You're over thinking things a bit.

Format the drive or in windows setup delete all of the partitions under an advanced setup.
Create 1 partition i.e. OS of 75-100GB and let windows figure out the 4 partitions when you hit setup by selecting the 1 partition you want to install to.
Windows will create 3 small partitions + the main OS working partition automatically
Once everything is up and running you can go into disk management and create your 860+GB game/personal partition from there

On the flip side if you're already up and running there's many different tools you can use like Paragon HD Manager to move / shift them around or resize/delete/create them and it creates a script to do them upon reboot. If you have a ton of data already occupying the disk it will take a lot longer to move but, it moves things around w/o losing data and when it's done / reboots into windows everything works.

If you're cheap you can do the same thing by booting into a live image of Linux and use GParted to do the same thing to move things around.

 

That makes sense!
Thanks

Yeah I ended up formatting everything and then "shrinking" and creating new partiton!
thanks for the reply!

 

I am one of a pure drive to not want to use shrinking drive as that makes the drive work more to do the same process to just access the drive. They do have if yours is Desktop 1tb drives now so one shouldn't have to shrink the drive.

 

It's not really "shrinking" but partitioning your "data" and "OS' correctly in case...I mean WHEN the OS decides to take a nose dive you don't lose your personal data during a reinstall of the OS.

On the other hand you could run dual drives instead but it costs more $ to do that. Personally I tell the OS it's max value you it can use and let it partition its data as it wishes whether MSFT or *nix. There's no reason your OS needs more than 100GB w/ installed programs / updates and if it's *nix it's 25% of that space to run well.

With that in mind you could get a 100GB SSD/NVME for $50 and add a 1TB for data for another ~$130 or you could simply partition the $130 drive and save $50.

Since I'm running a NAS/Server anything I "open" is stored there instead of locally in most cases since the server has a Raid10 setup for data redundancy. I do keep 2 backups though locally on my laptop w/ dual NVME drives for data I need to keep handy while moving around. If I was really paranoid then I'd use my 3rd NVME and SSD USB drives as well... and could even tap my phone for 256GB of space if needed.

It's all relative to what you want to do and how much accessibility you want.

 

That is how I prefer to do it as well, for both desktops and laptops. It's just so much more flexible that way. On one desktop I have 8 drives, the other has 4. My turdbook has 2 SSDs (and sadly, no ability to accommodate more than 2 drives).

 

This! This is exactly why.
And yeah If I had more money I would have different SSDs

 

@carol_sama

Sometimes it's also an issue of what ports / slots you have open in your system. Like when I had a M6600 I could slap 2 x 2.5" drives + 1 msata. The system I have now is 2xNVME+ 2.5" SATA. Older systems and cheaper systems typically only have 1 slot for whatever format they're designed for.

Though my sever has 6xSATA on board connections my case has 8x3.5 drive slots + 2 additional mounting points and 2x2.5" mounting points as well the board also does 2xNVME. Benefits of a desktop is you have space to play around with and adequate cooling when running multiple drives. Technically I lose 2 SATA ports when putting in 2xNVME but, I can add more SATA ports through a card for $50.

It all comes down to planning and strategy when building your own systems. Budget is always a concern of course as well. A single drive can last for a decade but, a good rule of thumb is to add / replace the drive in 2 years to prevent data loss. Backups work well too if you remember to do them. Raid10 gives you some breathing room but requires 4 drives. Raid1 gives you copies at all times and requires 2 drives.