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dirtyvu
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partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 12:46 am

I'm new to SSDs so please excuse my ignorance.

I was wondering if you can partition an SSD like a hard drive and use the same utilities to do so.

I'm so used to partitioning. For many reasons, but mainly for data protection (if one partition gets hosed, the other partitions are safe). I'm wondering if partitioning has the same protections on an SSD as with a regular hard drive. And if anyone's done it for any particular benefit? It just feels so odd to have 1 big partition and no safety net (multiple partitions).
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:01 am

There's no "safety net" in creating multiple partitions per physical disk with an SSD nor with a hard-drive. If you feel that you really need another volume, install another physical drive.
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potatochobit
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:07 am

the only reason I can see to partition an SSD is to run a dual boot OS
I mean, most SSDs are not that big anyway, 60Gb and 60GB seems kind of lame
check with your SSD brand maker to see if they have any software tools available
I know OCZ has some things you can look into
 
Flying Fox
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 4:34 am

The kind of protection that you were referring to applies only to an OS software problem hosing the system partition. It won't protect a malware wiping out your other partitions nor it will protect in the case of a head crash (that spans multiple partitions). Nowadays, it is more for data management where you can format+reinstall the OS faster without doing too much back up.

As have been stated, splitting a relatively small SSD may limit your OS partition, unless you have a lot of money to buy a large drive. All the other advantages in the mechanical disk days about optimizing access times and such are not applicable to SSD's. Windows 7's use of the Libraries feature should make data management and backup easier for OS reinstalls. So the need to partition an SSD is not much.
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dirtyvu
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 5:31 am

Flying Fox wrote:
The kind of protection that you were referring to applies only to an OS software problem hosing the system partition. It won't protect a malware wiping out your other partitions nor it will protect in the case of a head crash (that spans multiple partitions). Nowadays, it is more for data management where you can format+reinstall the OS faster without doing too much back up.


yes, this is what I meant by protection. sorry for not being more clear. with a partitioned drive, I had all my data on the other partitions and only the OS and some installed apps on the main partition. that way, if the OS got hosed, I could just pull another image to the main partition. or if i wanted to reinstall the OS fresh, I could just wipe drive C and leave all my data on the other partitions intact.

the idea that I have to move everything off the drive to have a clean installation just sucks. especially since there are always files that are in some folder that i forgot to move and it gets erased during the format. when they're on a separate partition, I have less worry about deleting important stuff.
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 11:43 am

It makes sense to use an SSD for your OS and most-used programs and then use a hard-drive for the rest of your stuff.
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Flying Fox
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 1:26 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:
It makes sense to use an SSD for your OS and most-used programs and then use a hard-drive for the rest of your stuff.

Automatic partitioning! Since there are 2 physical drives. ;)

Plus the fact that the more affordable SSDs are around the 100GB mark (give or take), so you are pretty much forced to have only your OS and apps on the SSD and data to be on the secondary, mechanical storage anyways.
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UberGerbil
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 2:29 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
Automatic partitioning! Since there are 2 physical drives. ;)
Exactly!

I stopped seeing the need for partitioning years ago. Even for dual/multi-boot situations, or OS upgrades, hard drives are so cheap I just throw another one in and give the new OS a fresh one to itself. Multiple active partitions just slow things down because you're forcing the hard drive to seek further on average (not an issue with SSDs, obviously), and having everything on one drive means more restoring to do when it inevitably fails. The real "safety net' is multiple independent drives, and a good backup strategy.

Of course the svelter laptops, where one (internal) drive is all you've got, are a separate issue.
 
potatochobit
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:10 pm

well, with hard drives sky rocketing into the tetrabytes I partition them so it makes it easier to arrange files
so one partition might contain videos only and another work documents
 
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 4:03 pm

potatochobit wrote:
well, with hard drives sky rocketing into the tetrabytes I partition them so it makes it easier to arrange files
so one partition might contain videos only and another work documents

You only force arbitrary limits on the amount of stuff by partitioning them, it's not any easier to organize than one partition with root folders for documents, music, video etc. Heck, with libraries you can easily manage types of data across multiple partitions/drives (even mapped drives? I don't know).
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 4:39 pm

Yes, even mapped drives.
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potatochobit
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Sun Feb 06, 2011 5:15 pm

I dont use that windows media library or my document stuff
the main reason I do this is because if I put all my documents on the main OS drive it causes problems if I do a reinstall
if the drive is partitioned, I can reformat anytime I wish or even move the hard drive into another computer easily and just erase the OS partition while keeping all my files in the the other partitions unaffected and ready to go
it's not so important now, but when windows7 was in beta it was very important with new version installs and dual booting XP
so basically I am talking about HDD partitions. On an SSD you probably want to move your 'my documents' to a second HDD to save space anyway so your files are already safe
 
Flying Fox
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Mon Feb 07, 2011 1:32 pm

potatochobit wrote:
I dont use that windows media library or my document stuff
the main reason I do this is because if I put all my documents on the main OS drive it causes problems if I do a reinstall
if the drive is partitioned, I can reformat anytime I wish or even move the hard drive into another computer easily and just erase the OS partition while keeping all my files in the the other partitions unaffected and ready to go
it's not so important now, but when windows7 was in beta it was very important with new version installs and dual booting XP
so basically I am talking about HDD partitions. On an SSD you probably want to move your 'my documents' to a second HDD to save space anyway so your files are already safe

Windows 7 Libraries feature does not even need you to redirect the Documents/Music/Pictures/Videos folders to the other partition, you can just add your own folder to the library. With or without SSDs, I don't see why it won't work. The feature is kind of like an abstraction if you don't want to deal with c:\video1, d:\video2, e:\video3, f:\video4, etc...
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Airmantharp
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Mon Feb 07, 2011 2:21 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
potatochobit wrote:
I dont use that windows media library or my document stuff
the main reason I do this is because if I put all my documents on the main OS drive it causes problems if I do a reinstall
if the drive is partitioned, I can reformat anytime I wish or even move the hard drive into another computer easily and just erase the OS partition while keeping all my files in the the other partitions unaffected and ready to go
it's not so important now, but when windows7 was in beta it was very important with new version installs and dual booting XP
so basically I am talking about HDD partitions. On an SSD you probably want to move your 'my documents' to a second HDD to save space anyway so your files are already safe

Windows 7 Libraries feature does not even need you to redirect the Documents/Music/Pictures/Videos folders to the other partition, you can just add your own folder to the library. With or without SSDs, I don't see why it won't work. The feature is kind of like an abstraction if you don't want to deal with c:\video1, d:\video2, e:\video3, f:\video4, etc...


This was exactly what I was doing before sticking in an SSD, and nothing's changed except the speed. Libraries are great and easy to set up- slightly more difficult are Symbolic Links, which allow you to put a link to a folder that operates at the file-system level when viewed from applications. This works great for games that were already installed on mechanical drives, but that I wanted to use the SSD to speed up load times with. Functions just as well with games installed from media, through the EA downloader, and through Steam. Games are kept up to date by the managers without issue.
 
J. J.
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Re: partitioning an SSD

Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:17 am

Good general discussion of partitioning on hard disks.

But the question remains what is unique to SSD drives when considering creating just one partition or multiple on a single SSD drive.

For example, SSD drives, at least some of the implementations ( including the most popular and fastest implementations ) use sophisticated internal controllers and firmware to relocate data ( on the fly ). The purpose being to constantly move data around on the SSD so that all areas of the SSD wear out at the same rate.

Anyone out there with experience designing an implementation that minimizes the weaknesses of SSD drives while maximizing the benefits?

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