Solved Is it worthwhile to partition a 1TB SSD?

Partitioning an SSD doesn’t offer any performance benefits, but it can improve system organization, data management, and recovery flexibility. Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons:

Advantages:

• Selective Formatting: If your operating system encounters issues, you can format only the system partition (typically C:) without affecting other partitions.
• Flexible Encryption: You can enable BitLocker on the system drive while keeping other partitions unencrypted for easier access or faster performance.
• Streamlined Backups: Separating system files from personal data allows for more targeted and efficient backup strategies.
• Multi-OS Booting: Partitioning enables installation of multiple operating systems on separate volumes.
• Data Isolation: Keeping personal files separate from system files reduces the risk of accidental data loss during OS reinstallation.


Disadvantages:

• Limited Space on System Drive: Over time, installing many applications and games—along with accumulating temporary files—can lead to space constraints on the C: drive.
• Reduced Flexibility: Fixed partition sizes may lead to wasted space or require resizing tools if your storage needs change.
• Initial Planning Required: Choosing the right partition sizes from the start is important; poor planning can lead to inefficiencies or the need for reformatting.



Don’t forget to reserve some free space for wear leveling (Over provisioning)—it’s important for SSD health.

XxXxX said:

have my 1TB NVMe drive set up as Windows C: drive 25% of drive
then a partition D: drive where i have moved all the data folders
documents, downloads, pictures, videos etc, along with any other personal files/folders.

this way i can, if needed, re-install Windows but all my personal data is still intact
i then have 2x 1TB external drives to 1. back up system files. 2. back up personal files.

Click to expand...

That sounds good to me.

zbook said:

These are some WD links:
a) updates
b) diagnostics
c) Acronis
etc.

Western Digital Support | Western Digital

Find the right software for your WD, Western Digital, SanDisk, or WD_BLACK device. Download and access additional features on your personal storage device.

support-en.wd.com

Western Digital Support | Western Digital

Find detailed answers to your support questions for your Western Digital products.

support-en.wd.com

Click to expand...

It's a WD drive but I'm not sure if it's one they have listed as "supported products" to use that Acronus Edition for WD. I keep changing my mind but am now leaning toward the Macrium Reflect Free Edition now anyway. Before even getting to imaging I want to partition the drive (as other posters describe) basically an OS partition (25%) & a Data partition (75%) so I just shrink (in w/ easiest partitioning software I can find) the C: partition to 25% & create a 2nd partition as D: the 75% that's left? Not changing the *:ESP (512MB) AND *:Other (16MB) that's seemingly at the beginning of the drive & *:Recovery (1GB) that's seemingly at the end of the drive?

If you were able to set the size for each partition what would be the preferred numbers and in what sequence?

EFI =
Reserved =
C: =
Recovery =
Unallocated or D: =



Current:

System = 512 MB
Reserved = 16 MB
Primary = 952 GB
Recovery = 1024 MB



Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste: > post a share link

diskpart
sel par 3
shrink querymax

zbook said:

Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste: > post a share link

diskpart
sel par 3
shrink querymax

Click to expand...

I've input these commands in every possible variation to no avail. Idk what I'm doing wrong. In AOMEI it shows:

I would have it in this order:
EFI = 512 MB
Reserved = 16 MB
Recovery = 1024 MB
C: = 238.3375 GB (25% of 952.35 GB)
Unallocated or D: = 715.0125 GB (75% of 952.35 GB)

Though maybe recovery has to at end of drive - idk. NO data on the drive yet so was gonna have OS drive about 200-250 GB for it to have enough space to grow. Whatever space is left would the D: (data partition).

piikea said:

View attachment 153137
I've input these commands in every possible variation to no avail. Idk what I'm doing wrong. In AOMEI it shows:
View attachment 153138
I would have it in this order:
EFI = 512 MB
Reserved = 16 MB
Recovery = 1024 MB
C: = 238.3375 GB (25% of 952.35 GB)
Unallocated or D: = 715.0125 GB (75% of 952.35 GB)

Though maybe recovery has to at end of drive - idk. NO data on the drive yet so was gonna have OS drive about 200-250 GB for it to have enough space to grow. Whatever space is left would the D: (data partition).

Click to expand...

and adapt for what you want -

or maybe use your diskmgmt.msc for a first test if you do not have any data or applications installed.

Be careful when executing commands in cmd.

Years ago I used to partition the drive into multiple partitions but I consider that pointless now days.
I used to partition a drive into multiple partitions is of fixed size. The problem is if I guess wrong and pick the wrong sized then I might have to go in and repartition them again.

For example, I partitioned a 950 GB drive this way: System: 250GB (C:) and Data: 700GB (D:).
Window and programs are installed in C: and my user data is stored in D:
If the C: becomes full and there is enough free space in D: I can resize D: to make it smaller and C: to make it larger.
That wouldn't be unnecessary if C: is the only partition for everything.

I have an Acer laptop with a 1TB SSD. Other than the 2 system partitions it only has one partition C: (953.24 GB).
In C: I created a folder called XDATA. I keep most of my users files in it. That helps me keep track of my user data. I make weekly backups of the entire drive. Every day I backup select user data which includes important data in XDATA and files on my desktop.

piikea said:

View attachment 153137
I've input these commands in every possible variation to no avail. Idk what I'm doing wrong. In AOMEI it shows:
View attachment 153138
I would have it in this order:
EFI = 512 MB
Reserved = 16 MB
Recovery = 1024 MB
C: = 238.3375 GB (25% of 952.35 GB)
Unallocated or D: = 715.0125 GB (75% of 952.35 GB)

Though maybe recovery has to at end of drive - idk. NO data on the drive yet so was gonna have OS drive about 200-250 GB for it to have enough space to grow. Whatever space is left would the D: (data partition).

Click to expand...

The command was typed incorrectly as selpar 3.

The command must be typed with a space between sel and par.


The partition architecture can be in any sequence however Microsoft recommends that the recovery partition is immediately to the right of C:.


What numbers would you prefer for each:
System = 512 MB
Reserved = 16 MB
Primary = 952 GB
Recovery = 1024 MB
D: =
Unallocated =

piikea said:

I want easy easy easy!

Click to expand...

Leave the drive alone, my Laptop drive has exactly the same partitions.

Meddling with partitions not knowing what you are doing is not sensible.

Imaging - Just image all partitions the whole drive, make sure recovery drive works, job done.

Avoid any free backup offerings from WD, it may lock you in to using WD drives only.

I'm a desktops user and I know little the laptops. Can you install a second disk in your laptop?

I'm writing from a Win7 computer that uses a partitioned RAID 0 of HDDs. The basic setup was done in 2009 with a single HDD. It's my only computer with this kind of setup, the others have 2 disks, one SSD for Windows and one HDD for the data and Windows images. The data includes texts, pics, etc and sw installers.

In 2009 I was using imaging since more than 10 years before, and collecting files in my data partition (floppies at first) since the early 90s. Since I learnt internal disks (of that age) were the most reliable storage possible (actually eternal and unbreakable for my use case) I use internal disk space for my main copy. I also backup data (currently with a synching app) and Windows disk images to external storage (CDRWs first, DVDRWs after and USB sticks currently). This external backup is and always has been less reliable than the internal disks, but it has the files should the internal disks fail (or even the computer, the only time I recall I had to use the external images backup was for a RAM problem, as for files in the data partition the statistically main reason has been AV false positives).

HDDs are slower (and very bad for a laptop anyway), modern OSs like the whole disk for themselves, and modern disks of any technology are faster but not as reliable. With my current 2 disks setup:

- If the Windows disk dies, I just replace it and restore an image backup. If you have data too in this disk, this fix will be more complicated or impossible (although you'd still get other advantages from partitioning). This hasn't happened until now but my SATA SSDs are from 2020-2022, hence too young to be compared to my HDDs.

- The HDD with the data and Windows images cannot die, but I back up the data and the newer images to external stoage anyway.

My occupied Windows sizes are about 35 GB for Windows 7 and 70 GB for Windows 10/11. Joined to partition imagers compression, this makes very possible to just use pendrives as external backup (curiously, my Win11 partition is less compressable -40 or 45 GB- than my Win10 one -30 GB-, even though 11 has pagefile -8GB RAM- and 10 hasn't -32GB RAM-, both occupy 68-72 GB including the pagefile in Win11, there're only small differences in installed software).

I use 256 GB SSDs for Windows b/c 128 GB ones were slower and only slightly cheaper, but I don't use the free 150 GB or more I have.

I have never used the Windows Documents etc folders basically b/c MS-DOS hadn't them and I was very used to independent storage when starting with Windows 95, the first Windows I've used for production or "production". This only implies being used to D:\ and its folders for saving the files (for every app you only have to choose a different folder once, in general, as it remembers your previous choice). I know the Windows folders aren't "neutral" except the Downloads one (I mean Windows has a special treatment of them that may lead to issues; I consider them as "Windows" as System32, what means 1) I won't move System32 to D:\ 2) I won't store my files in System32 :) ).

why cannot I correct my previous post? It should say "Win11 disk" where "Win11 partition" in the last paragraph but two b/c I backup the whole Windows disk, which is another advantage of having a disk for Windows alone.

The OP said he has a Acer Swift X 16 (Swift Sf16-51T) laptop. Like my Acer Swift 3 (SF315-41G-R6MP) laptop it only has an M.2 slot for one SSD. That is why I created a folder called XDATA for my data. I don't use the Documents folder because many programs I install put their own data in it.

My ASUS TUF Gaming A15 (2022) laptop has M.2 slots for two SSDs. I label the 1st OS and the 2nd DATA. That way I can keep Windows and programs on one drive and my data on the other drive.

After a busy week finally able to get back to this & figure out my best option.....

@zbook (and @TahitianVibes) - having minimally done things using cmd I'm very leery of trying that method.

I could try diskmgmt.msc having used it to partition several years ago except I do have some applications installed (but no data).

@MisterEd - that's what I was trying to achieve as in your example: an OS partition & a Data partition. So I could only image the OS thus creating much smaller images to store. The audio & video files I'd also have on other devices so don't need backing up. I don't want to fill a single drive w/ a 50GB (or w/e) OS AND say 600GB of data so I end up w/ a 325GB image backup so....

@hsehestedt - if a free version of Macrium allows excluding files/folders from backups might be a simpler option. I'm assuming this WORKS > you can recover using an OS backup but somehow NOT lose the excluded files/folders(??).

@JLArranz - installing a 2nd SSD or HDD is more effort/cost than I wanna invest!

Anyway....more options to choose from than expected so am still debating which way to go!

piikea said:

New laptop has one 1TB SSD with only the system created 512MB EFI System Partition and 1GB Recovery Partition(s). I've not used Windows 11 (25H2) until now. Considering partitioning the drive into C: (EFI, Recovery & OS) of some size and another much larger partition just for data so the backup image of the C: will be smaller vs imaging the entire 1TB SSD. W/e data I have on that partition will already be backed up elsewhere so if lost won't matter much. Did this previously w/ Win7 but wondering if W11's backup & restore functions have improved enough so that this isn't necessary these days?

Click to expand...

That's exactly why you want to partition that drive. faster backups. ^^

Never place backups on the same physical drive that the OS is on. If that drive dies, you lose everything.

Here's some things that you may find useful...






And here's ten points for filling out your computer specs.

piikea said:

if a free version of Macrium allows excluding files/folders from backups might be a simpler option. I'm assuming this WORKS > you can recover using an OS backup but somehow NOT lose the excluded files/folders(??).

Click to expand...

No. If you exclude files, then obviously you would lose them if you performed a complete disk restore since those files were never backed up in the first place.

My workaround is to do backups like this:

1) Do a complete disk image backup but exclude all unnecessary files. For example, I have a lot of VMs that exist only for testing purposes. They consume hundreds of GB space. I exclude these.

2) I also have some very important folders that contain all my purchased software, programs I have written, documents, personal photos dating back many years, and much more. This amounts to about 210GB of data. I exclude all of that - stick with me, I'll explain why in a minute.

3) I now do 2 separate backups. One is a disk image excluding the files I noted above. The other is a file and folder backup of all my important data (that 210GB of data). Why? If I have a catastrophic failure, I can initially restore just my disk image which is small. That gets me up in mere minutes. I can then take my time and let the other stuff restore in the background while I am productive and actively working on the machine.

Note too that if I am currently working with any of those files in that file and folder backup, I can restore ONLY those files first so I can be productive and then once again let the remainder of the restore happen in the background.

I know that this may seem like a lot, and actually I've provided the simplified version of what I am doing, but the time spent coming up with a backup plan that works well for you is well worth it. First, you only have to make that plan one time and then implement it. But once that inevitable disaster happens, you will be VERY HAPPY that you did it right!

At least for me, losing my data would cost me literally many, many thousands of dollars so I cannot fool around with my data. A good backup plan that is fully tested and debugged is absolutely mandatory for me.

installing a 2nd SSD or HDD is more effort/cost than I wanna invest!

Click to expand...

And it seems you cannot do it with that laptop anyway. Then it's best to partition. It simplifies a lot the management of what's usually called "data", files that must survive reinstalls of Windows, hw replacements, computer replacements, etc. Actually I've used multiple partitions more years than I've used multiple disks. The former's slightly more difficult with newer OSs but totally possible.

Some of these files may be better in C: for functional reasons, then you'd copy them to D: regularly and from there to external backup storage from time to time. This is what I do myself for my needs.

I've also done partition images excluding files (with an imaging app that allows it in its GUI), concretely of my disk's biggest partition, containing the partition images (I excluded these) and other temporary, provisional, "out of band" etc contents that amount less than 1 GB total. I stored this image in my "data partition" (way smaller that the source partition but with room for such small file and with backups done regularly). But I haven't considered excluding files from C:. In my view everything in C: is "sacred" for the working of Windows and 3rd party apps, and if one or other thing of enough size to be considered isn't clearly "sacred" in that sense, it's a candidate to be in other partitions.

I've also used non-Windows partitions for installing games when I was gamer. My OS partition would have 20 GB and the games one 80 GB. Coincidentally I've never had to restore a games partition image, although it might have happened once or twice. I also did images of the games partition a lot less frequently (about twice per year vs twice per month the Windows partition). So this strategy has saved me a lot of time and hw use when doing images and restores.

Mobile stuff is always weaker by nature, I mean laptops compared to desktops and everything inside them. This applies to disks too. Additionally, manufacturing companies seem to have dropped the idea of eternal duration, even for data and in desktops. If you lose a gfx card you can buy a replacement and there aren't more losses, but if you lose a disk you also lose the data stored. The only prevention of the latter is to have duplicate copies. This is the same with 1 or 10 partitions, but managing the backups may be simpler and less time consuming with better partition and backups strategies for one's case.

I decided to do what seemed easiest > just split the C: drive into 2 partitions - OS w/ 250GB (already 92GB used so plenty of extra space left on it - might be overkill) & D: for data. This laptop won't be used for business or other important uses so it doesn't require a more elaborate backup scheme. Anything on the data partition I will have copies of elsewhere. I want to be able to recover the OS easily if an update causes issues or some other snafu.

AOMEI has system backup option including C:, ESP, Recovery or Partition Backup option which is just the C: partition which I'm still trying to figure out. I could always use both ways I suppose. I've done this stuff in years past & it's seemingly so simple but w/ W10 & 11 having the Recovery, reserved, etc it's more confusing (to me anyway).

Thanks to all for the advice!