Solved Optimizing SSD/HDD

I worry about Drive D…
As those folders are used a lot by the system, I think it will cause a huge performance loss.
I want to create partitions which reduce this loss. But I don’t know which partition has more speed. As I tested drive D had more speed than other partitions, so I chose it as temp drive for windows.
But then I asked myself that is it necessary to create those partitions to have more speed?!

Well, 40GB for Windows is pretty stingy, why are you making that partition so small? That's probably going to be a problem at some point.

gunrunnerjohn said:

Well, 40GB for Windows is pretty stingy, why are you making that partition so small? That's probably going to be a problem at some point.

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Because the SSD is an old 40GB model! I have no more space for drive C.
So I created drive D and moved all movable windows folders to it using environmental variables.

Clearly, I'd just install a larger SSD. I have no idea what they might cost where you are, but a 256GB SSD is dirt cheap around here. I can pick up a 256GB SSD in the $20-30 range in the US. From a brief Internet search, it looks like even in Tehran, IRAN they're not that expensive.

gunrunnerjohn said:

Clearly, I'd just install a larger SSD. I have no idea what they might cost where you are, but a 256GB SSD is dirt cheap around here. I can pick up a 256GB SSD in the $20-30 range in the US. From a brief Internet search, it looks like even in Tehran, IRAN they're not that expensive.

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As I’m temporarily working with them as a freelancer and not for them for a long period, I don’t have the privilege to change hardware.
Just found the admin password (1234 strong one) and want to get rid of this laggy environment to do my job as fast as I can and make some money and leave here for ever. Some of the managers here are from dinosaurs era! How can I explain an old guy over 120 years old that we need a new SSD? It’s easier for me to do some tweaks and do it faster instead of dealing with those guys…
Just kidding about the age but they are really old and I don’t like to deal with them because of some political issues!

My question was not a big problem for me. I was just curious about how HDD works and how we can have better performance when we use them not only for archiving! Just for my own knowledge.

garlin said:

If you're looking at bulk storage, then a NVME drive may be overpaying for capacity, as compared to a SATA drive.

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My ASUS has 4 free NVMe slots. I had to get an LSI SATA controller because that same motherboard has only 4 SATA ports. Between my Optical drive, HDDs and leftover, repurposed SSDs, I need 8 SATA ports. IF/when I can stop using the LSI SATA controller, I can free up an x16 slot so I can get a better performing USB C and A adapter.,

garlin said:

NVME's are great if you have some apps that need to process a lot of temp files in rapid succession. For video streaming, reading off a slow SSD is still going to outpace your video player's ability to churn out frames unless you're into raw, uncompressed video. It's your money.

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I sometimes need to access multiple 60 GB NEF files. With my older camera, with "only" 25 MB SATAs, the wait for reading multiple NEF files at one time was tolerable. With 60o MB files, and more of them, because my new Nikon can shoot 20 frames/second for many seconds at a time, the wait times are annoying. Yes, it's my money. Instead of upgrading CPU/RAM every few years, usually with a new motherboard, I upgrade other components of my rig.

x509 said:

I sometimes need to access multiple 60 GB NEF files. With my older camera, with "only" 25 MB SATAs, the wait for reading multiple NEF files at one time was tolerable. With 60o MB files, and more of them, because my new Nikon can shoot 20 frames/second for many seconds at a time, the wait times are annoying. Yes, it's my money. Instead of upgrading CPU/RAM every few years, usually with a new motherboard, I upgrade other components of my rig.

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Not exactly clear on what you mean here but have you installed the NEF codecs? Might help with you read times. I have Nikon D850 and and I shoot uncompressed RAW so my base NEF files are 91 meg a piece. Anyway, I run my files off a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe drive.

I keep my most recent files and the files I'm working on, on the drive and achieve the files I no longer need to a backup external drive.

Also (assuming you use Photoshop) Adobe Bridge renders images rather quickly for viewing. For that matter so does Adobe Lightroom.

Ummm
I still didn’t find how to partition my hdd

Probably because no-one can provide a definitive answer without knowing much more about the individual use case.

You've already partitioned the HDD into 3 roughly equal-sized partitions but you need to examine how much space is actually being used on each partition and consider how that use is likely to change over time.

I would also query the logic of the substantial 'Backup' partition, which will be of little, if any, practical use if/when a HDD 'failute' occurs. IMO the only internal (same physical disk) backup facility should be for relatively short-term use to provide some basic protection against user file 'corruption' and/or for the quick restoration of original file versions if the original is used as 'template' for applying/testing changes/updates.

Also, assuming that the Windows OS can still be upgraded the system may well require access to more working disk space than the SSD can provide to perform any Windows system upgrades.

I do hope that, if you are making these changes while on a 'temporary work assignment' (which you have indicated) that you intend providing the employer with some detailed guidance on the changes made and recommendations for an effective backup strategy.

So, let's ask it in a different way so I can reach the answer
imagine you have only a 1TB HDD and you want to install windows on it.
you will have 30GB Windows OS, about 50GB Apps and 100GB documents. how do you partition it?
is partitioning cause performance improvement?
the only important thing here is speed and nothing more. the data is not important if I loose it.

which one do you choose for more speed?
1- Only 1 drive and all data be written in drive C folders.
2- 3 logical drives, C for windows, D for apps, E for Documents.

I have another idea but haven't tested it yet.
to have higher speed let's format drive C and D with a high allocation unit size (e. g. 32KB) and format E drive with a lower allocation size like 2KB.
what's your opinion friends?

Sheikh said:

Hi again.
I have heard about some apps like "Auslogics SSD Optimizer".
What do they really do?

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Probably the best way to understand what it does is to have a look at the manual:
https://www.auslogics.com/includes/manuals/ssd-optimizer/ssd-optimizer-manual.pdf

I purchased it and it works.

I also coupled it with a product called Primocache. How it interacts with the Windows Cache is interesting (use Task Manager to see how large it is; mine is 13 GB, which is pretty big). You would think that is more than enough, and I would agree. Here, it is explained why:

You do need a UPS, but you don't need to allocate a lot of memory. 2GB as a write cache works fine for me for everyday tasks. In my opinion, widows should be part of the OS.

And yes, SSDs are so affordable these days - consider getting a new one. Make sure it is reliable. I got a cheap one, and the nice function the software has is an estimate of how long it will last - mine was a Pumy, 6 months, but the software increases it by a couple of months.