drive partitions confusion.

[Ashu Kumar]

Greetings to everyone!

been away for a long time. I am happy being here once again on MT.

I am confused over whether opt drive partitions or not?

I have always used my PC with a single drive partition. Now I am thinking to partition my hard disk as:

• C: (130 GB as OS drive) only for Windows OS and software installations. (No games)
• D: (900 GB as non-OS drive) for Data.

I am not using my PC for dual-boot or any games.

It is advisable to keep OS and applications on same drive partition.

My question:
will it affect the speed of accessing any data files (say documents or audio/video files) from Non-OS drive. I read it somewhere that hard disk will have to stretch its arm more to access data file from Non-OS drive.

I am paranoid that hard disk need to do more work and it will increase time to access any data file residing on Non-OS Drive.

or I am better off with a one big drive partition only.

I regularly back-up my data on an external hard disk. I want another partition drive just for avoiding the hassle of copying data all over again in case of a Windows reinstall.

and also suggest me whether 130 GB is enough as OS partition size. (Windows 10 64-bit installation has consumed 11 GB of hard disk space).

Please provide your suggestions.

 

[Tani]

This is what I do!

'Practically' I do not face any type of long response timings, C is for operating system along with every software installed, D is for my normal data & E contains my data that's supposed to be strictly private that's why encrypted/protected with bitlocker!
Yes 100GB or 130GB is totally fine for the operating system, you see I've consumed only 46GB of C drive after having so many software installed. It's also good idea to have separate partition for data, keeping it in the OS-drive is simply not recommended by me.

 

[Deleted member 178]

system drive : OS + Softwares
data drive : everything you want

 

[arslan ejaz]

This is what I do!
View attachment 68490
'Practically' I do not face any type of long response timings, C is for operating system along with every software installed, D is for my normal data & E contains my data that's supposed to be strictly private that's why encrypted/protected with bitlocker!
Yes 100GB or 130GB is totally fine for the operating system, you see I've consumed only 46GB of C drive after having so many software installed. It's also good idea to have separate partition for data, keeping it in the OS-drive is simply not recommended by me.

I Have The Same Setup As yours And @Ashu Kumar I think 200GB is enough for OS And Software , 400GB for your Work Folders and Remaining 400GB for Your private files and i don't think creating partitions slows down hard drive as far i know.

 

[Ashu Kumar]

encrypted/protected with bitlocker!

good point you mentioned it. I was wondering how much time does BitLocker take it to encrypt/decrypt a drive.
I never used BitLocker earlier but I think it would be good to use in-house encryption mechanism.

 

[Tani]

good point you mentioned it. I was wondering how much time does BitLocker take it to encrypt/decrypt a drive.
I never used BitLocker earlier but I think it would be good to use in-house encryption mechanism.

If you make new partition & first encrypt it (without any data it in), it'll instantly get encrypted, otherwise time depends upon how much data is in the drive.

 

[Ashu Kumar]

If you make new partition & first encrypt it (without any data it in), it'll instantly get encrypted, otherwise time depends upon how much data is in the drive.

what about decryption time? what are the results on your side?

 

[Tani]

what about decryption time? what are the results on your side?

you won't have to decrypt it in order to access your data, if you wish to access your data you'll have to double click & enter the password once, it'll be accessible as normal drive afterwards until your shutdown/restart your computer, after restarting/etc if you wish to access your drive again you'll have to enter the password again.
So basically it'll be a normal data drive but will be accessible after entering the password.

 

[Rolo]

will it affect the speed of accessing any data files (say documents or audio/video files) from Non-OS drive. I read it somewhere that hard disk will have to stretch its arm more to access data file from Non-OS drive.

Technically speaking this is true but since your OS partition is only ~10% of the drive, you won't notice a difference for data file access. However, your OS partition will more likely get fragmented due to Windows placing files at the end of the OS partition when the heads happen to be at your Data partition when it writes to the OS partition (which will be almost continuously with logs at least)--especially if you're moving \Users and \ProgramData over to the Data partition.

I don't know how much software you have but 130GB is enough for the OS and some core apps but that's about it. Be prepared for Windows to inflate over time (especially side-by-side--WinSxS directory). I have a 128GB SSD and Windows + any software that runs daily + Office-y type stuff (all small apps) and that's about it goes on it. Since you're using one HDD for this, you can always resize partitions with a free/giveaway utility like AOMEI Partition Guru, et. al. (I've been using the AOMEI one recently and I like it very much; it's fast and effective.)

BitLocker is nice, especially if you have a self-encrypting drive (eDrive); otherwise it uses the CPU AES instructions for low overhead. I didn't noticed slowdowns with it (or with TrueCrypt but TrueCrypt doesn't support UEFI/GPT).

 

[vivid]

It is advisable to keep OS and applications on same drive partition.

It's not but it's your choice in the end. If you're concerned then you could use junction points.