New laptop with SSD, partitioning?

bertie11 · 27 Mar 2018

I have bought a a new laptop with Windows 10 pre-installed on a 256GB SSD drive.

I wanted to partition it so that C:\ would contain the OS, not sure how much to allow though, and then another partition for my own programs, purchased or free. And possibly another partition for my current data from day-to-day stuff. I also have 2 1TB USB drives which I would use for starage and backups.

Is this realistic? Are there any problems with partitioning SSD, I've never used them before.

Any thoughts please?

cereberus · 27 Mar 2018

bertie11 said:

I have bought a a new laptop with Windows 10 pre-installed on a 256GB SSD drive.

I wanted to partition it so that C:\ would contain the OS, not sure how much to allow though, and then another partition for my own programs, purchased or free. And possibly another partition for my current data from day-to-day stuff. I also have 2 1TB USB drives which I would use for starage and backups.

Is this realistic? Are there any problems with partitioning SSD, I've never used them before.

Any thoughts please?

Frankly, I would not bother unless you have a lot of portable games. Portable games can be installed on hdds.

If you do need to partition it, I would only do two partitions 128 GB each. You can always resize later as needed.

Clintlgm · 27 Mar 2018

Partitioning the SSD is not a problem. However, a 256GB SSD is pretty much minimal in today's world. Your OS and Programs install should be on the C:\ partition, data and library files can surely be stored on a 2nd drive. If your new notebook doesn't have provisions for a 2nd hard drive/SSD you going to have issues. I Have 2 computers using 256 GB SSD and I'm more than 50% full more like 75% full on both of them. My notebook has a 512 GB SSD for OS and 1 TB SSD for Data.
With all that said if you want to partition your SSD further do not mess with any of the partitions other than C: you can use any partitioning tools, I personally use Minitool Partition wizard it's quite similar to the original version of "Partition Magic" that I have been using for many years. Adjusting partitions on an SSD not different than on a hard drive, other than my warning to not do any operations on the other partitions on the SSD other than C:.
I would before making any changes create a disk/SSD complete Image. Macrium Reflect Free is very good at making these images and when you screw up, it will take about 15 minutes to restore back to the moment you made the Image and Complete SSD, not Partitions. Good luck and let us know how things go.

Wynona · 27 Mar 2018

bertie11 said:

I have bought a a new laptop with Windows 10 pre-installed on a 256GB SSD drive.

I wanted to partition it so that C:\ would contain the OS, not sure how much to allow though, and then another partition for my own programs, purchased or free. And possibly another partition for my current data from day-to-day stuff. I also have 2 1TB USB drives which I would use for starage and backups.

Is this realistic? Are there any problems with partitioning SSD, I've never used them before.

Any thoughts please?

I'm pretty much in agreement with Clint; Windows and programs/apps go on the C:\ drive.

I keep a 2 TB external drive for backups and a 1 TB external drive for data and libraries. Both are more than adequate for my needs; however, the price was right. :) I have smaller externals for special files, such as genealogy.

bertie11 · 28 Mar 2018

Cerberus, I don't waste my time with games! Well, only Freecell.

I expect there will be a lot of stuff to remove once I get the notebook, things like 3 months trial of Office and unwanted A/V for a start and a lot of HP stuff too.

Clintigm, I have resolved to try and keep my system as lean as I can, I think my old one had a load of stuff on it I rarely, if ever, used. I do have Minitool Partition Wizard and Free Reflect already as well. From memory, my old notebook used about 75GB on the C:\ drive but like I say, I ought to be able to cut that down. I note your suggestion of doing an image as soon as I get the device, although it will probably have a recovery on it, I'm assuming. But then it would also be on the SSD, taking up space?

Wynona, another system and programs advocate!

Thank you all. I now need to get my hands on the said notebook!

Word Man · 28 Mar 2018

Hi, bertie11.

You might want to post back to this thread screenshots of the partitions as shown in Disk Management and/or MiniTool Partition Wizard once you have the notebook in hand. There will probably be a sizable Factory Reset/Recovery partition on it you may decide to do away with to conserve that limited 256 GB of SSD space.

We can help you sort that and any other partitioning needs/wants on the new notebook.

bertie11 · 28 Mar 2018

I now have the new notebook and I see I have 192GB free of the 256GB and I have a Recovery partition D:\ with 1.78GB of 14.8Gb.

I just wanted to confirm that the Recovery partition will take me back to factory settings?

There is so much dross on this, Netflix, MacAfee, all the usual stuff which I'm taking off. Do I need to install Macrium at this stage or should I have done that before I started removing things? Just curious, as in the past I waited until I had what I wanted left and then I did the backup image.

Word Man, just seen your post! I'll post again shortly.

Word Man · 28 Mar 2018

bertie11 said:

I now have the new notebook and I see I have 192GB free of the 256GB and I have a Recovery partition D:\ with 1.78GB of 14.8Gb.

I just wanted to confirm that the Recovery partition will take me back to factory settings?....

Yes, that's what it's there for. At this point, some would decide to do away with it because the factory restore would include all of the dross you mention. Others prefer to keep it as the ultimate fallback option - depends on how much you would like to have the 14.8 GB freed up to do with as you wish.

Myself, when I (rarely) get a new machine, I do a Macrium image before anything else, to an external drive. Then I start weeding out the dross.

Another option, depending on your temperament for it, is to do a clean install (dross free) of Win10 as soon as you confirm the current install is activated. You can use that to wipe all partitions and set it up as you wish. Plenty of folks here can help you with that, if you so opt, and there is a tutorial here: Clean Install Windows 10

f14tomcat · 28 Mar 2018

bertie11 said:

I now have the new notebook and I see I have 192GB free of the 256GB and I have a Recovery partition D:\ with 1.78GB of 14.8Gb.

I just wanted to confirm that the Recovery partition will take me back to factory settings?

There is so much dross on this, Netflix, MacAfee, all the usual stuff which I'm taking off. Do I need to install Macrium at this stage or should I have done that before I started removing things? Just curious, as in the past I waited until I had what I wanted left and then I did the backup image.

Just as a general rule, A Macrium image of the box as-is fresh from the factory, even with all the bloat and foo-fah, is a good idea before taking a scalpel to it. Reason.....you can always go back to that mrimage and cherry-pick stuff to copy back just by mounting it. Just IMO. :)

lx07 · 28 Mar 2018

Make an image (in case you want to return it) then clean install.

BTW I also have a newish laptop with a 256GB drive and don't play games - it just has Office and a few small programs. I partitioned it 64GB for C, I'm currently using just going over 24GB (with 15 years of emails stored there). 64GB is ample for C for me. Honestly, 32GB would most likely be OK really.

I'm really not convinced it is an advantage though to partition - more just old habits.

The performance reasons (put OS on faster outside part of the disk) have gone, backing up a folder is not harder or easier than backing up a partition.

If you think you will be repeatedly reinstalling Windows or restoring back then go ahead. I have not restored Operating System from backup for years though and as Windows gets a new version every six months it is increasingly less likely I ever will. Far more likely to just clean install again.

Assuming you do this there is no advantage to having partition D and a directory called "Data" on your C drive apart from the negligible amount of time to restore it, if you ever did need to, which you probably wouldn't. On the other hand if you assign 128GB to C and only need 28GB you are wasting 100GB of space.

Sure you can resize partitions but I don't see the point really in making such an arbitrary split in the first place. It is a contentions subject though and many people here would disagree with me I'm sure.

Personally (despite there being no benefit I can justify) I still do it. Next time not perhaps.