Advice on Partitioning HD

[Xarick]

So My computer currently has an SSD running the OS and main programs.
Plus I have a WD Black that I have used in a partitioned state of 750 and 250.
I got a new 4TB HD and immediately split it into 2TB paritions. One for Games and one for media.
I am now questioning the value of splitting the drive if there is any. Also already have 600GB of Games so I am thinking I should have partitioned 3 and 1. But now even still. Why not just leave it at 4TB.

So before I commit fully. Can someone advise me on Partitioning the drive?

 

[Elixer]

Well, the primary reason to partition the drive is to make backups much easier, and manage space. Some people even partition their HDs to short-stroke it.
It also really helps if the OS is on its own partition, then you can just blow it away at any time for a reinstall, and not lose your data which is on another partition.

So, it just depends on what you are looking to do.

 

[corkyg]

Partitioning may also help you know where things are, and it can make HDD optimization faster.

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

Hey Xarick,

As the guys pointed out, there are several reasons why people prefer to have multiple partitions on their drives.
Performance-wise there shouldn't be any difference if you have a single or multiple partitions on your secondary drives. It would be easier to manage your data in terms of reformatting, backups and diagnostics if you have multiple smaller partitions as you won't have to reformat the whole drive in case you need to do that for part of it (thus saving part of your data).

Have in mind that re-partitioning your drive might require you to either delete some of your data (backing it up and then restoring it) in order to shrink a partition or to extend an existing one onto another one, or to simply reformat the whole drive, wiping the data off of it.

Captain_WD.

 

[coercitiv]

I got a new 4TB HD and immediately split it into 2TB paritions. One for Games and one for media.
I am now questioning the value of splitting the drive if there is any. Also already have 600GB of Games so I am thinking I should have partitioned 3 and 1. But now even still. Why not just leave it at 4TB.

Since your new 4TB drive is used for storage only, there is no optimum way of creating partitions, except one that reflects your storage needs.

The advantage of creating a separate partition for games is you get to have some control over which portion of the HDD the files are written to, ensuring a minimum level of performance while games are loading. (data can be read/written faster at the logical beginning of the drive, then slowly decays towards the end)

If both games and media libraries are growing fast on your computer, make a 1:1 split. If games are growing significantly faster than media, split 3:1.

If you have no idea what to do, create a 3TB partition for both games/media, and decide what to do with the rest of the space later.