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What Format for Internal Storage Drive


xmf

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I am using a 64gb SSD for the OS and minimal programs. I also have a much larger storage drive where I will be keeping, music, media, etc. to access from Win7. What type of format should I do (basic, primary, I don't know)?

TIA

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I am using a 64gb SSD for the OS and minimal programs. I also have a much larger storage drive where I will be keeping, music, media, etc. to access from Win7. What type of format should I do (basic, primary, I don't know)?

TIA

Those are "partitioning" features not "format" ones.

You want a a "basic" disk.

You want on the SSD to let Windows 7 install to choose for you (normally on an UNpartitioned before media it will create two primary partitions, one "protective", hidden 100 Mb in size, then a whole partition primary out of the rest of the 64gb).

You want on the larger storage to create a small pèrimary partition (that can be useful in the future, should in the future this disk become a boot disk), let's say 5 to 10 Gb.

Then create an Extended partition the rest of the size.

Then create inside the Extended partition as many Logical Volumes as you see fit, as an example:

  • Music
  • Video
  • Backup

etc.

The more logical volumes you make the easier will be to keep things "tidy" and it will also easen backup management.

All volumes (no matter if Primary partitions or logical volumes should be formatted as NTFS, unless you have particular needs to acces them with an older OS that does not support NTFS).

See also this:

http://ericleite.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/understanding-primary-logical-extended-partitions/

jaclaz

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Some people prefer many little partitions. I prefer few big partitions with the subjects organized in folders. That is more flexible in terms of space usage.

Same here. Lots of small partitions for me always is a sure way to run out of space on some of them, and that's a real pain to fix later on. It just seems to me as a way to restrict how much space something can use, based on horribly inacurrate "guesstimations" ahead of time. Using folders you'll never run into this problem.

I don't really see how small partitions really ease up backuping either (it's just as simple backing up a folder with most backup apps), nor keep things much tidier than using a decent tree structure to hold your stuff (perhaps it forces it on you in a way), nor do I recall an occurrence where a "small boot partition" (especially that small) would have came in handy either.

YMMV. Use whatever works for you.

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I would like to point out how 3 or 4, as in :

Music

Video

Backup

etc

are called here "a few" or "a handful" (and not as "many" or "lots").

As allways happens it is a matter of common sense and actually "intended use", besides "personal habits".

And it depends on what type of backup solution you use.

Defragging one "big" partition or "a few" smaller ones will take more or less the same time.

Running chkdsk will make a difference (assuming that you run frist chkdsk and only if there are problems you run chkdsk /f or chkdsk /r).

In case of filesystem corruption, only one filesystem will normally be corrupted (and not the whole "big" partition), and this may also help for recovery or restore chores.

But you are both right, everyone has his own ways. :thumbup

jaclaz

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Late night last night, the question could have been clearer.

The OS SSD I let Win7 do its thing on and installed a few crucial programs (firefox, word proc, etc). It is currently at ~33gb/64. The storage drive was the one I was formatting and I wound up formatting it as "basic" ntfs. Right now the storage drive only has one partition, I'll probably just use folders to organize it.

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Also unless he's planning to remove winsxs from win7, his win7 partition should be at least 25GB.

That says

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

But yeah, if you're going to install any software on there after the OS you'll need plenty more. Many common apps require several GB of disk space and games are even worse. Just the Adobe CS5.5 Master Collection takes 25GB of disk space on its own...

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