Relocating OS and Data to a New Boot-SSD

[phillpower2]

Couple of reasons but one of them is the fact that Windows just keeps on growing, Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 became Windows 10 without the need to clean install Windows and likewise Windows 10 will become Windows 11 on compatible machines again without the need to do a clean install, other important reasons are explained in my canned info below;
For Windows to be able to run efficiently and to be able to update you need to have between 20 and 25% of the partition or drive available on a HDD and an SSD between 10 and 15% as free storage space at all times, if you don`t you risk Windows becoming corrupt or not being able to update which puts you at risk of malware attack.

Data only storage devices should not be allowed to get any lower than 10% of free storage space of the full capacity of the drive/partition on the drive, this also to avoid data corruption.

[COLOR=rgb(226, 80, 65)]Please note that storage devices can physically fail if the amount of free storage space is allowed to drop below the required 10 or 20/25% minimum.[/COLOR]

[Pyro]

I see,

While I’m not ecstatic to lose so much drive space, it seems rather important.

Amending my statement in post #8, I won’t be able to update this post until next week as I decided to use a different drive.

[phillpower2]

You will not be losing the space, the space will be being used on a regular basis with Windows using it for file swapping and such + you are going to be utilising the space in the coming years with all the Windows and Windows Defender updates, you are basically doing things how they should be done.

Marked your thread as pending so that you don`t get asked for an update in a couple of days time.

[Pyro]

One more question,

Will said partition show up as another part of the drive? Such as the Boot partition being C and the rest of the drive showing up as D? As if there were two drives like this?
[ATTACH type=“full”]9220[/ATTACH]

Or will the boot partition be hidden or something?

[phillpower2]

Nothing will be hidden and your data partition can be given any letter other than C: or you can actually give it a name such as Data

[Pyro]

And I shouldn’t install anything other than the OS to my C: partition?

[phillpower2]

OS and system drivers, that’s it.

[Bruce]

personally, I’d also be using C:\ for any software I want to utilise the SSD speed, so things like Office,

[Pyro]

So, potentially silly question: Is my GPU drivers considered a system driver, or is that something that should go on the other half of the partition?

In this case it would be whatever drivers and GeForce Experience.

[Bruce]

yep, put that on the C:\ drive as well.

[Pyro]

The current topology is coming together quite nicely, it really is just plug and play for the most part.

Just have to transfer stuff over and then wipe my Old SSD.

Should I be concerned about the programs that don’t give me a custom installation option? Firefox installed straight to my OS drive, and whether that was my fault for missing a “custom installation” button or just bad design, I haven’t been able to uninstall and change it.

Here’s what it looks like for me:

OS C:
Data D:
Old SSD E:
Storage F:

[Bruce]

most, but not all, software offer the chance to change the destination of the installation folder, so don’t sweat it.

I put all ‘system’ stuff on my SSD cause I want the speed advantage.
anything else goes onto my HDD.

I even go into Windows settings and relocate the user and system Temp folders to my HDD, along with the pagefile, and my Docs, Pics, Downloads, Desktop, Vids, and Music folders. I also create a symbolic link for the Apple Backup folder to make it physically point away from the default primary drive location.

my C:\ is a 240GB SSD and I’ve only used 41GB.

[Pyro]

I’m seeing less and less options here, going 0 for 2 on the data partition installation (haha).

I might just make it all one partition, not really worth all this trouble for me.

[Bruce]

agreed.
that is after all what PC stands for - Personal Computer!

just make sure you have backup process in place to reflect how things are setup and how you want things backed up.

[Pyro]

Everyone’s is just a little different!

Once I figure out why Macrium wont browse this backup image, we’ll be in business.