Partitioning SSD, is it useful?

DesiPower

Lifer
Nov 22, 2008
15,299
740
126
Getting a 250GB Samsung 840 !pro. Will be replacing 64GB M4 with it, M4 will go in another computer. Typically with a HDD I would have a 50GB or so partition and put OS in it and install everything else on the remainder or on another drive. Basically nothing goes on C except the OS.

Is it same for SSD? will be help, hurt or don't matter?
 

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
137
106
I doubt if there's ever been any anand-level testing done on a partitioned SSD, but from what we know about SSDs, there is no reason to believe that a multi-partitioned SSD could possibly perform better. As long as you keep 25% or more free space it will perform optimally.

The only way a two-partition SSD would perform better is if you have a virus scanner set to only scan/protect your C drive, or maybe something like microsoft's indexing service only indexing the C drive. (But of course you shouldnt be indexing an SSD anyway.) But that is clearly cheating.

One good reason to partition your SSD is actually one of the best reasons to partition ANY system drive: to keep your boot partition ghost/backup images small so they fit on a 16GB/32GB thumb drive. My boot drive is currently 36GB, but thanks to compression and the ignoring of pagefile+hiberfil, it fits nicely onto my 16GB flash drive.
 
Last edited:

DesiPower

Lifer
Nov 22, 2008
15,299
740
126
thanks for the insight, as long as it doesn't hurt I think It will go with a partition. As you mentioned backup will be more easier.
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
27,370
240
106
I have a partition on my SSD in order to facilitate syncing with other systems in my stable. It has no noticeable effect on performance, but it does make my housekeeping easier.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
It won't help performance but it wont hurt it either.
As sm625 it makes backups easier.
 

BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
4,762
0
76
A HDD can benefit performance wise from short stroking, but that is specific to the technology of a magnetic spinning disk which is why the OS partitions have benefit there. But there is no benefit on an SSD, there is no reason for a small partition to perform better.