I am about to have delivered a new computer. It will have 2 times 2Tb SSD’s. How would you partition the drives to accomodate Win 11 and MSFS and all the ancillary programmes and scenery.
Any advive will be much appreciated.
Bob
Hello!
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Hi,
Congrats to your new computer!
You’ve already answered your question.
Put Windows 11 and MSFS on drive C and the rest on drive D.
Use AddonLinker to connect your contents of the Community folder to MSFS.
You may have to google for AddonLinker and on how to use it.
Thanks for your answer. Would there be any advantage to have two partitions on C drive . One for Win 11 and the other for MSFS I intend to use Addon LInker and use D for scenery etc.
Disk 1
partition C 500GB - OS (windows 11) + apps: MSFS launcher (2GB), ms store app, xbox app etc.
partition D -1500GB - software / games
Disk 2
partition E - 1000GB - MSFS packages
partition F - 1000GB - MSFS addons: sceneries, airports, mods, airplanes etc.
This looks like a decent way to do it with that setup. Just wondering though, what is the advantage of having software/games on a separate partition of the same disk as the OS?
I can’t answer your question but would also be interested
in the answer.
Disk 1 - 1 TB - Samsung 990 - PCIe 4.0
Partition C: 400GB - Windows 11
Partition D: 530GB - FS2020
Disk 2 - 1 TB - Intel665p - PCIe 3.0
Partition G: 504GB - apps
Partition H: 302GB - misc
Partition I: 148GB - games
You can reinstall the OS without having to download games again.
For example you just reinstall the Steam client and then point it at the location where the games were previously installed.
I’d also recommend moving all the personal folders - Documents, Downloads, Pictures etc. onto a drive other than the OS one.
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…Bingo…
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It makes backup and restore processes more straightforward.
When you need to upgrade your OS or reinstall it, having your games on a separate partition means you don’t need to worry about backing up and restoring them separately.
This can save you time and effort during the reinstallation process.
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& TenPatrol Those points make perfect sense. Thank you for the advice.
Thanks for your replies. It seems a more tidy /logical way to arrange things with partitions. What I am not clear about is do they slow down or speed up the computer operations .
If you were using platter drives there could be a small hit as the head moved around during read/write operations.
SSD’s and NVMe drives don’t have any mechanical moving parts.
So to have patitions on SSD drives has no effect on speed of operation. They would just keep things tidy and be useful for back ups etc.
One more ?, is there any advantage having MSFS on a seperate partition from the operating system.
Accessing data on an SSD or NVMe is not a mechanical process, so having multiple partitions has no effect on read/write operations.
I would think that having MSFS on a separate partition might have an advantage on the rare occasion you have to delete it and start over. But I’m not too smart about how Microsoft spreads the sim files around. Maybe someone else can answer that.
I can say that I just bought a 1TB SSD and plan to move my Addons Linker folder containing all my 3rd Party mods over to it. I’m doing this because I’m running out of space on the NVMe where it currently resides, not for any performance reason. In fact, accessing that folder will be slower, since SSD’s are slower than NVMe drives. But I’ll never notice the difference unless I run an objective test. The difference will be subjectively unnoticable.
Thanks again for all your advice. I am leaning towards not bothering to partition attall. I will have two SSD’s both of 2 TB.
I am thinking I will put MSFS and all its addons using Add on Linker on the D drive.
The C drive will of course have Win 11 and all the other non Sim Apps.
Does that make sense?
It does. But I’d still create a separate partition just for Windows. I build computers for clients doing video editing, and I always do that, just to simplify things in case I have to reinstall the OS.
Yes, that sounds good. Just how big would you make the partition for windows 11
Here is my Windows 11 partition on the C: drive.
It has Windows 11 and all apps that give you the ability to specify an install location which are installed in the C:\My Apps folder.
I also keep a folder on my G: drive for “Downloaded Apps”.
If I do a clean install of Windows 11, I then do a clean download of the apps.
You can use Windows “Disk Management” to create and size partitions.
It refers to partitions as “Volumes”.
I also use “Minitool Partition Wizard” which you have to buy or use the free offer that has a limited capability.
Try Windows Disk Management.
But, be careful and have a backup ready.
You can do some real damage easily with these powerful apps.
Mine is 500 GB.
I have a few utilities loaded on C: but it’s mostly the OS, along with the files that Microsoft insists be on the C: drive.
Also, I let Windows manage my page file on the C: drive, so the actual partition size you want depends on how big that page file gets. I can’t tell you how big mine is, because my computer is sitting on a bench getting some upgrades.
I could have probably made my OS partition smaller (like 300GB) but you have a 2TB drive, so 500GB should leave you plenty of space for another usable partition. You certainly don’t want to run out of space on the C: drive. 