Partition Wizard Question

tcat7 · 14 Jun 2010

I just bought a Samsung 1T HD502HJ. Should be receiving a Dell 8100 with a 250gb drive (W7) any day now. I would like to move my system to the Samsung, with a "C" partition of 100gb, and 2 data partitions "D" and "E", 400gb each.

Would it be better to partiton the 1T first, then move (clone) the C drive into the 100gb partition; or just copy the existing "C" to the 1T, then start making/resizing partitions after I get that one to boot?

Or should I just leave the 250gb as is, and use the 1T as back-up? The Samsung should be much faster than whatever comes in the Dell. The Samsung is rated up there close to SSD drives.

whs · 14 Jun 2010

True, the Samsung is about twice as fast as an average HDD but still about 50 times slower in access time than a good SSD (5.3ms versus 0.1ms). You should expect a slight performance improvement if you move the system on this drive. Before cloning the system, you have to create the partitions. But make sure you make a clone and not an image if you move your OS to a smaller partition (which must be active - unless you have a seperate small partition for the MBR)

Bare Foot Kid · 27 Jun 2010

Hello tcat7, welcome to Seven Forums!

Have a look at the tutorial at the link below.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

ignatzatsonic · 29 Jun 2010

You should have a backup strategy of some kind.

If you don't have any backup plan, then I would suggest that using the 1 TB as a backup destination is a better use for it than using it as a boot/system drive.

I assume the Dell 8100 is a new machine. Given that, it should have a modern high quality HD and I am not sure you would notice any performance benefit by using the 1 TB Samsung as a boot device. You'd have to know the details of the Dell drive to speculate on that.

Be aware that any clone/image you make of the Dell drive will include whatever lovely stuff Dell may have put on C at the factory.

Another idea:

Shrink the Dell 250 gig C to maybe 50 or 60 gigs. Make a new D partition with the new free space (roughly 200 gigs). Put all of your data on D. Install any new applications to C. Back up all of your data on D to the Samsung 1 TB. This assumes that all of your data can be contained in about 200 gigs--that may not be the case if you have a lot of video.

But it appears you don't require a lot of space for data or you would not have ordered the Dell with only a 250 gig drive.