Should I split my 256GB SSD into 2 partitions; One for VHDs?

smarteyeball · 10 Sep 2012

TanyaC said:

Not sure what you mean.

I was contemplating splitting the drive because I have now got several VMs, and they are on the SSD. I image the drive about once a month and I don't want to include the VHDs in the image, so I was going to move them to a separate partition.

Ahh, caught out skimming - didn't notice that pertinent part

In that case, splitting the partition is definitely the best way to go given your requirements.

Like pretty much everything else, VM's do benefit from SSD's. There is a noticeable difference when running a VM on a single spinner. Biggest noticeable impact is on load times basically. Starting/restoring is a lot quicker on SSD or RAID than a single spinner. Actual OS operation is fine though.

A good compromise could to be to set up a spinner RAID 0 to run your VM'S off and to also purchase and an external hdd to save all your backups to. USB 3.0 preferably if you have it. If not, there are add in USB 3.0 cards.

RAID 5 would also give you a speed benefit but requires extra hdd's - ie you'd need 4 drives for a 'two drive' RAID.

jimbo45 · 16 Sep 2012

Hi there
I'd suggest another alternative

Install a USB3 card (can easily be done on modern MOBO) and install the VM on a USB3 drive -- that way you don't get excessive READ / WRITE cycles on SSD for the VM and the speed of USB3 will certainly be more than adequate for most VM's.

An external USB3 drive might even have better performance than an internal e-sata drive anyway.

(Note use a dedicated USB3 drive - not one that can also operate in USB2 compatibility mode).

I really wouldn't put any VM's on the same SSD as the HOST OS (now if you had a second SSD --another issue !!!).

Cheers
jimbo

TanyaC · 16 Sep 2012

lol. A little too late.

I just finished rebuilding the system. I had the 256gb installed already, but I had the VMs on the single partition. The reason I split it was that I image the system with Macrium regularly, and you can't exclude individual files with the image.

Your solution would have achieved the same thing I guess.

I do have my old 120gb SSD around somewhere. It seems a waste though having a 256gb OS/Apps partition. I had 198GB free after everything was installed (without the VMs), and 107gb with all the VMs on the partition.