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To partition or not to partition?


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I have just received my new computer, which will be primarily dedicated to running P3D.

 

It came with Windows 8, and I have upgraded it to 8.1.  I loaded P3D, and have made a few flights ... so far, so good.

 

But I noticed upon checking usage of the 1 TB hard drive, that P3D loaded into the C: partition, where all the operating system resides.  It is now 66% occupied (100 GB out of 150 GB.)

 

Scanning the forum, I have seen several mention loading P3D into its own partition.  My "Data" partition (D:) is empty ... 760 GB of free space.

 

So my question, should I uninstall P3D and reinstall it into the empty partition?  If I don't, will the C: partition dynamically expand if I start reaching the upper limits of its capacity?  I'm a bit new to the whole partitioning concept ... I know what they are, but not how to best utilize them.

 

Thanks for you help!

 

Mark 

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I fully recommend having a dedicated partition only for the sim. That way should you want to install an ssd later you could without disturbing any other application including the OS. You can also lessen the cost of the upgrade by entertaining smaller ssd drives..... Although later on, depending on how much add ons you accumulate, I'm pretty sure there won't be an ssd big enough! Lol

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rparson99 -

 

     That makes sense to me. But let me ask the question with a slightly different perspective:

 

     Are there any negatives to installing it on its own partition?  Such as:

           

  • Will there be any performance penalty by having it on its own partition?
  • Are there any added complexities in file handling, other than just pointing to the folder(s) residing in the "data" partition? 

Thanks, again.

 

Mark

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Whatever partition you put it on is on the same drive and therefore will have the same speed as any other so yes absolutely, uninstall and create a partition just for P3d, and make it at least 1/3 to half of your terabyte ...

 

I'm serious ...

 

...think of all the GBs of scenery texture, not to mention a WHOLE WORLD OF MESH HI-reS STYLE, planes, clouds,goodies, and add ons... I am closing in on 300 gigs just for p3-D and the Afore- mentioned goodies.

 

... Yes, I'm an old fart with 30 years of collecting Fs play-prettys... But you're going to be surprised how quickly that space fills up.

 

..so shut up and listen

 

You will thank me...

 

C

My first sim flight simulator pD25zEJ.jpg

 

Take a ride to Stinking Creek! http://youtu.be/YP3fxFqkBXg Win10 Pro, GeForce GTX 1080TI/Rizen5 5600x  OCd,32 GB RAM,3x1920 x 1080, 60Hz , 27" Dell TouchScreen,TM HOTAS Warthog,TrackIR5,Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals HP reverbG2,Quest2

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Regarding the partition.... Yes., I can think of 1 negative... Which is the likelihood that there will be a performance penalty in reading data from the drive since it most likely will be on the inner side of the platter.... But how much really depends on the drive/speed.

 

Having an ssd drive will eliminate that issue once you are ready. Waiting 30 secs for the sim to load instead of 3 to 4 mins makes a worthwhile difference imho.

 

Aside from that, there is no other detriment I can think of.

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I stopped using seperate partitions completely years ago. I rather have seperate disks and if could have only one disk, I'd have only one partition. Various partitions on one disk hurts performance (of everything) and you always lose space some way or the other. So in your case I personally would completely reinstall the OS and while doing so remove all partitions and format that 1 GB disk as one volume. Or even better: do that but also add another HD to your PC for P3D! Regular HD's are very cheap nowadays. (Even better would be an SSD but those cost more. It would be the best solution though.)

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I stopped using seperate partitions completely years ago. I rather have seperate disks and if could have only one disk, I'd have only one partition. Various partitions on one disk hurts performance (of everything) and you always lose space some way or the other. So in your case I personally would completely reinstall the OS and while doing so remove all partitions and format that 1 GB disk as one volume. Or even better: do that but also add another HD to your PC for P3D! Regular HD's are very cheap nowadays. (Even better would be an SSD but those cost more. It would be the best solution though.)

If you have say a 1TB HHD with nothing on it and an SSD with the OS on it then it would be better to install P3DV2 on the empty HHD? This may sound like a stupid question but don't you need a OS to run P3D or can you run the flight sim  without an OS and just direct download add on products to the D drive HHD? I here so much about people installing a flight sim on a second drive.

Regards

 

Lamar Wright

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If you have say a 1TB HHD with nothing on it and an SSD with the OS on it then it would be better to install P3DV2 on the empty HHD? This may sound like a stupid question but don't you need a OS to run P3D or can you run the flight sim  without an OS and just direct download add on products to the D drive HHD? I here so much about people installing a flight sim on a second drive.

 

Er... :blink: Yes, you need an OS otherwise you can't even startup the computer...? In your example the OS would run from the SSD and the sim would run from the HD... The fact that the sim is on another disk doesn't mean it can do without the OS. Not sure if I follow what you are trying to say.

But btw if that SSD is big enough, I would put the OS and the sim on it. Imho SSD's are always better than regular HD's. I wouldn't install the OS and the sim together on a regular HD because that disk has a mechanical head which moves around the surface and it will have to switch from OS to sim and back again all the time. SSD work differently. I have one regular HD which I use for saving downloads and programs that don't really benefit from a fast drive like an SSD.

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...will the C: partition dynamically expand if I start reaching the upper limits of its capacity?  I'm a bit new to the whole partitioning concept ...

Mark, thus far no one has replied to this question. The answer is no, partitions are not dynamically adjustable. They are created as a fixed size. While there are programs* available that will allow for adjusting partition sizes, I'm not at all fond of them.

 

My chief objection to using partitions is that you will always have "wasted space." Also, if you choose too small a partition for your operating system, as you add more and more program applications to your computer, you may wind up with insufficient space to install that latest 'must have' program...

 

...assuming you always install to the default "program files" folders.

 

* NOTA BENE: one such program is "Partition Wizard"

 

http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

Fr. Bill    

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     Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator
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With rotating hard disks, partitions make the heads move more during the (thus shortened) life of the drive - don't partition. Install FSX where you like, but if you install default into program files, then the folder will need to have Write and Modify permissions added to the Users group for that folder.

Steve Waite: Engineer at codelegend.com

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250Gb SSD for os and P3d (no partition) all executables here.

 

Second 500GB SSD (no partition) for scenery ... Addons planes, textures... Airports .. Mesh..

 

Smaller SSDs are faster ... Bigger SSD slower but cheaper $/Mb

 

If you can, try to avoid traditional mechanical hard drives for sims.

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Er... :blink: Yes, you need an OS otherwise you can't even startup the computer...? In your example the OS would run from the SSD and the sim would run from the HD... The fact that the sim is on another disk doesn't mean it can do without the OS. Not sure if I follow what you are trying to say.

But btw if that SSD is big enough, I would put the OS and the sim on it. Imho SSD's are always better than regular HD's. I wouldn't install the OS and the sim together on a regular HD because that disk has a mechanical head which moves around the surface and it will have to switch from OS to sim and back again all the time. SSD work differently. I have one regular HD which I use for saving downloads and programs that don't really benefit from a fast drive like an SSD.

Thanks Jeroen, I have my OS and sim on the same drive.

Regards

 

Lamar Wright

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