Windows 10: Disk layout recommendation

Hello
I have 3 512GB NVMe drives and am trying to decide the best way to setup in a new build.
Should I create a 1TB D drive or put all 3 512TB drives into a RAID0 group for a single 1.5TB C drive?

My other PC has a 128GB SSD C drive and a 2TB D drive but I find it challenging to manage which data goes to which driver. Was thinking I could avoid that in this new build. Any issues with one big C drive to avoid the planning around putting data on a D drive?

Also if I go with a C and D drive my C drive will be 1 512TB NVMe which is likely overkill for a C drive used as system files only.

Appreciate your perspective on this.
Thanks

:)

 

Boot Problem after SSD Clone on windows 10

You are using a GPT disk but your partition layout contains only the BOOT and SYSTEM partitions.

The proper layout must look as:

DISKPART> list part
Partition ### Type Size Offset

------------- ---------------- ------- -------

Partition 1 Recovery 450 MB 1024 KB

Partition 2 System 100 MB 451 MB

Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 551 MB

Partition 4 Primary 144 GB 679 MB

Partition 5 Recovery 5168 MB 144 GB

Partition1: [Optional] Holds a WinRE.wim file

Partition2: EFI partition. Must contain BCD boot configuration database files.

Partition3: MSR partition. Contains some boot code (???)

Partition4: Files of operating system (.\Windows folder)

Partition5: [Optional] Holds install.wim file containing Setup files of Windows.

Disregard the offset and size of partitions after Partition3. First 3 partitions are recommended to have the size like listed above.

Please see here to find out how you could create a proper partition layout:

Understanding Disk Partitions

Sample: Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Hard Drive Partitions by Using Windows PE and DiskPart

I also recommend you look at this article that not only explains the guts of GPT/UEFI boot but also provides guidelines to create a proper disk layout for UEFI boot from a GPT disk using PowerShell:

Notes of UEFI, GPT, UEFI boot process, disk partitions, and Hyper-V differencing disks with a Generation 2 VM

 

Windows 10 - Accounting Programs

Try adjusting the scale and layout in Display settings to recommended.

Open Start > Settings > System > Display

Make sure recommended settings are selected for Scale and Layout and Screen resolution.

 

If it was me, I would use personally use one drive as 50% C drive and 50% D drives, next one as E and final one as F.

Spanning multiple drives as one drive makes life a lot more complicated in terms of backing up and restoring system images.

I prefer to keep all data separate from C drive to keep a system image backup lean and mean as well. There are a number of tools to backup data drives eg File History Backup, any number of third party tools, or even simple manual copying using File Explorer.

Raid 0 might be better in terms of performance but if one drive fails or gets corrupted, you lose all data on both drives. Raid 0 is really not worth it unless perhaps doing a lot of highly disk intensive activity.

Backing up Raid drives is really critical of course. Raid 1 effectively mirrors drives - great for redundancy but halves online storage, and performance is not any better than simply using each drive individually.

Of course, you should always have a backup of any chosen drive solution elsewhere (even Raid 1 cannot handle pc getting fried, flooded, stolen etc).

IMHO, for only (3x0.5TB drives), Raid solutions are rather over the top and the minuses outweigh the pluses.

Raid really come into their own on larger capacity drives eg 2x3+ TB drives are more natural for a Raid 1configuration, as filling a 3TB drive would take a fair bit of effort compared with filling a 0.5 TB drive.

Of course, others here may disagree and put counter arguments which is fine. Only you can judge which is the right solution for you.

Following is quite a good summary.

RAID level 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10 | Advantage, disadvantage, use

 

I can only add, from experience, that numerous partitions can be difficult to manage, more so than simply using drives with the only required partition on them. The C:/Boot/System drive by default will have more than a couple of partitions, most quite small and done by the install of Windows. As with all arrangements of drives and their partitions it still is important to use a backup scheme or simply copy to an External drive against the day a drive fails or gets too infected for use.

 

I agree with @cereberus. Keep it simple. If you want a data partition on Drive 0 in addition to the OS partition, then go for it. But I would leave all three drives separate from each other and use Drive 1 or Drive 2 to store a backup image of the OS partition on. I like to use folder junction links to actually store my data on my 1 TB HDD instead of the SSD. For example: mklink /j c:\users\John\Documents d:\John\Documents will create a junction that effectively "moves" my documents to my 1 TB HDD which is D: drive.

Code: C:\Users\John>dir Volume in drive C is Windows 10 Pro Volume Serial Number is 9FFF-EBE0 Directory of C:\Users\John 01/21/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> . 01/21/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> .. 01/21/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> .android 01/04/2018 08:15 PM <DIR> 3D Objects 01/04/2018 08:15 PM <DIR> Contacts 02/11/2018 12:33 AM <DIR> Desktop 12/04/2017 06:45 AM <JUNCTION> Documents [D:\John\Documents] 12/04/2017 06:44 AM <JUNCTION> Downloads [D:\John\Downloads] 01/28/2018 07:20 PM <DIR> Favorites 01/04/2018 08:15 PM <DIR> Links 12/04/2017 06:50 AM <JUNCTION> Music [D:\John\Music] 05/22/2017 04:53 PM <DIR> OneDrive 12/18/2017 08:19 PM <DIR> OpenVPN 12/04/2017 06:49 AM <JUNCTION> Pictures [D:\John\Pictures] 01/04/2018 08:15 PM <DIR> Saved Games 01/04/2018 08:15 PM <DIR> Searches 12/13/2017 08:18 PM <DIR> TempOpenVPN 12/04/2017 06:46 AM <JUNCTION> Videos [D:\John\Videos] 0 File(s) 0 bytes 18 Dir(s) 283,091,079,168 bytes free[/quote]

 

Yes if it were my system I would use 1 for C: OS and programs. Raid 0 the other two for data D:. As mentioned earlier its good to keep your OS drive Image small for faster backups and recovery. Quality back programs will have no issue backing up the RAID Volume, restore would not be a problem once you figure out which SSD Failed and Replace I use Macrium Reflect and have no issues backing up or restoring RAID Volumes
I have on of my business computers the one I use on the front counter and business accounting. I have my D: begin to fail it was WD Velocity Raptor 512GB. I just happen to have a 240 Intel 530 and Samsung 256 830 I put them in RAID 0 and restored the latest image I had of the failed Raptor. So I know it works

 

Are you sure your mother board supports (3) M.2 NVMe drives at the same time?

Jack

 

Yes, the Asrock Taichi Z370 (I think the OP's Z320 must be a typo) supports 3 NVMe drives simultaneously, but each one eats one or two built-in SATA ports. With all three NVMe's in place, the OP would lose 5 SATA ports, leaving 1 of the Intels and both ASMedia SATA ports still available, if it works like my Asrock Extreme7+, which supports a similar configuration.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

That's interesting that an m.2 PCIe NVME SSD would effect a SATA port at all. I could understand an M.2 PCIe SATA effecting SATA ports and controller??

 

AFAIK, it's a matter of available data lanes. Apparently, the m.2 NVMe devices map to data lanes that would otherwise go to SATA ports if they weren't in use. One reason why some people prefer to use PCIe-attached (x4 or x8) NVMe devices anyway.
--Ed--

 

Just to confirm - on Intel systems the PCH has a certain number of HSIO ports that can be configured for use by PCIe, LAN, SATA, or USB. This per-PCIe lane mapping is fixed based on the chipset SKU - so, for this example, if you're using PCIe lanes [17..20] for NVMe then you can't use SATA ports 4-5. I don't know how AMD systems handle this.

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I corrected my profile, it was a typo my Taichi is a z370.

It looks like I'll break the RAID and start over. 1 NVMe will be for the OS and the other 2 will be RAID0 for a D drive.
I have a backup solution that will backup my system to a remote PC.

Here are some notes on using the m.2 slots on the Taichi.

Any difference as to which slot I use for my OS drive vs the 2 I use for the D drive?
Thanks

 

Me either. Another hole in my education I need to fill. Thanks!
--Ed--

 

Thanks all for the feedback.
I have my C drive on 1 512GB NVMe drive and my D drive on 2x512GB NVMe drives in RAID0.
Setup junctions also. The junctions was an interesting use. With the "location" tab of the different folders I could have set the path to the D: drive but then the folders wouldn't exist under C:\users\. By using junction I kept the path to my C: driver but overrode with the junction to D. I like keeping the folders in C:\users\ as well as the source location on D:.

Anyway - I'm all set and thanks for everyone's feedback.