Best Practice for PC Storage Is 1 or 2 Separate Drives?

[Deactivated] on 20/01/2022 - 13:43
Last edited 20/01/2022 - 13:45

In the past I would set up my desktop PC to have 2 storage drives:

  1. 256GB NVMe M.2 SSD which contained Win10 and any installed software (C Drive).
  2. 1TB Sata M.2 SSD for all my data including documents, photos, videos etc (D Drive).

The idea being I could easily format and reinstall Windows on the C Drive if I got a virus or just wanted to do a clean reinstall of the OS (without having to backup my data files onto another drive). I could also physically remove the D Drive containing all my private data if I needed to take the PC in for repairs.

Is this still considered the best way to configure storage on a desktop PC?

Or can I get away with having just 1 x 2TB NVMe (M.2) SSD with 2 separate partitions for my C and D Drives? I would also have 2 x 3.5" 4TB Sata HDD's to store my videos, photos and other large files on.

I'm doing a new build and not sure what motherboard to get (X570 chipset or B550 chipset) but I'm leaning towards B550. I'm using a Mini-ITX case. I don't need much space on my C Drive, just Win10, MS Office, video editing software and a few other apps (I don't play games). What is the best way to set up storage on a new build desktop PC?

Computing Computer Component Hard Drive SSD

Comments

  • HairyChickens on 20/01/2022 - 13:52
    +3

    Would a virus be able to jump to D drive regardless of whether it's a partition or a physical drive?

    • [Deactivated] on 20/01/2022 - 13:57

      I'm not sure but I thought viruses mostly affect the operating system. In this case it would be confined to the C Drive and perhaps not affect the D Drive if they were physically different? I dunno but I keep all my documents including spreadsheets, PDFs etc on the D Drive (separate physical drive)

      • HairyChickens on 20/01/2022 - 14:25
        +1

        Make sure you backup your sh*t though haha

      • jv on 20/01/2022 - 15:47
        +1

        I'm not sure but I thought viruses mostly affect the operating system.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker

      • jv on 20/01/2022 - 15:48
        +6

        Having just a C & D drive is not going to help you much if you get ransomware…

        You'll need regular off line backups.

  • jaybraykay on 20/01/2022 - 13:59

    It's a really broad topic that changes based on the problem you are trying to solve.

    A Virus can jump drives, so relying on a secondary drive to be protected is a… bold move?
    It will work quite well for re-installs however. And i guess for private files - but honestly I'd be wiping anything before I take it to a computer store for repair.

    I guess the main question is why do you want separate drives? Is it to have a small amount of files on faster but more expensive storage, then more on larger but less expensive?
    If its for security - then it's probably not going to be as comprehensive a solution as you want it to be - and your better off having cloud backups or something for critical files (or a couple usb's you rotate if its too sensitive for cloud storage).

    • [Deactivated] on 20/01/2022 - 14:15

      Similar to what you wrote, the main reasons I prefer to have 2 separate physical drives is:
      - the OS can boot faster if it's on a smaller capacity drive (C Drive) .. probably not such an issue these days
      - easier to format and reinstall OS every 6 months
      - less expensive to have a larger second physical drive to store data
      - can physically remove D Drive if taking PC for repairs

      • jaybraykay on 20/01/2022 - 14:18

        Yep - sounds like you want two drives then! You would lose most benefits by having one physical drive with two partitions.

        It does have those benefits, (though I'd be surprised if the first ones true for SSD based drives - but thats just me being nit-picky), but obviously the drawback of additional administrative effort to setup, and requiring more ports and potentially more $$$. But if you've done it before and liked the setup then do it!

  • Krankite on 20/01/2022 - 14:26

    I would recommend a single drive plus cloud storage for backup/disaster recovery. Probably looking at the same price as a HDD as an annual subscription but it is the only option that truly protects against ransomware and disaster situations.

    • Presence on 20/01/2022 - 14:32
      +4

      An offsite USB hard drive or two is perfectly suitable, especially for things like photos and videos that are relatively static.

      • [Deactivated] on 20/01/2022 - 15:24
        +1

        That's what I do now.. my backup procedure is to use Teracopy to copy any changed/updated files from my main documents folder on the D Drive onto a USB stick and also a USB powered portable HDD used for secondary backup

  • freefall101 on 20/01/2022 - 14:41
    +1

    Windows has a "refresh" setting these days, it will reinstall windows but keep any files. Installing from scratch isn't really a thing anymore, my current drive have been through about 4 different PCs, doing refreshes and driver wipes and upgrades for a decade now (most annoying part is triggering the license renewal, but a quick call to Microsoft fixes that).

    For viruses you need a wipe and install, although generally common sense avoids that being too much of a problem to begin with. Enable Microsoft's various security, keep it up to date and don't open dodgy files emailed to you/go to dodgy websites and you're fine.

    One of the biggest malware problem these days is ransomware, the ones that encrypt all your files and want you to pay crypto for the key to unlock it all. This won't care what drive any of your files on, it'll do it to all of them. Often the best way is cloud backups if you're worried about a virus. If you have everything on the same drive and get a virus, your best bet is to do a fresh install on another drive, run an antivirus over the infected one and clean it up, then get off the files you want to keep. I'd do it that way regardless of partitions.

  • AndyC1 on 20/01/2022 - 14:42

    Best practice is to setup RAID 10 for online storage and weekly or monthly full backups and nightly incremental backups. The incremental backups should be kept for the last say 2 full backup cycles and the weekly backups should be kept for say 4 or 5 or 8 weeks.

    Best practice does not equal cheap or for the non technical and takes time to setup and create the backups.

    • Presence on 20/01/2022 - 15:06

      This makes sense for a business but complete overkill for the average home user.

  • scrimshaw on 20/01/2022 - 15:39
    +1

    Cloud backup nowadays is pretty cheap. A google one subscription only costs

    • $24.99/year for 100GB storage
    • $43.99/year for 200GB storage

    Install Google Opinion rewards on your phone and do surveys to get credits back.

    Install Google Drive on your PC and store all your most important items that you cannot afford to lose on it. Then won't have to worry about ransomware locking you out from your most needed files.

    • jv on 20/01/2022 - 15:51
      -1

      $43.99/year for 200GB storage

      or office 365 subscription gives you 6TB

      • AustriaBargain on 20/01/2022 - 18:40

        6x 1TB, to be exact.

        • jv on 20/01/2022 - 19:17
          -1

          6 x 1 = 6

          • AustriaBargain on 20/01/2022 - 19:22
            +1

            @jv: Right, but you don't get 6TB of storage, you only get 1TB max per sub account. You'd need to figure out how to have multiple OneDrives running at the same time, or a way to switch between accounts.

            • jv on 20/01/2022 - 19:22
              -1

              @AustriaBargain:

              but you don't get 6TB of storage

              yes you do…

              I have 6 TB available.

            • jv on 20/01/2022 - 19:23
              -1

              @AustriaBargain:

              You'd need to figure out how to have multiple OneDrives running at the same time

              You can share folders between accounts.

  • garetz on 20/01/2022 - 15:53
    +4

    The best storage practise is this:

    3-2-1 backup rule involves:

    3: Create one primary backup and two copies of your data.
    2: Save your backups to two different types of media.
    1: Keep at least one backup file offsite.

  • Diji1 on 20/01/2022 - 16:09
    +2

    (without having to backup my data files onto another drive)

    That's not a thing. You always have to back up your data.

    "Best practice": many people follow the 3-2-1 rule which is three backups, two stored locally and and one remotely.

    Probably the easiest way to do this is have two seperate drives, slower is cheaper, and use one for Windows 7 Backup (automatic backup of user folders + a full image) and one for File History (which backups up your data folders with versioning - you can go back to a previous version that you "deleted").

    Personally I prefer to use Clonezilla because I don't trust Windows given the backup is tied to the machine hardware. I use Windows 7 Backup as well because you cannot retrieve individual files from Clonezilla without having as much room as the image takes up available as storage - so using it "diversifies" backup methods while giving the ability to retrieve files and lose the same amount of space - but the Clonezilla part is not that easy to automate.

    Oh and don't forget to restore your backups before you need them. You don't want to find out that they didn't work after you need them.

    • Hybroid on 20/01/2022 - 17:41

      "Best practice": many people follow the 3-2-1 rule which is three backups, two stored locally and and one remotely.

      This. Read it again and do it. Everyone should.

      • StalkingIbis on 20/01/2022 - 18:09
        +1

        I can't believe how many people have their "priceless" memories stored on something so fragile with no backup plan.

  • AustriaBargain on 20/01/2022 - 18:40
    +1

    I'd get a much bigger C drive, Adobe or whatever software you use will likely want to use that drive as scratch disk. I got a fast 2TB nvme for c drive, and a moderately speedy 1TB drive for storage which I devote entirely to OneDrive. I figure the faster files sync to the cloud the better, and I want it fast enough to keep working on those files too.

  • pharkurnell on 20/01/2022 - 18:40

    Whats your budget - and how critical is the data you want to backup

    C and D Drive wont save you.

    YMMV.

  • tybreaker on 21/01/2022 - 06:52

    Don't know if it's best practice, or just convenient, but only my C drive is internal and my master data volume is an external USB drive, along with two additional external USB drives for backups. I just have a scheduled task to robocopy the master to both backups nightly. Oh, and all three volumes are encrypted.

    In the event of a crisis, I can grab all three drives and leave the useless computer behind.

  • jugsy on 21/01/2022 - 12:40

    It's a balancing act, get as much SSD as you can afford, then as much HD storage as you need.

    There is absolutely no guarantee that a non-OS drive will remain clean if the OS drive is infected.

    If your storage needs keep increasing, you'd like some more redundancy, and more than one device is accessing the storage, a NAS can be a good idea

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