Dedicated OS partition on SSD?

[TomSEA]

I bought a new 240GB Kingston SSD. Going to migrate my OS (Win 7 Pro) to it, but should I partition it first? I've Googled several opinions on this, and no one has been able to provide a consistent answer. 50% of the people say don't do it - doesn't make any difference on an SSD and the other 50% say go for it, keep your OS files separate from data files.

Any SSD experts out there or someone with experience have an opinion to offer?

 

[Mavrickx888]

I can't speak much on SSD's and their performance in relation to partitions, but I will say that having your OS on a separate partition from the rest of your data is pretty handy universally. I just ran into an issue where I had to reformat an HDD due to user error. Luckily I had my OS partition separate from the rest of my data. All I had to do was format that one partition, reinstall Windows 7, and be on my way like nothing ever happened. My data was still there safe and sound on 2 other partitions.

 

[cliffordcooley]

50% of the people say don't do it - doesn't make any difference on an SSD and the other 50% say go for it, keep your OS files separate from data files.

My question would be why they are saying not to partition the SSD.

I'm only using 30GB for my OS, so I would definitely want a partition regardless of what others say. I would probably move user settings and game installs to the second partition.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Unless I'm missing something, I don't think there's any SSD-specific reason why you should or shouldn't give the OS its own partition. From my perspective, the whole point behind having a dedicated Windows partition is to mitigate risk and to save yourself a little time. In the event of having to reinstall your OS, your applications will be "safe" on a secondary partition.

The main argument against this is that you'll have to reinstall programs anyway because your registry will be wiped with the OS. This isn't entirely true. Someone can correct me here, but I believe some programs can rebuild their registry entries upon launching. Additionally, many installers have a repair option that'll get you back in shape without losing all your settings.

Now, that doesn't mean you won't have to reinstall anything, and it doesn't really make a strong argument for having a dedicated OS partition in my opinion. How many programs would you really have to install if the **** hit the fan? If it's that much of a concern, you're probably better off making regular backup images on a separate drive for more protection and easier recovery.