Initializing an SSD.

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Eleanor Fudd

Eleanor Fudd

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I'm going to put Windows 10 on a 2TB SSD, and I read about initializing, which is foreign to me. A guy at the computer shop said that when the system asks if you want to initialize, you can ignore it. That's even more confusing. It sounds to me as if initializing is the same as, or similar to, partitioning. If someone can explain initializing to me, I'll have a go at it.
Thanks very much.
 

Looks like you are right ^ but I have never done that. Mind you the last SSD I fitted was about 3 months ago to a D top and just installed Windows 7 on it* Ac cording to that Crucial link that meant Initialization was done automatically anyway.
WRT "partitioning"? No longer an issue? Back in the 7,200rpm days it was best practice to split a drive up for OS and DAW only on one partition, saved work on another and yet a third for samples. Not sure that matters anymore?

*I then "got" Windows 10 installed on it. WHAT a bloody faff that was! Good though, PC is pretty slick.

Dave.
 
Often, from the factory, new drives are shipped without a Partition Map/Scheme/Table or partitions
so your computer will see the hardware and know what it is but there are no volumes or anything to display.
You can't use it in that state.

Most operating systems will pick up on this and ask you if you want to initialise the disc which, as far as I know, is simply choosing and writing a partition map and at least one partition of a chosen file system.

If you're planning to install fresh windows 10 on the drive you can handle this in the installer.
It should prompt you and give you the tools to create new partitions on your drive so that it has somewhere valid to install windows.

On a modern machine you'd want GUID / GPT partition map and NTFS file system.


Generally I recommend against having the OS on a large disc along with lots of data,
in favour of keeping the system drive relatively small and having a separate, internal or external, drive for storage.

That way I find it easier to manage backups of data, and a backup or clone of the OS,
and if something awful happens to your computer or drive, you can take the data drive to another computer and access it.

If that's not appealing a second best would be to partition your drive such that windows has, say, a 256 or 512 GB partition, and the rest is a separate storage partition.
At least with that setup if there's ever a need to reinstall the system from scratch, there's minimal risk of wiping your data in the process.

Only you know your needs and workflow, though, so take that with a pinch of salt. (y)
 
If you go to disk manager, you will see your disk. There you will create a drive. Either one drive or you can partition it into several drives. If you are going to use it for your OS, you will create a boot partition. If not just format it. You can name the volume. You are right, you must initialize/format it.

If you do see it in disk manager, you are good to go, if not you might have to go into the BIOS and make sure it is seeing it. Modern BIOS's usually pick it up automatically. But if it doesn't, look there to see if the BIOS sees it.
 
It has annoyed me more than once. Follow what DM60 says. Windows does allow you to get it sorted, just persevere.
First you have to create a partition, and then format it.
 
Remember that Windows doesnt' know if you are using a hard drive or an SSD. It still has to create its road map to the data. That's why you need to partition and format those partitions.
 
Remember that Windows doesnt' know if you are using a hard drive or an SSD. It still has to create its road map to the data. That's why you need to partition and format those partitions.
But why? I have been forking about with various wi fi dongles this last 3 weeks and whenever I plug in a fresh one Windows says "found new hardware, installing drivers". WTF can't it do similar for a drive?

Dave.
 
Its not a driver issue. The drive as it comes is a blank sheet of paper. You need to draw the lines on it so you know where to write the data. Since Mac, Windows and Linux can use different formats, it's easier to leave the drive clean. NTFS, FAT32, APFS and ext4 are all different.

You can buy drives that are preformatted for a particular system. The USB drives that I have came set up for Windows. You can reformat for Mac if you want.

For USB, you have a variety of devices, cameras, scanners, drives, mouse, Wifi, Bluetooth, CD/DVD and the driver identifies how that device talks to the computer. Then you have different internals, A Realtek WiFi dongle doesnt process the same as an Intel, Broadcom or TI chipset. Hence it needs a translator. IDE and SATA protocols were set up for hard drives, and the manufacturers adhere to those standards. That's why you used to need a driver to read IDE CD drives, they are different from hard drives.
 
On USB drives, it is more pointing to the correct drivers than installing them.
 
Yeah, wasn't drivers" that were the crux of my point more that I wonder why Windows doesn't see the drive then give you options as to how you want to use it? It does for other things. SOMETIMES! It says "Recommended" and/or gives dire warnings if you stray from the true path!

But then it is all mostly magic to me!


Dave.
 
Wow..... thanks for all the information. What about, say, a certain size for the OS, another partition of the DAW(s) [Ableton, Mixcraft, other,]
and the biggest for the data I create. Eh?
 
Keep the OS and programs on the same partition. Then you do an image back up of that partition. The OS keeps pointers to the programs, plus common files that are used by multiple programs so you need them all together. If the drive bombs out, you have a complete restore of all programs and OS.

I actually prefer to have two physically different drives. I have 500GB SSD and 2TB spinner. I can back up the data on a USB external, so no projects are lost. Occasionally, I can do an image or clone the system drive. It doesn't get that big, 250GB or so. I can put 3 images on a $60 USB 1TB external drive. You don't need speed to do a restore, so getting something fast isn't a priority.

If your data is important, having backups is imperative. There used to be an old saying... there are two types of hard drives: those that have crashed, and those that are going to crash. They have gotten more reliable, but things still happen, usually when you can least afford it.
 
I keep all my data on a separate plug in usb SSD drive.
OS and programs on the same internal drive, as TalismanRich says, and my active music files on a second internal drive.
That saves getting your OS drive clogged up with huge data files.
 
Wow..... thanks for all the information. What about, say, a certain size for the OS, another partition of the DAW(s) [Ableton, Mixcraft, other,]
and the biggest for the data I create. Eh?
Nah, install programs on the main drive just as normal. No change there.

I try to keep my OS drive small and light - Just OS and applications, really,
and always make sure I have a bootable clone of it.
There's plenty of free cloning software. Macrium Reflect, for example, and a spare 256gb (or even 512) drive isn't expensive.

That way if the hard drive physically fails it's a quick swap to be up and running again.

I keep a separate drive for data. That would be important documents, media, audio/video/programming 'sessions'..projects, whatever the suite calls them.
Then if the worst happens that drive can be plugged in to another computer.

It's not essential but it's what I've always done.
 
I was telling everyone how wonderful my nas drive was for ages. In the office studio and home studio, as soon as I'd done something, the computer copied the new files to the nas drive and the other studio computer would add those files, update others and next day I'd open cubase in the office and work on the song I started at home. All my other computer stuff was the same - all the adobe video and images were anywhere I wanted. In addition, my macbook updated some of them too. Great. Then I got a ransomware virus. Send $800 dollars to Russia (right!) and I'd get an unlock key. What I did not realise was that even as I was reading the message and seeing all my files replaced with skull and crossbones icons, my NAS was patiently replacing all the files on ALL the connected computers. Once I realised, I yanked the plug. I lost 30+ years of some really vital stuff. Thankfully, it targeted certain file types - so word docs, spreadsheets, mp3s, jpgs, pngs but many unique file types were ignored by the system. I was also able to recover quite a lot from computers that were switched off - that had mirrored files. So I coped, and while I lost so many, I didn't lose the lot. Now I have a proper backup system. I did not before, trusting the NAS to mean a machine or hard drive failing didn't matter. It did!

Now I choose what goes to the nas and what doesn't and have reduced the auto features. Worse, it's now a real mess in terms of what version of a file is anywhere.
 
This computer will be just a DAW, online only to download things for the DAW. That reminds me: how many milliseconds will I have at the end of the process before W10 tries to update something? My first project will be to make some modifications, such as updating, and no doubt other stuff. {The thing has "WiFi 6E, BT 5.3 (AX210) with Antenna," whatever all that means.]
 
If you set Windows "Update As Soon As They Are Available" to OFF, then it's shouldn't do anything until you run update. If you are worried about being interrupted during a project, simply go to advanced options and pause all updates for whatever period is appropriate. BTW, I have WIFI turned off, instead I ran a CAT5 cable directly to the router. It was shown that WiFi was one of the things things that had an effect on system latency.

WiFi 6E is just the latest implementation for wireless internet. BT5.3 is the latest BlueTooth . They are continually pushing the technology to increase speeds. Oh yeah, the antenna is there to hold your antenna topper!

1737324326554.webp
 
BTW, I have WIFI turned off, instead I ran a CAT5 cable directly to the router. Likewise on my Gigabyte desktop DAW. It has no Wi-Fi on mutherboard. I love the ability to pop-the-cable in 1 second. If something happens on computer which is suspicious and/or which I don't understand - YANK !

Questions: 1) I have a little-used WD Black 750 GB external drive, but I don't see that it is necessary in this case. No?

2] If you buy a new computer, can you re-initialize / re-partition the space which is there?
Thanks.
 
You don't need or want to reinitialize a new drive in a computer. It holds your Windows OS, and all the licensing that you need. If you have the proper tools and know what you're doing, it can be done, but do something wrong and you've got a computer with no operating system..... AKA dead!

If you get a new computer, just use the drive as it comes. That WD 750GB external is perfect for backups. You could use it for a data drive if you want, but it will be slower than one installed inside the computer. There are hundreds of videos on Youtube that will show you how to install a second drive in a desktop. Laptops can sometime have a second drive installed, but that's becoming more rare and more involved.

I have two Seagate 4TB Backup Plus Hub drives. One is full with backup data, the other about 30%. I probably have 5 smaller drives, 1 2 and 3TB drives. When they go on sale and cost you $50 to$100, it is worth not losing data to a crash. That's cheaper than when I take my daughter and son-in-law out for dinner!

Plus I have lots of movies and TV shows that I have moved to HD that I can plug into my TV and watch without pulling out the DVD.

Seagate.webp
 
BTW, I have WIFI turned off, instead I ran a CAT5 cable directly to the router. Likewise on my Gigabyte desktop DAW. It has no Wi-Fi on mutherboard. I love the ability to pop-the-cable in 1 second. If something happens on computer which is suspicious and/or which I don't understand - YANK !

Questions: 1) I have a little-used WD Black 750 GB external drive, but I don't see that it is necessary in this case. No?

2] If you buy a new computer, can you re-initialize / re-partition the space which is there?
Thanks.
Is the computer in question a laptop? Does it perchance have an optical drive? If so, you can buy a slide in caddy for under $10 that takes an SSD and gives you a second hard drive in the lappy.
I have done this for this Lenovo because the CD never worked reliably and I have others. These days peeps use DVD far less, most laptops now don't even have one. You can get an external USB DVD drive for peanuts if you really need one. I have put an image backup on the "CD" drive now designated "G".

Failing that, almost all lappys can take an SD card? A 256G is not a lot of money and can be used as a backup. When you are mobile say and want to keep the 'clutter lug' to a minimum.

Dave.
 
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