Aditional smaller partition on same big HDD

[tugatosmk]

My PC currently has a 250GB Crucial SSD, a WD RED 6TB inside (both are very recent) and a 2,5-year-old Seagate 3TB (the infamous one, although it's been running fine so far).

The 6TB has tons of large files data (videos, mostly), with almost 2TB of free space.

The 3TB Seagate used to have large video files from downloads but after reorganizing my contents it will become the "download only" HDD; its reputation of being the most unreliable Seagate HDD ever made haunts me ever since its warranty expired a few months ago, and we all know the "obsolescence practice" by modern manufacturers: have the product fail right after warranty expiration by design... I'm currently assuming it's a ticking time-bomb.
But the Seagate also has the main personal folders: documents, music & images. The total file size is relatively small (under 100GB) but it contains dozens of thousands of files (mostly the tiny image files).

To sum up: what I wanted to do was to create a second small partition on the 6TB drive by reducing the existing single one in order to copy those personal folders.
I read somewhere that this way the seek times are actually reduces because the head platters move on the partition zone only, which is what I want went I'm saving or managing image files (with ACDSee Pro 5), working documents and so forth. But I don't know if it's true.

If it is true, is it a good idea? Is there any danger of losing data from the now shrunken old partition? I already tested on Win10 Disk Management for the minimum partition size on that drive, the result was 1,8TB. Creating a 500 GB still poses a threat to the other data?

[quigonkenny]

As long as the new partition you create doesn't approach the size of the free space on the drive, then creating a new partition is as painless and idiot-proof as any other major file management endeavor. Use something along the lines of Partition Magic (there are also any number of similar free software options on the internet; just do some research), and any data that is currently in the physical area the new partition will cover will be repositioned into the area the old partition retains as part of the process. Sure, any hard drive process runs the risk of data loss, should something like a catastrophic failure happen while you're doing it, but the same could be said of a defrag operation.

TL;DR: Just make sure you're not using shit software and pay attention to what it's telling you it's doing and what you're telling it to do, and you'll be fine. Just like with most things computer-related.

The tougher thing might be getting Windows to go along with moving your personal folders, but depending upon which folders those are, that might be even simpler. If you're talking the kind of internal folders that a user generally doesn't access, like those used for internal application data, then it could be tricky (or even infeasible, depending on how well or poorly your applications were written). But if you're moving your official user folders (ie: Downloads, Documents, Videos, etc.), then you don't even need to create a new partition. Just go into File Explorer, right click on the folder you want to move and select Properties, and then hit up the Location tab. Plug in the address of the new location and hit Move, and all your files, as well as Windows' setting for where that folder exists, will be transferred to the new location.

[tugatosmk]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

As long as the new partition you create doesn't approach the size of the free space on the drive, then creating a new partition is as painless and idiot-proof as any other major file management endeavor. Use something along the lines of Partition Magic (there are also any number of similar free software options on the internet; just do some research), and any data that is currently in the physical area the new partition will cover will be repositioned into the area the old partition retains as part of the process. Sure, any hard drive process runs the risk of data loss, should something like a catastrophic failure happen while you're doing it, but the same could be said of a defrag operation.

TL;DR: Just make sure you're not using shit software and pay attention to what it's telling you it's doing and what you're telling it to do, and you'll be fine. Just like with most things computer-related.

The tougher thing might be getting Windows to go along with moving your personal folders, but depending upon which folders those are, that might be even simpler. If you're talking the kind of internal folders that a user generally doesn't access, like those used for internal application data, then it could be tricky (or even infeasible, depending on how well or poorly your applications were written). But if you're moving your official user folders (ie: Downloads, Documents, Videos, etc.), then you don't even need to create a new partition. Just go into File Explorer, right click on the folder you want to move and select Properties, and then hit up the Location tab. Plug in the address of the new location and hit Move, and all your files, as well as Windows' setting for where that folder exists, will be transferred to the new location.

Thanks, I'll try that.