Free space or unallocated space on a SSD?

[eera5607]

Hello everyone! I've been reading about the importance of leaving some space for wear leveling and improve the lifespan of a SSD. But I didn't understand to what they do refer with "free space". 

Do I have to create a big partition with many free space or do I have to have a smaller partition and leave unallocated space? Which one is helpful, the free space or the unallocated space? 

Thanks!

[Enderman]

Are you installing windows on it?

You shouldn't be creating any partitions before installing windows, it creates it's own.

And by "free space" it means that on the main partition where you store all your stuff, you should not fill it more than 90%.

Go to "this PC" to see how full it is:

[Guest]

If you CAN use 100 gb on a partition, it's adviced to keep an X amount unused to increase the SSD's lifespan. I've heard of different numbers, but leaving 30% free seems to be very good for your SSD's health AND speed.

 

So with a 100 gb drive/partition, only use up to 70 gb in this example.

[eera5607]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

Are you installing windows on it?

You shouldn't be creating any partitions before installing windows, it creates it's own.

And by "free space" it means that on the main partition where you store all your stuff, you should not fill it more than 90%.

Go to "this PC" to see how full it is:

Sorry. Forgot to mention that I'm installing Linux Ubuntu 16.04 as the only OS on my PC. A was creating the partitions and didn't know if it was better to leave free space or unallocated space. 

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, eera5607 said:

Sorry. Forgot to mention that I'm installing Linux Ubuntu 16.04 as the only OS on my PC. A was creating the partitions and didn't know if it was better to leave free space or unallocated space. 

Free space.

As in, space where you could put files in, but you won't.

[eera5607]

2 minutes ago, Dutch-stoner said:

If you CAN use 100 gb on a partition, it's adviced to keep an X amount unused to increase the SSD's lifespan. I've heard of different numbers, but leaving 30% free seems to be very good for your SSD's health AND speed.

 

So with a 100 gb drive/partition, only use up to 70 gb in this example.

Ok so if I will only install Ubuntu on the SSD (500 GB) it is better to create a big partition and install Ubuntu in it leaving lots of free space and not unallocated space? (All my data is going to the HDD)

[eera5607]

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Free space.

As in, space where you could put files in, but you won't.

Understood. Thank you!

[Guest]

Yes, that would be the best use of your SSD, if it were windows. I have no Ubuntu/linux experiance, but I would asume it's about the same. Biggest partition you can get, and don't fill that above 90% where ~70% is the sweetspot for long life and "max speed".

[paddy-stone]

That's a BIG waste of an SSD if you're only going to use ubuntu on it and store files etc in HDDs, ubuntu would use only around ~8 GB or so, depending on progs obviously, but that would leave a hell of a lot of free space. You'd be better advised to either get a smaller SSD like 60GB and use the 500GB SSD for a storage drive in addition to HDDs, or just sell it. Hell I have a 240GB SSD that I have for windows/ubuntu/mint etc etc, and still have loads of space free, and that includes progs, other data is kept on my NAS to keep storage to a minimum on PCs/laptops and in case of failure.

[eera5607]

3 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

That's a BIG waste of an SSD if you're only going to use ubuntu on it and store files etc in HDDs, ubuntu would use only around ~8 GB or so, depending on progs obviously, but that would leave a hell of a lot of free space. You'd be better advised to either get a smaller SSD like 60GB and use the 500GB SSD for a storage drive in addition to HDDs, or just sell it. Hell I have a 240GB SSD that I have for windows/ubuntu/mint etc etc, and still have loads of space free, and that includes progs, other data is kept on my NAS to keep storage to a minimum on PCs/laptops and in case of failure.

haha yes, maybe you are right but at least I have enough space for future needs. At the moment I'll only use it with Ubuntu. Remember that config files include mails from Thunderbird (6 GB) + Spotify cache (~10-15 GB) + maybe a pair of Steam games (~12 GB). Music, Videos, Documents and other projects will be on the HDD and will have space on the SSD for maybe other distributions in case that I need them. 

[paddy-stone]

11 hours ago, eera5607 said:

haha yes, maybe you are right but at least I have enough space for future needs. At the moment I'll only use it with Ubuntu. Remember that config files include mails from Thunderbird (6 GB) + Spotify cache (~10-15 GB) + maybe a pair of Steam games (~12 GB). Music, Videos, Documents and other projects will be on the HDD and will have space on the SSD for maybe other distributions in case that I need them. 

Yeah, I guess, at least you'll have lots of space if you decide to have a windows OS too, or if you run them in VMs.