SSD life with encryption and VHDX containers

Question

My Question:

1. How does both encryption and Virtualization affect SSD life?
2. Does the whole file gets written every time I write to the
   partition? Or Does it only happen when I unmount?
3. Should I create it as dynamic?
4. or Should I just create it as regular partition?

The reason I want to create a dynamic VHDX container is because that way I'll have more effective storage since I won't use the whole 64 GB right away (and will upgrade SSD down the line).

Setup:
Windows 10 64bit pro + Bitlocker + Hyper-V and disk Management VHDX.

I'm buying a new laptop for gaming and work, 512 gb SSD, I'm looking to have three partitions:
128 GB for Windows Partitions
64 GB Encrypted partition for work data. (Bitlocker)
the rest would be regular data partition like game library and unimportant data.

I'm looking to separate work and personal so I thought about creating an Hyper-V VHDX 64 GB Partition for work that will be encrypted
So the setup would be
128 GB System
Rest for regular partition, Which include an 64 GB VHDX that is encrypted and used as both mount for Host OS + Mount for virtual machine.

I've looked up answers about this but couldn't find an updated match (also found contradicting info).

Thank you

Answer 1

Hi，

I found some discussion about the topic in the following link, and I would agree with the comment below:

"If the disk controller does not use compression, then it will not change anything. If the controller uses compression then encryption will probably reduce the lifespan of the disk (compared to an identical disk where encryption is not used).

https://qastack.cn/superuser/448965/does-full-disk-encryption-on-ssd-drive-reduce-its-lifetime

Please note: Information posted in the given link is hosted by a third party. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy and effectiveness of information.

Thanks for your time!
Best Regards,
Anne

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