Update/correction: It turned out to be a portable HDD, NOT SSD
(I adjusted the questions below, and also asked some more in Post 28)
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So I just bought a new external HDD to store game installers and such(and maybe install a few games onto).....first some info:

WD Passport Ultra, 2TB, USB3 connection....being used with Win10

I have yet so set it up.....before I do so, I have a few questions:

1. What file system(fat, ntfs, etc) options are there(that work with Win10) for such drives, and which would be best in terms of getting the most space from the drive or being best for other reasons?

2. Should I partition it into several partitions, or just make one partition?

3. Any options I should switch on or off on such drives to make sure the drive runs fast/well and lasts longer?

4. Is there anything else that you think I should know?

(Any help on this would be appreciated......also the best answer will be marked as solution, and any other good answers will be listed in this OP post in case people need them)

1.) NTFS
2.) Make just one
3.) no not any
4.) YES but not really / Keeps computer cleaner though
5.) You are better off getting a large internal Hdd in your LT.

Thanks for the reply.

As for internal: someday I might get a bigger internal HDD, but for now I just needed this mainly for storage of game installers and such which are taking up vast amounts of space.

3. Debatable. Windows is known to not handle SSD's with care so unlike in Linux I turn off anything disk maintenance related:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-fixes-windows-10-bug-causing-excessive-ssd-defragging/

4. Go to disk management and set your new harddrive to use either A: or B, so that you won't get any pathing errors when switching drivers (including pens) since Windows auto-switches these (after C:).

I often use external ones on both A: and B: on two computers so the games are in a sense "portable" in that way.

File system: if you plan to share the contents of the drive among PC with 64 and 32 bit OS' then you should go for FAT32 if not then go for NTFS.

Partitions: depends on how you wanto to keep your stuff organized: I would go with 1 or 2 partitions at max and keep the content divided in folders. If you plan to run your games from there then you may go for 2 partitions: one for the archived games and one for your games to play.
I honestly have always found annoying opening a drive and then be presented with another choice to make, the partitions and then the subdirectories.

I don't have specific advice on the best use practices, until you don't rewrite the disc heavily daily it should last you years and years. I always eject external drives before unplugging them to avoid possible data corruption/loss.

You can run games from the drive and is up to you: if ytou are going to play a heavy game with long loading/realoading times then I would use the fastest drive in my config, but the games that are not that heavy I would leave them on a hard disc.

SSDs are not much different than HDs so you use the same care for it to avoid eventual damages, data corruption, bit rot.

Thanks for the tips...especially the drive letter tip...much appreciated.

Btw some more questions if you can help: Would offloading movies and tv shows to it be ok re: disk wear and tear? I mean if I copy them all there once and then just "read"(view) them off of it?

Also does changing things like folder names and file names cause any/much "writing wear and tear" or similar on such drives or no?

============ Which would be faster then? An internal 5400 RPM HDD or an external USB3 SSD? Any idea on this?

Also thanks for the tips and advice as well.
(Also also if you have a moment and answers to or input re what I just asked sanscript in this same post i'd appreciate your input on such if you can answer such)

Anything is "wear and tears" so it really doesn't matter what you do so it's best to not worry at all. :D

No, changing names is not actually touching the data itself. It's like changing a shortcut won't change the actual exe file. Last one.

True enough...that said, I was just curious if reading data(watching movies and shows) on an ssd would put wear and tear like writes do with ssds.Good to know

Well, I would never recommend using an external drive for installed applications. I know speeds have increased for them, but your best performance is going to be an internal drive. Also, I find usb connections are not always great.
I use an external pen drive for portable apps and that works ok, but everything else is internal drives.

“ As for internal: someday I might get a bigger internal HDD, but for now I just needed this mainly for storage of game installers and such which are taking up vast amounts of space.”. Several things. For backup ssd is not a good idea, price per tb is huge, and I am given to understand hdds last much longer. Also, if it’s backup you need more than one, preferably 3 with one being offsite. Hence cost is much more.

Have a look here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/offline_backup_general_thread
I made a post about it some time back and whilst that is mostly nas, das (direct attached storage) is what you want. Plus you will a tool like freefilesync to automate backups and only change new things otherwise you have a huge copy each time.

How much did you pay for it?

I'd prefer an USB HDD myself as they are much cheaper, and much of the SSD speed goes to waste through an USB3.0 port I think, but whatever... At least it isn't as prone to physical shocks when in use I guess, but then my USB HDDs have lasted several years of heavy use anyway. NTFS. I see no reason to choose some other filesystem if you are going to use it in Windows (and NTFS formatted drives can be also used in e.g. Linux machines too).

Another thing you should consider at that point, will you make it MBR or GPT? I'd go with GPT unless you need to use it also on some old Windows XP machines or such, which you probably don't. (Or is SSD GPT-only, and this question is relevant only for HDDs? I am not sure...)

If the drive was over 2TB in size, then you wouldn't have an option anyway but to go with GPT, as MBR limit is 2TB.

EDIT: I guess this is relevant: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mbr-vs-gpt/ One partition. I see no benefit in dividing it into several, that would just cause negatives like you may run out of space on one partition while you'd still have room on another partition, file moving operations will be much slower between different partitions compared to within one partition, and generally just having several partitions is more messy. Not sure what there is, but try to switch off any "file indexing" etc. services for that drive so that you don't end up in being unable to disconnect the drive as Windows always reports it as "busy", even though you are not doing anything with it anymore nor have any open files. It is just the stupid Windows itself or some utility (virus scanner?) keeping it busy for no good reason.

Oh and check the properties that the drive is more geared towards fast removal, rather than cacheing everything. The latter may give better performance for some cases I guess, but then what I explained above might be more common, as well as file system corruption in case there is a system crash or power blackout or whatever. I wouldn't do it as I am unsure how different game installations react to installed files not being always accessible.
It is still a good place to keep game installers, video files etc. Probably.

Use NTFS. FAT is meant only for very small memory cards and has file / parition size limitations. It also isn't a journaling file system and has less redundancy. Just use one for backup drives. Multiple partitions are mostly used for system drives, eg, dual-booting or separating OS vs data. Yes. Power them up at least once per month. Flash cells can and do "leak" charge electrically faster than mechanical HDD's degrade magnetically, and unpowered data retention is an issue for backup SSD drives. Eg, if you did a backup to 1x HDD and 1x SSD and threw both of them in the back of a cupboard for 18 months continuously unpowered, the HDD would read fine but the SSD may well degrade enough to be corrupt. I've seen an 18-24 month old SSD come out completely blank (not even a file system / partition information) due to severe cell leakage whilst 15 year old HDD's are still fine. This doesn't mean SSD's are unsuitable for backup drives, but you do need to power them up periodically to allow the SSD controller to perform normal duties like cell voltage monitoring and correction / silent background refresh. You can't treat them as "cold storage" like optical backups. Depends on the game. A USB 3.0 SSD should be fast enough (slower than internal but fast enough for smaller games) and many games are "portable" but if you've moving the drive between computers, you may have issues with missing registry entries, etc. Config / save game files also need to backed up separately as they're usually stored under C:\Users\Username, or "My Documents", etc. I'd recommend something like GameSave Manager to handle that stuff. Not really. Just be aware of 3 above where SSD's aren't designed to be continuously unpowered for very long periods of time the same way magnetic / optical store can.

The only thing I'd add to the first post is that you don't need to defrag it very often if at all. Certainly don't allow a routine defrag to be scheduled. If you need to be sure, type defrag into the run bar and see what it says.

Yeah, I am unsure if Windows 10 really tries to automatically defrag SSDs as it (apparently?) does for HDDs.

My understanding is that "defragging" doesn't bring any advantage on SSDs. It is useful only in spinning HDDs where the mechanical head has to search for data all over the plate(s).

It just shows 0% fragmented if I look at the ssd in windows. Never seen it do a defrag on it, probably as you say, it’s all instantly available regardless of position so why bother moving it.