Choosing an installation drive

[SongSmith]

My computer has a small SSD boot drive, and then three other drives. I have literally terrabytes of space, BUT... When attempting to install Cakewalk by Bandlab, there is no option in the installer to install anywhere other than (what i suppose is) the C drive.  Anybody got a fix?

[reginaldStjohn]

Some people have recommended Windows Junctions.  Generally the program and support files need to be on the C drive with the rest of the Program Data but content can be installed or moved to other drives.

[JnTuneTech]

You can search and find many related posts here already, as this is often discussed. -One thing I will say personally, is that I have never found Cakewalk itself to have a significant impact on use of boot drive space. -If you already have issues looking at the space on that SSD, then it would be wise to replace that with a larger drive, -for all your computer needs going forwards. And that being said, once Cakewalk is installed and configured per your needs, most all of the functions that require large amounts of space will usually wind up being associated with your own data and other related programs (such as sample libraries for plugins, etc.) - not Cakewalk itself. There are many options available for dealing with that, and it's just up to you to set them as you install those things.

I have also found that if you do have size constraints already on your boot drive, without specific workarounds you will in fact have more problems going forwards with installing plugins and other resources beyond Cakewalk itself, and some of those may not provide much flexibility, so then you still have figure out a workaround, or just get a bigger boot drive.  -In any case, there are many options, do some searches on that topic here, and you will find much discussion already laid out!

[John Vere]

I just upgraded a Samsung 240 GB OS drive for a 500 GB that cost me $50.  Samsung has an app called the Magician that cloned the drive in 20 minutes.  
You are asking for trouble by installing software on other drives. 

[Byron Dickens]

3 hours ago, SongSmith said:

When attempting to install Cakewalk by Bandlab, there is no option in the installer to install anywhere other than (what i suppose is) the C drive. 

That's because C:\ is where your programs belong.

3 hours ago, SongSmith said:

Anybody got a fix?

Do it the way it is designed to be done.

[Promidi]

Define “small SSD boot drive”

[DeeringAmps]

250gigs

[Promidi]

15 minutes ago, DeeringAmps said:

250gigs

You might want to consider upgrading that to a 500gig. 

[Xoo]

59 minutes ago, DeeringAmps said:

250gigs

My boot drive  (Windows 10) is a 64GB partition of a 500GB NVMe drive and with Windows, Cakewalk (and 32 bit version of SONAR and Project5!!!), a bunch of plugins, VEGAS, Sound Forge and Office installed, there's still ~36GB free space.  So 250GB is plenty of space to install a bunch of applications and plugins (given that most plugins with large libraries allow installation elsewhere).

The largest disk space gobbler is probably the Windows update folder, which can be periodically cleaned when updates have been installed (C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download).

[rsinger]

20 hours ago, SongSmith said:

My computer has a small SSD boot drive, and then three other drives. I have literally terrabytes of space, BUT... When attempting to install Cakewalk by Bandlab, there is no option in the installer to install anywhere other than (what i suppose is) the C drive.  Anybody got a fix?

Even when I had a small drive I installed to C:\, but I moved the Cakewalk Projects folder to a different drive. Inside Edit - Preferences - Folder Locations set the path to match. Change the path to Audio Data to match as well. Most samplers I install to C:\, but install the sample libraries to a different drive.

[Bill Phillips]

On 7/13/2023 at 7:29 AM, Xoo said:

So 250GB is plenty of space to install a bunch of applications and plugins (given that most plugins with large libraries allow installation elsewhere).

I thought the same thing. Then I installed 1000 VSTs on a 2nd drive and learned that the VST3 versions of those plugins install in the Program Files folder on the System (C:/) drive. And, many of them, even the VST2 versions, store lots of data in the Users folder also on the System (C:/) drive.

And then there's the installers and other small programs installed by some VST Installers. I don't have much other than the DAW on my PC and I have 300-400 programs listed under Programs and Features on Control Panel.

I ended upgrading my System drive to 500 GB.

Edited July 15, 2023 by Bill Phillips
Added missing detail

[Starship Krupa]

I don't know what everyone else is doing, but I have a LOT of plug-ins (over 700) and the VST3's on my laptop's C drive take up 13G. Cakewalk itself is about 1G.

Most other DAW-related files may be moved to other drives.

As others have mentioned, if space is getting that tight, a larger C drive is in order. They're getting pretty cheap, not worth worrying about.