New Install: What should I put on internal / external drives?

[albertpc@ameritech.net]

Greetings.

 

I am rebuilding my Cakewalk setup.  I once heard that it is more efficient to have the program on the computer and all of the extra sounds etc, on an external hard drive or something to that effect.  Can someone clarify that. Earlier I would have EVERYTHING on the computer itself, but I'd like to run more efficiently than that this time.  THANKS in ADVANCE.

[Nigel Mackay]

It depends on the HDD's performances, rather than internal/external. VSTs with large sample files will be much better off on an SSD, whether external or internal.
What is the data rate of your external drives? That depends on the interface.

[John Vere]

If you computer has a large capacity ssd drive then one drive is fine. But for desktop systems having you data on a second ssd or 7400 HD works great. Right now I’m stashing this album I’m working on an external ssd drive because I’m moving between 2 machines. Don’t really see a difference in performance with the internal drive. It’s on USB 3 ports 

 

as said large sample libraries are often stored to a 3 rd drive. For me some ended up on the C drive because there was no choice during installing. The rest I point to my data drive because it is 1TB   I use the 3rd drive as a backup drive plus external drives are back ups too 

Edited December 11, 2020 by John Vere