2 hard drive setup

[Tezza]

I'm thinking of moving to a smaller computer or laptop, both solutions mean I will have to move to a 2 hard drive system. I don't want to use external drives except for backup. There will be 2 internal drives and that's it.

Currently I have 3, one for OS/DAW, another for libraries and another for audio recording/projects.

I can't seem to find much info on 2 hard drive setups, they start talking about getting a 3rd drive or external drive. I'm aware that 3 is a sort of magic number and have been using that method for many years.

Which would be best:

SSD 1 : OS, DAW and samples

SSD 2: Audio recordings/projects

OR

SSD 1 : OS DAW and recordings/projects

SSD 2 : Samples/Libraries

or maybe something else.

I do use mainly midi and VSTI's and only use between 1 and 3 tracks for recording audio at any one time.

Just wondering what others may have done and whether they had any problems.

[Xoo]

I'd do your first mainly because backups/images become easier - I'm assuming that samples don't change as much as projects.

[Tezza]

Good point, maybe a 2 tb SSD to chuck the samples, OS, and DAW's on. I could partition it just for organizations sake, 512 for C drive, 1.5 tb for samples and then I would only need 512 or 1 tb for projects/audio recordings.

Disc 1:

Partition 1: C drive: OS and DAW's (512gb)
Partition 2: D drive: Samples/Libraries (1.5tb)

Disc 2:

E drive: Project files/Audio recordings and video files.

 

[Xoo]

I know some people will say you don't need to partition on an SSD but I still do it for cases like this - it makes OS imaging a breeze (my Macrium OS image comes in at 16GB - if I included the rest of the drive (which also contains all my VSTi data (ie. sample data etc), it'd be close to 1/2TB ?

[JoeGBradford]

Mike has just done a video on this that you may find useful
 

 

[Tezza]

Thanks for that Joe.

This is also consistent with how many 2 drive systems come as standard, a small drive on 1, bigger one on 2. I don't think I would worry about moving documents because my DAW doesn't have a lot, my internet/business laptop  does so they are all on there. I probably have a maximum of 80 tracks but most are 50 or so but I don't freeze tracks and most of the midi tracks are instrument tracks carrying a library accessing instrument. Which means when I am recording audio, (usually 1 track but up to 3) all the sample libraries for the instrument tracks are being accessed. So that second drive will be read a lot while I am recording to it.

I might be overthinking this as this might be well within a SSD drives capability. I would also partition that second drive between the libraries and projects just for organizational reasons.

Disc 1: OS/DAW/Plugins

Disc 2: Partition 1: DAW projects
Disc 2: Partition 2: Instrument Libraries

I will also have a look because I think that NI Komplete Ultimate puts it's instrument documentation in the Library folder, if so, then it might make sense to also put the other documents on the sample drive as well as in the diagram.

Edited May 7, 2021 by Tezza