How do you configure your drive(s)?

I (and presumably most others) use the default (C:\ has it all) but alternative configurations are recommended so frequently, making me wonder whether they are implemented as frequently as they are recommended.

I voted for the third one as closest to mine. Don't use d: drive letter though.

C: Has OS and apps - 512 MB 960 Pro nvme 104MB partition
E: Has user data (docs, music, etc) and the destination for junctions for browser profiles, and other data like photoshop caches. 960 Pro 365MB partition
H: has the junction destination for browser caches. 960 Pro 10GB partition.
N: Has games. 1TB 980 nvme.
G: Has backups and some other data and apps (benchmarks, some games) - 2 1TB Samsung SSD in RAID0

I do this for twofold: backup and RAM Cache
I use primocache for disk block level caching with a separate cache for each of the above (they have different requirements). Cache are save acrross boots except for G:

I backup up C: with Macrium reflect. It takes less than 5 minutes for a full backup.
I backup the user data on E: with robocopy to external drives with powershell scripts. I have two 6TB drives permanent and several 2TB and several 1TB drives I can hot swap into a 5 bay external USB-C docking enclosure.

Gives me optimized memory speed response to apps (loads).
Fast system and data backups that are independent of each other (as they should be IMO).
Gives me fast near memory speed web cache, game cache and photoshop caches

C: 500GB SSD has Windows and these programs... (total: 37.5 GB)

utorrent
7-zip
AIDA64 Extreme
AnyBurn
Audacity
Autoruns
Bitdefender Internet Security
CCleaner
CPU-Z
EaseUS Partition Master
EMCO UnLockit
EVGA Precision X1
GPU-Z
Karen's Replicator and Karen's Directory Printer
Macrium Reflect
Microsoft Links 2003 (golf)
Minitool Partition Wizard
Mozilla Firefox
Paint Shop Pro 7.04
Revo Uninstaller
Sumatra PDF
VLC Media Player
Winaero Tweaker
XnView
Zelda Classic (the original Zelda)(actually on the F: drive)


Then I have a 4TB and an 8TB drive that are identical.
Copies of installed programs, Backups, Media (movies, songs, pics), and Series (TV series)
I don't use any MS folders like Music, video, pictures, documents.
That's about it.

Voted for option 3 as a long time habit in configuring drives

Splitted an SSD to C:\ for system and essential apps, and D:\Other Apps
E:\ HDD 2 TB for Masters & drivers and some multimedia files and libraries.
F:\ HDD 3 TB for Multimedia.
But still need bigger drives as both spinners are nearly full.

Kevin

C: Samsung 980 Pro 1 Tb (OS), F: Samsung 970 Pro 1 Tb (games), D: Samsung 860 Evo 1Tb (data), E: Samsung 860 Evo 4 Tb (games), G: Crucial MX500 1Tb (photos)

My PC has two SSDs 500 Gb each, one with M.2 interface and another one SATA. The first SSD is for my main Windows 8.1; the second, a bit more slower, is used for Windows 11 (I think to install Windows 11 on M.2 after release, if I will find a way to avoid detection of "incompatible" hardware). For any system, the system drive is non-partitioned C:\ while another drive is set offline in Disk Management to prevent any possible conflict (mostly the problem with System Restore). So, both systems work completely independently.

As a result, instead of "classic" boot manager, I use the boot selection provided by BIOS: by default, Windows 8.1 is started, otherwise I need to press F8 after initial BIOS screen and select another SSD to start Windows 11. Almost all additional apps/programs are installed on the system drives, quite a few yet on the drive with Windows 11 because it's a test environment.

Some large games are installed on external SSD which is configured as D:\ in both systems, so they can be run using the same shortcuts. Currently it's Samsung T5 SSD 500 Gb.

This is my setup on my latest Desktop



The C: System drive is currently a lot less populated that I would normally run with but as I only install some programs as I need them is to be expected.

The case currently holds an M2 1TB drive for System, A 500GB SSD for Fast access and the rest are partitions spread across two 8TB spinners, ( the z: Backups Drive just happened to be attached at the Time of the screen shot and the case hot Swap Caddy was not in use )

All my user folders are on the D: data drive using the built in methods, except the Media which are relocated to their own Partitions this partition also contains several folder trees containing resources, Fonts, Adobe Add-ons Etc, and system utilities ) the cloud store is just a location for Amazon Drive - Google Drive - Onedrive local storage
The other partitions are just for future use on projects, including one for a VHD of Win 11 when I have time to spend on it - there is also unallocated space available for expansion

The scratch partition is used for temporary files during projects and the Fast Storage is the SSD and contains the databases for my photo editing programs to speed up processing

The default (C:\ has it all) is closest to my set up. I do however like to have a D: Data partition where space permits, not for moving user folders to or installing on, rather to hold Macrium system image(s) of the otherwise completely standard Windows install. And yes, I do also keep images on an external drive, but having one on a local drive can be more convenient at times.

Has it all - I'm a firm believer in installing the complete OS on a single drive and managing the data itself as I see fit.

I have 5 SSD's in my system dedicated to managing and organizing my data - OS drive, Game drive, Music drive, Photo drive, and Backup drive for small backups. For overflow data I use a NAS and external drives as a repository for backups and archives.

I also tend keep my drives below 70 percent full for maximum performance - a practice I've been using for over 20 years.

That's me.

I keep the OS/Apps on the C: and the rest is spread out on 3 drives

On my desktop, I have a 2TB Western Digital SN850 NVMe drive.

C:\ is 500GB
D:\1.5TB (Games, Virtual Machines, OneDrive)

I separate my system like this as I use Macrium to take images of my C drive, but I don't really care for my images to also contain hundreds of GB's of Games and VM's. Those things can easily be recreated or downloaded again in the case of an emergency. And with my OneDrive being on my hard drive as well as in the cloud, I don't worry much about having backups of this data either as it's stored in 2 places.

Think I fit under other?

C: 240GB - OS and essential stuff that doesn't fill up the drive with Data
D: 2TB 7200 RPM - Documents, Downloads, Trainz Simulator content creating stuff such as Blender and a lot of Graphics related stuff, additional Windows apps any programs that take up a lot of space.
E: 2TB 7200 RPM - More Content creating stuff.
F: 4TB 7200 RPM - Video, Music, copies of all software installers going back a few years, MS Dos stuff, Old games, PC Manuals, E books - drive backed up to externals.
G: 500GB SSD Beta testing Simulator.
H: 1TB SSD Simulator.
I: DVD Writer could loose that and add another drive I guess as it's never very rarely used and it's on a add-on sata card.
J: 4TB USB3 with PSU backup drive, switched off when not in use shared on network for backing up the other 3 PCs
K: 4TB USB3 with PSU backup drive, switched off when not in use shared on Network for backing up the other 3 PCs

Note: My NAS died, so I took the cheapest way out by sharing the externals from this PC via my Lan. Works very well actually, use Macrium and FreeFileSync. NAS drives are in now in another PC.

Games other than the Trainz Simulator are on another PC which has another 6 Drives and have a Spare Backup USB3 SDD plus a spare 2TB USB3 3.5 in an external enclosure.

Any one can elaborate the pros and cons of

Haydon said:

Any one can elaborate the pros and cons of

leaving the music folder (for example) on the C:\ drive​

vs putting it on its own partition​

vs putting it on its own physical drive (obviously for Mozart afficionados)​

Click to expand...

Leaving anything on the C drive is at risk of being lost if you need to reinstall windows. Yes.. poop happens and you might need to do it. Best bet is to at least partition the drive into two sections and put the music on the new one, the non C drive or have a separate drive,. that would be the best option. That way you will not lose anything if you have to reinstall Windows.

There is an advantage of a sort in using Windows' built-in user folders - applications written for windows, and following microsoft's guidelines will default to saving in the relevant part of the folder tree.

That does not mean you have to risk the loss of the folder contents if you need to reinstall the OS - simply use the built in Location tab on these special folders to relocate them to the data drive

Haydon said:

Any one can elaborate the pros and cons of

leaving the music folder (for example) on the C:\ drive​

vs putting it on its own partition​

vs putting it on its own physical drive (obviously for Mozart afficionados)​

Click to expand...

Well, if your C drive is relatively small, since music itself can get pretty large...a con would be that a large amount of music could fill a C drive partition and cause your operating systems problems when you run out of space.

Putting music onto it's own partition (say D:) has a benefit that if you take regular images of your C drive you wouldn't necessarily have to backup a large amount of music over and over again. An example, lets say that you are getting ready to install a new piece of software or some windows updates. You can take something like Macrium and image your C drive first. If you install that software or update and start having a problem with your OS acting normal, you can just restore your C drive. Your music in this case is NOT impacted by the software or the patch...just the OS itself. So, having the music backed up here, wouldn't have provided you with any beneift...you just would have larger backup files that take longer.

The downside to breaking music into it's own partition is that you are now reducing the space available to the C drive. Since you have intentionally reduced the size of C, you are limiting your space for future updates, software, etc on the C drive.

A benefit to another physical drive is that you aren't reducing the size of your OS drive at all. It's still 100% of it's max size. You still have the above mentioned benefit of not having to backup your music if you want to image C and restore it.

The downside to another physical drive is cost of the drives, space in your case, heat generated, and power/port availability of the system.

@clam1952

Nice sig.

C:\ has OS and apps, and D:\ has the rest

Click to expand...

Whatever happens, I can simply nuke C or restore a system image.
All shortcuts and links point to D (documents, images), so no harm done.
I like to keep C as small as possible, to keep backups small, 15GB per image.

One drive for Win 10 OS, another for Win 11 OS, another drive for data and games separated by partitions.
This way, it is faster to re-image the drive OS without having to worry about personal files and games.

barman58 said:

There is an advantage of a sort in using Windows' built-in user folders - applications written for windows, and following microsoft's guidelines will default to saving in the relevant part of the folder tree.

Click to expand...

Yeah, some programs default files to those folders which is why I leave them in place. That even though for example the "Pictures" folder is kept with the OS, I place my photos on a dedicated drive. And since I run Adobe Lightroom, it's default catalog location is the Pictures folder so that's where it gets placed.

Instead of moving the default folders, I move the data itself to another drive - example my photography shots, but for programs that look for those folders during install they're still there. Games get their own drive since they take up ridiculous amounts of space.