hello All
my new laptop is on the way , and i was wonder how many hard drive you guys using ?
I saw online that some Website recommended 3 Drives , 1-System Disk 2-Samples and Libraries &
3-Audio Recording ..
on my new laptop there is 2 ssd slots..
i was wonder if i will only working with the 2 ssd slots on my laptop it will affect performances ? i was thinking if for example That C drive will be the system disc and D will have the all Samples and Instrument Libraries plus the Projects that i working on , will that be ok ?
i will like to keep it all inside the laptop instead of getting external ssd for the 3 drive and then worry to take it with me if I'm travel with the laptop..
Another option is buying A large nvme for the Second Drive (D) and then just Partitioning it , for Example
C drive 1TB (system) D drive 2TB , After Partitioning - 300GB for Project / 1.7TB for sample libraries and kontakt libraries & omnisphere ...

will any of this Setup will work ? Or it is better to stick to the 3 drive rule ?

Thanks For any help/Advice

 

A good external HDD will work perfectly for samples and any of the other storage needs; so you can use a much larger capacity drive at a much lower cost. If you are a heavy Kontakt user, you probably want those libs on an SSD. Otherwise a good USB external hdd is more than sufficient.

I would probably not even give the OS partition a TB of the internal SSD. You want to keep that partition as small as possible, while still allowing yourself enough space.

 

My rule goes like this : Stuff as many SATA/NVME drives as your laptop will allow, and you can afford.......into your laptop.

 

Last edited: Jun 13, 2022

For a new pc with a good cpu, 2 x newest specd SSD's is enough to do the job and do it well, but I would also get a docking system that can use both SSD and HDD 7200rpm to use for mega sized samples and backing up important projects. The OS partition doesnt need too much unless you split online/offline and then also put your plugins on the latter - save 500GB minimum for the offline + core plugins. Those docking systems are cheap and work great, but for sure will be the bottleneck in some situations. If you dont use Kontakt and similar, you can certainly make do with the internal SSD's alone.

 

You really need at least one external drive as backup for your data.
Just imagine how difficult life would become if your laptop broke or was lost/stolen.
You can usually redownload/reinstall programs and sample sets but how would you redo all
your songs or presets you made?

 

NVME for system/plugins/programs
512GB is enough for that usage

SSD for everything else (samples, projects ...)

External USB hdd for backup : block backup for system disk NVME (paragon free backup), files backup for SSD (FreeFilesync)

NVME is only useful for intensive tasks
Of course, you can buy a big NVME and partition
But you have two slots ...
NVME and SSD are priced the same (because NAND is the price)

If you can use two NVME, do it
If not, one NVME system and one SSD for the rest

 

Thanks for the help guys
clone i do have 2 external hard drive that I'm using to store my all samples pack and the Kontakt Lib & all the heavy instrument , but like i said i really try to avoid having external hard drive connected all the time . as of now the laptop come with 1TB Nvme for the system drive , which i think is a bit big for the system drive , so i can probably partition the drive for other use ...
i already have another nvme 1TB drive from previous laptop that i will be using for the second drive , but not sure if 1TB will be enough

terrific! so if it was you with 2 NVME drive with 1TB on each Drive , how will you do it ? lets say I'm partition the 2 drive and now it become 4 for example , C system 500GB D sample Pack 500GB E Projects 200 GB F kontakt libraries & omnisphere 800GB - is that will be ok ?

Willum i think the most important backup is the projects , so i will use Dropbox for that

PifPafPif now i have 2 NVME 1TB each , was thinking to buy 2TB for the second drive , but if i will partition the first drive to a half , and use it for system amd for another thing , maybe for now i will not need to buy the 2TB drive .

Thanks

 

My setup is, I have a new PC which only partitioned the main 1TB SSD - OS drive as "Internet" (online) Win11 500GB / "Work" (offline) Win10 500GB (I put all VST's here). On the second drive, 1TB SSD I didnt partition because I dont use Kontakt or any other huge sample based library plugins. I just create separate folder structures for samples and projects and artwork and etc. I use my external docking bay (2 slots) for 1 x 2TB HDD 7200RPM + 1 x 1TB SSD - these were leftover from my last PC. I use these for trasnfering files between different computers and project backup and masters. I keep all work stuff 100% offline. I do not ever trust cloud based storage. This setup should last me at least a few years without ever worrying about space. But of course I am waiting for super fast pcie 5 to buy new SSD with larger capacity!

If you dont care about online/offline partition, I think your example will be fine, but 200GB for projects is VERY small if you work at larger bit sample rates as I do.. it will run out so quickly! I think at least 400-500GB for projects is better if you dont use external drives to compensate.

 

I look at things a different way with this subject. I would rather use a USB external to put any data which is subject to any changes to it, than using an SSD for this. I have read warnings about doing this, and it possibly leading to premature ssd failure. I am inclined to go by this as a general rule; wether true or not. I just put a time capsule backup on each external hdd first. each usb-c/thunderbolt3 4tb is about 150$. They are 130meg per second transfer speed and they keep up with Omnisphere, etc. I do not use Kontakt heavily enough to say; but Falcon is no problem.

A full restore from black screen to 100% working again is about 3 or 4 hours total. I never find myself in a situation where an external drive complicates taking my laptop anywhere. For me this stuff is about being cheap where you can, because some other things are less avoidable costs. Overbuying to specs the user will never need, is a really common way to overspend.