My knowledge about audio is deep. My computer tech knowledge is minimal. I am pretty sure the purpose of two drives is to run software on C drive while using the D drive to store/access files. How do I set up my preferences so my machine always does this? I thought this was a default setting, (custom build pc) but I might have thrown a wrench in the gears somewhere. (spanner to my British friends, see Monty Python: "bicycle repairman" lol)

 

I don't think this can be done automatically...

 

I think changing program files and documents folders locations will be enough.

To change default program files folder:
Start, run, type "regedit". and then HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion
On the right side you'll see values. Double click on ProgramFilesDir then change it as you wish. In your example, as D:/Program files. If we're talking about 64bit system, you should change also ProgramFilesDir(x86)
Then all your new installations will be there.

To change default my documents folder:
Go to your user folder, (for example C:\Users\algae) right click on "my documents" then properties. You'll see a location tab. or target. I can't be sure because my windows is not in English. But I'm sure you'll see it :} Then change the location as you wish.

 

hiya, what is your daw ?

 

Adobe Audition, most of the time. I use Reaper if I am going to be doing a lot of MIDI work, but I don't use MIDI much. I also use Adobe Premier for video editing.

 

I never have problems by keeping samples library's on a different 3rd drive, but drives are faster now than when I choice to do that because of access problems. If only solid state wasn't so expensive life would be that little bit sweeter still and I could have my pc music setup on my laptop.

 

I talked to tech support for this machine. There is no way to set up preferences the way I want. I just have to be sure to put them on or move them to the drive where I want them. They also suggest putting plug-ins on the same drive as the software. Thanks everybody.

 

Simplest and most logical method for me is:

- 1 small capacity drive (SSD) for OS and plug-ins (Presets and VSTs, main installations)
Optional: Clone drive of previous drive
- Back-up drive for Presets/Projects
- Drive for renders/multitracks/recordings
> Can combine above and keep a clone drive of both, that you can update whenever (maybe every few days or hours)
> Separate folder of free fx and VSTs
>> Back-up of presets and projects and free VSTs on the cloud for an extra layer (preferrably ecnrypted zip/rar, MEGA, spideroak, tresorit etc.)
- Drives for samples (Libraries, Wavs, w/e) [SSD recommended, but not mandatory]
- Even better, separate for Kontakt/program libraries (not one-shots and loops)

* You could do the tweaks spidervis mentioned (mostly for the documents, where a lot of stuff is held) but I don't think it will make that much of a difference. Better to point the installers manually.
* Have back-ups of the back-ups
* You could have a higher storage capacity main SSD (as I'm also not sure which/how many plug-ins are sensitive to having their samples in a specific location of the OS but generally, I think you should be OK even with smaller ones)

P.S. Name your drives and keep notes of what is where!

 

Thanks Gramofon. Good file labeling, organization, and knowing locations really gets to be important. You can't tell what an unlabeled audio file is unless you listen to it. That can get real tedious. I'm learning, but it's a steep curve. Two-1TB internal hard drives, plus I have an SP Armor 1TB external and a Seagate 300GB external. I put my system image and files back-up on the SP. I should have plenty of storage for audio. lol. Start working with a lot of video files though, and I doubt you can have too much. Adobe Suite also includes a bunch of cloud storage.