I've Confused Myself Again - Software Install Question

When installing programs like Office 2016, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Premier Elements, I-Tunes, games....if given a chance the enter the path to install the applications on, should I be installing them on my D:/ drive (non OS drive)? Same question for utility programs, NOD32, Dragon Center, etc......I guess I'm wondering if the only thing on my c:/ drive (OS Drive) should be the Operating System and drivers?

I've read so much on this that I'm once again TOTALLY confused. Of course my C:/ drive is my SSD drive but it's much smaller than my D:/ drive so I'm thinking that I've loaded some stuff on c:/ that really should have been on D:/ drive.

I've had computers for years but never worried about "doing things right/doing things the smart way" but with my new MSI I'd like to have it set up in a more professional manner and actually know what the heck I'm doing and why.

As usual, any suggestions/recommendation/comments are most welcome.

Thanks.

 

In the most basic terms, your OS and software make up your 'system', and your system creates, manipulates, and stores your data. This storage doesn't necessarily have to be on the same partition as the 'system', but your OS and software intrinsically work hand-in-hand.

If you store your OS on your fast SSD, and then tell it to run a program from the slower HDD, you're going to lose the speed advantage. The SSD will allow your OS to load your software much faster than the HDD can, and in the case of programs with high read/write requirements, the software will also perform better.

Another big advantage comes in backing up your system. If you keep your OS+programs together, you can restore\refresh\re-install the whole system without bothering your data or worrying that some program links will be broken. Likewise, you can backup your data without the extra storage overhead of including your entire system.

If you partition your 512 GB SSD into a primary 200 GB partition for the system and a secondary 300 GB partition for your data, you can keep everything on the fast drive, and off-load the longer term storage function to your HDD.
In this way you will have a fast OS+Software+Data drive and a slower storage drive.

P.S. Partitioning is very easy these days, so the ratio (200/300 versus 450/50, etc) can be done on the fly directly in Win10 without needing to format or worry about moving your files, as long as there's space!

 

@slimmolG, thanks for the explanation. I'll continue to load my software applications to my C:/ drive. Right now I have used 104 GB and have 382 GB left on my SSD but I only have one game, Destiny 2 installed. At some point if I need a larger SSD for my C:/ drive then I'll just have to buy one. By then I'll probably be getting a new laptop anyway.....LOL.

 

Glad to help

And yes, SSD performance is addicting. This is my first computer with side-by-side SSDs and I've already become used to thinking, "it's only 10 GB, just copy it to the other drive"

Sometimes I wonder why I didn't get a couple 1TB M.2 SSDs right off the bat, then I remember... oh yeah... the price

 

Here's my take on Software installation directories. SSD will always load and run cooler then HDD hands down but for capacity HDD will beat SSD for price/GB. The follwing logic is from my learned experience and alot of Trial and Errors to come to where I am now at.

On SSD or HDD main drive.
1. O/S, Office 1026
2. Load critical programs to run from
3. Main drive should at min a 250GB for SSD but 500gb SSD would be a start
4. I don't install 3rd party software on 2nd drive not a good way to keep performance up especially if your SSD is just for Software install and running them from centrally.
5. I just leave software install on Main drive and any data like MS Office creates stored on the 2nd drive to protect it from data loss since the 2nd drive only runs when it writes data to or is accessed. Doing so your creating a Mini Network on your local computer.

2nd SSD or HDD
1. Create Folder to save data/file..why? Should the Main drive fail then all your data/file will be safe should you replace the main drive. This is what I learned from alot of failures and smashing my head against the wall for saying why didn't I back it up.
2. 2nd drive should be used mainly for backup data/files and or infomation you created as you can see my Main is the Running programs and the 2nd Drive is to backup those information from Data Loss.
3. Problem here is SSD doesn't have HDD capacity and also price prohibited as well. Until SSD prices matches HDD price/capacity it will be hard to be had. I have HDD from 3tb to 8tb and they are working just fine for storage/NAS needs.
4. So if you want storage a Segate 8tb consumer drive is the biggest and least expensive to be had and I have 3 7tb HDD and 12 2tb HDD for various storage but I am trying to save up for Seagate 8tb drives so I can reduce the amount of drives.
5. I also have a Full Tower case to hold all this HDD capacity so if you plan to keep data long time expect MidTower or Full Tower to keep all that data at the read to be accessed and archive.

 

Here's how I do it

I have partitioned my SSD this way

C: = 200 GB
D: = 3 TB

Now, I install Windows on the 200 GB partition. All program locations are left as default which is C:. Stuff like Adobe Suite, MS Office, other programs go there

I have moved my user libraries to D: (documents, music, pictures, videos)

I also have my Software folder on D:, that's where I place all my EXE setup installers and portable apps for future use

The only thing I change when installing is, when I install Steam or Origin or Uplay (these are game platforms), I change the location to D:\Program Files (x86)

I simply change the letter from C: to D: and leave the rest of the address as it is

that way, my games are all installed on D: since they are huge and also so that if I restore my laptop back to my initial factory image, I don't need to redownload the games

And no, I don't want my C: backed up with all my programs and whatnot because if I restore back my image to factory in the future, I want to start installing the programs from a clean slate with the latest versions.