Question Is it necessary to have two drives in your computer?

[pancakeloverz]

I am building a gaming PC soon and I am wondering whether I need a boot drive and a second drive. I was thinking about just buying one large ssd that would have windows on it and all the other stuff. Alternatively i would buy a smaller ssd for boot and then a second ssd for all my stuff n games. (I dont like hard drives) What would you recommend?

 

[USAFRet]

Necessary? No.

Some people like more than one drive, other people swear by a single large drive for everything.

Personally, I prefer multiple drives.
1 for the OS and applications, other drives for other things.

 

[Grobe]

It all depend what you're using the computer for and how much storage space you will need.

Many people today use one ssd for Windows and apps, and then a regular harddrive for files as it usually provides more storage space.

 

[DMAN999]

It is entirely up to you.
A single SSD will work fine.
I personally like an SSD for the OS and applications and a HDD for storing videos, pictures and backups.
In my current PC I have 2 500 GB SSD's, 1 1TB SSD, 3 internal HDD's and 1 external HDD. I bought them one at a time over the last few years when I had extra cash.
I keep a back up of important files on 1 internal HDD and on the external HDD.
With all these drives if one or even two failed it would not cause me any stress at all.

 

[captaincharisma]

most people are using the SSD + HDD combo mainly because SSD drives get pricier (or used to be) depending on the storage you are looking for . plus some are looking for HDD up to 4TB+ which do not exist for SSD drives right now in the consumer segment

depending on your budget the minimum SSD you should get for windows is 250GB

 

[pancakeloverz]

Thanks for the replies.
So basically I could buy a 250 gb ssd (mby nvme) for the OS and have another ssd for stuff?

 

[Colif]

I like 2 drives as windows isn't perfect and can need to be reinstalled occasionally, and having 2 drives means I can have everything safe on 1 drive and blow windowe away and only lose time.

boot drive just has windows and any applications I need to reinstall with it
other drive has documents, music, pictures, movies, steam games, etc. Everything i don't want to have to download again. It means downtime after a clean install is minimal.

So basically I could buy a 250 gb ssd (mby nvme) for the OS and have another ssd for stuff?

Yes, that works fine.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the replies.
So basically I could buy a 250 gb ssd (mby nvme) for the OS and have another ssd for stuff?

Yes. Don't go smaller than 250GB for the OS drive.

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks for the replies.
So basically I could buy a 250 gb ssd (mby nvme) for the OS and have another ssd for stuff?

Oh yeah nearly all of my machines have multiple drives. There' s no such thing as having too much storage. But if you do buy an M2 drive keep in mind that drive will use the SATA-0 and possibly SATA-1 port so make sure to get a motherboard that has multiple SATA ports.

 

[seagate_surfer]

It doesn't necessarily have to be internally, but one of the most widely recommended backup strategies for any data you value is the 3-2-1 method: Keep 3 copies of your data, 2 locally but on different mediums, with 1 offsite.

Using multiple internal drives would be one way of achieving the 2nd part of that, although you could also use things such as external drives, cloud/online backups, and/or a NAS device.

 

[captaincharisma]

Thanks for the replies.
So basically I could buy a 250 gb ssd (mby nvme) for the OS and have another ssd for stuff?

correct, you can have a 500GB-1TB SSD for everything else. i have a 250GB SSD myself that i use for my OS and programs. for everything else including games i install them on my bigger secondary drive