Need advice on which drives to use and what to put where.

[GregP74]

For as long as I can remember I've always had a couple hard drives in my PCs. Usually one for Windows and my applications and games, and a secondary D: drive for my files.

Back in the days of DOS and older versions of Windows, it made reinstallations a snap as my files were still there and ready to go. Those things seem a little more complex now that Windows has it's \users\ folders that can cause issues after a reinstall.

Anyway, for a couple years I've had a 2tb mechanical drive as well as a 120 gig SSD that I used for Windows and other things. After some recent upgrades to the PC I got rid of the 120 and picked up a Samsung EVO 850 500gb one.

This past week my boss gave me two more of the Samsung drives -- one a 250gb and one a 1tb.

This is a great time to reinstall Windows, which I've been meaning to do for a while now. I could use some advice on which drives to use, which to leave out, and what to store where on which drive.

I could go completely solid state and leave the mechanical drive out. That would be pretty speedy. I'm also thinking about putting the 500 and 1tb SSDs in, but also sticking the 2TB mechanical drive in strictly for backups.

Would appreciate any advice!

 

[RealBeast]

I would use either the 500GB or 1TB and add the 250GB as a scratch drive if you use programs that benefit from such a drive, like Adobe Photoshop or Premiere. But then I still have a couple computers around the house that could use an SSD.

If you don't you might as well use them or gift/sell one. I would still go with a spinner for archived storage.

 

[USAFRet]

My current config:

500GB - OS and applications
250GB - photo work
250GB - 3D files and Rhino3D/Lightroom/Paintshop Pro scratch space and autosave locations
960GB - Games, doc, video, Linux and WinServer VMs
3TB HDD - those necessary backups, and general junk