Storing Library files on Secondary Drive versus M.2 NVMe SSD

[bikeman25]

True or False

 

is it bad idea to store my Windows Library files on Secondary 4TB Storage Drive?       Have 500GB NvMe Boot SSD with Windows installed on it, and ever since i first got my First 250GB SSD i always make sure to manually move Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, Desktop folders to My storage drive to limit writes to the NvMe M.2 or Sata SSDs in my Systems.      Extremely not sure if and when i do a Windows 11 Clean install of leaving those folders as default as i know i'll be worrying on writes constantly lol, even though i probably shouldn't, but just way i am with my old school self

 

Games are Installed on Seperate SSD  Samsung 860 Evo 1TB

Strictly Games on that one

 

Here is current Crystal disk info for all the drives

 

 

[Joe User]

It's not a bad idea, it's just that it isn't really necessary. Modern SSDs take years to wear out. 

 

 

[bikeman25]

ohhh guess i am very old school in that regard then, as i always thought it was necessary thing to do all these years

Since i got my FIrst SSD Drive in 2016

 

[Michael Scrip]

Yeah I wouldn't worry about a modern SSD wearing out.

But I've always had a separate boot drive and data drive in a desktop just to make re-installs easier.

I can wipe the boot drive and all my files are exactly where I left them!

😛

[bikeman25]

yeah I've had Data always on usually a Hard Drive over the years.  and Boot drive only Windows and Some Small Applications personally over the years.     

But i guess i'll slowly stop worrying, as someday i may have an All SSD Computer for the first time.    Always been a worrier and panicer lol on various things over the years

 

 

[binaryzero]

This is a non-issue.

[bikeman25]

Yeah just me was unsure on this issue, as I always been since got my first SSD drive.  Feeling more at ease a bit now.  

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

I believe Microsoft's official recommendation is to keep everything on the C:\ drive partition these days, however, like @Michael Scrip and you, @bikeman25, I like to keep my data on a separate partition.  Aside from making it slight more portable, it also allows me to quickly backup or synchronize my data.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Echoing what is said above, I store my OS on a smaller faster M.2 and then all my library (games, media) on a second larger drive.  In my current use case, it is another M.2, but hasn't always been.  I know there's no prescribed "need" for this, but it suits my workflow when wiping the OS or porting to a new install.

[bikeman25]

My Dream motherboard  (ASUS Z590-PLUS TUF Gaming WiFi Intel LGA 1200 ATX Motherboard - Micro Center)   if i knew how to install components on newer boards like Processor, CPU Coolers,  i'd probably  buy it and get it all setup, and have my dream machine with more M.2 Slots--then my Main OS Drive would be Current M.2, and 2nd one would be for Libraries and Media,     and 4tB WD Black would probably turn into for maybe VIdeo File storage perhaps i suppose.   

But since i'm stuck with Gigabyte B460M-DS3H motherboard just will be happy with my 1 M.2 and current setup as it is, and enjoy my build to best of my ability--as its best i can do at the moment.     And ignore other comments on reddit that say i'm sacrificing performance way my build is setup and wearing out 4TB drive faster than if i stored my media files on C M.2 drive.   

Thank you all for the replies and putting me at ease for future when i do eventually get 2 M.2 drives or replace this 4TB with a Sata SSD that is always possible in the future if i don't manage to get motherboard upgraded at some point in way future.

 

 

[sysadminafterdark]

At my peak, I had 2 disks in Raid 1 for the OS, 3 in RAID5 for my data, and 4 in RAID 10 for my applications. This was at one point done for performance reasons due to the short comings of mechanical disks and the price/capacity ratio of SSDs. (Hell back in my day, we didn't have SSDs!) Now days, SSDs are so cheap and fast that I just purchase 2TB m.2 ssds and store my OS and application data on the same disk. All of my files have moved to a DFS server running in my homelab that lives on a 24 disk 200TB SAN in RAID6. In business environments, I have seen SSDs fail, however I have not had one personally fail on me. Since I have servers that backup to the cloud using Veeam, I treat my workstations like cattle - disposable dumb clients. If they take the ######, re image them and I'm back up and running in a couple of hours. I wouldn't worry too much about SSDs failing - but DO have good backups of your personal data. You can re-download all the other crap and write scripts to get things tweaked the way you like them.

[bikeman25]

Yeah i only have not too much written to my M.2 Nvme SSD Currently.    i always backup my data every week incremental, and  Full backup at end of each month, or sometimes before a Windows Update

 

 

 

[cooky560 Veteran]

SSDs have very long lives, I have an SSD from 2015 that still works at 90% in diskmark, is as fast as ever.

[bikeman25]

Did a Clean Windows 11 Pro x64bit install  yesterday, left Library folders as default for now,  still a tiny bit nervous on Writes to The M.2 NvMe SSD,  but a little less than i was before, but no longer i suppose doing all i can to avoid writes to the drive as much as i possibly could in the past

just hopefully it lasts as long time, as since upgraded to Tower style CPU Cooler harder to get to than when i was using Intel LGA 1200 Stock cooler on my Intel 10700

Previously all User folders was on Mechanical hard drive E 4TB WD Black,  even Onedrive (which that still is stored there was too nervous to leave that as default on NvMe SSD Drive