Desktop Custom Build Hard Drive Storage Options

[jennay73]

Hi! I just bought my first custom computer through a local company and unfortunately I didn't do a lot of research or ask a lot of questions. My issue is with the memory. I got 4 TB's. I assumed that all four would be on the C drive for the least complicated way to access all my programs and photos/videos. Or at least 1 tb on the C and the rest on a separate drive, since I asked for a lot of back up to store my huge library of photos and videos. What I actually got was 225 gb on the C drive and 3.63 on the D drive. I'm just about done installing my programs and what I have left on my C drive for memory is 136 gigs. Obviously, my biggest mistake was assuming that these folks could read my mind. That being said, I'm wondering if what I have makes sense to keep or should I go with one one of my original plans? My concern is that the C drive is going to get all filled up in the next year or so. The other issue is that it's constantly defaulting to the C drive. The company rep that I'm dealing with said that it's better to put all my programs, or as many as I can, on the D drive, which will free up the C drive for faster processing. Is this true? If so, then I can try to keep as much as I can on the D Drive. Also, is there a way to set up the D drive as the default?

 

[Paul23]

Is your C: drive an SSD? And the D: drive a regular HDD (I assume). You can move any file you want to the D: drive that you don't want taking up space on C:. You can move the desktop, photos, documents, pictures, music, and videos to the D: drive, if you want to change the location. Since C: drive is where your operating system lives, it will be the default drive for the OS. All other data can be moved, if desired. What data did you want to move to D:?

 

[jennay73]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for your help. I was more interested in confirming the idea that keeping the c drive mostly free of files and programs would allow for faster processing? Like I said, the woman I'm dealing with said that was the reason for not having all 4 tb's on one drive. If that's the case, then I'll keep the current set up that I have. I've already downloaded and moved the majority of my files and programs to the D drive. Thanks!

 

[flavallee]

We need a more accurate picture of your C: and D: drives, so please do the following in your computer:
Download and save the TSG System Information Utility (SysInfo.exe) file.
After it's been downloaded and saved, double-click it to run it.
Information about your computer will appear.
Return here to your thread, then copy-and-paste the ENTIRE text here.

We don't even know at this point if your computer has a single hard drive in 2 partitions, or if it has 2 separate hard drives.

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[jennay73]

ok, how about this:

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.4
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 158 Stepping 9
Processor Count: 8
RAM: 16267 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro K620, -2048 Mb
Hard Drives: C: 225 GB (136 GB Free); D: 3725 GB (3008 GB Free);
Motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC., PRIME B250M-C
Antivirus: Windows Defender, Enabled and Updated

 

[flavallee]

According to your TSGSIU log:
C: appears to be a 240 GB mechanical or solid state drive which has an actual capacity of about 224 GB.
D: appears to be a 4 TB mechanical drive which has an actual capacity of about 3724 GB(3.63 TB).

Go into the Device Manager, then expand the Disk drives heading.
What's the exact description of the drives listed there?

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[jennay73]

I've attached a snap shot of the disk drives

 

[jennay73]

I'm also curious as to why the full 4 tb drive is not accessible? For example, it says 3725 instead of 4 gb

 

[flavallee]

Your computer has these 2 drives:

Samsung 860 EVO 250 GB SATA3 Solid State Drive
It has an actual capacity of 225 GB

Western Digital Purple WD40PURZ-85TTDY0 4 TB SATA3 5400 RPM Hard Drive
It has an actual capacity of 3724 GB(3.63 TB)

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ADVERTISED capacity and ACTUAL capacity will be different in storage drives.
That's why your hard drive with an ADVERTISED capacity of 4 TB has an ACTUAL capacity of 3.63 TB (3724 GB).

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[123Zbyniek]

I agree with the opinion in the post # 2 / Paul23.
On all computers (portable and stationary) I use this principle.
Fast SSD disk for the system and installed programs and HDD drive divided into two partitions (one for installation programs and drivers and the other for documents, photos, films, music).
In laptops where I have one SSD, I additionally allocate a partition for drivers and installation programs. Documents, photos, multimedia on a 64GB SD card.

 

[jennay73]

Ok, so now that you know the details of the drives, does keeping my current c drive free of programs and files ensure a faster processing speed? I"m just looking for confirmation to keep the set up I currently have.

 

[managed]

The SSD C drive is faster than the mechanical drive D. SSD's are also more expensive so I would stay with the setup you already have.

It's best to put the Windows OS and programs you use a lot onto C so they run faster and put data like videos, photos etc onto the D drive.

 

[Paul23]

Here's a video that gives a pretty good idea on how to set up the ssd with the hdd.

the second video is on optimizing the SSD.

 

[jennay73]

The SSD C drive is faster than the mechanical drive D. SSD's are also more expensive so I would stay with the setup you already have.

It's best to put the Windows OS and programs you use a lot onto C so they run faster and put data like videos, photos etc onto the D drive.

That's what I suspected, thank you for confirming!

 

[jennay73]

Here's a video that gives a pretty good idea on how to set up the ssd with the hdd.

the second video is on optimizing the SSD.

Thank you!