*ssd. HDDs are somewhat good for storing large amounts of data, and the os ain't it (unless windows, probably)
I have a 256gb ssd for the os since windows likes to devour hardrive space for reasons unclear to me, a 2tb ssd for games and other applications I need to move quickly, and a 2tb hdd for general storage. It all works pretty well together.
macOS is pretty bad about using up storage space. There are always huge 10gb+ cache files for cloud related stuff. Even if I’m like, don’t store it locally.
I’ve not used macOS in years, so many that issue has been resolved.
That reminds me of when I used to have an iPhone and needed to free up storage, and there was this cursed mysterious "other data" block that took up like a majority of it.
I’m sure it’s the exact same thing happening in both operating systems.
It’s just clouded cache files that need to be cleaned up.
System drive: 1TB
Use case: Very important stuff like drivers etc. or programs that refuse to use anything besides C:\ or put their stuff into AppData.
Gamedrive: 4TB.
use case: Roms, game launchers, emulator files.
For my main machine: Sys, 1TB. Games, 4TB (actually 2x 2TB in raid0). Backups and misc: 10TB. Daily backups, g/f/s for sys, and incremental daily with monthly full for games.
Then I have all my media and actual files on a nas, along with the desktop, documents, downloads synced between all machines; any files that are for storage and drive images (for machines with only 1 drive and cannot manage images locally) get stored here too. 2x 10TB.
Then those drives are in raid1, are under btrfs with snapshot abilities, are backed up to a 8TB external every month, and unplugged after a successful backup to avoid a ransomware attack scenario. This drive is actively cooled to prevent overheating with hours of read/write activity. Every night, critical files are also backed up to two different off-site data storage services, on different continents.
I got tired of data loss 15 years ago, and now I horde everything, but it's all for a purpose. Game saves, stories, photos, archived projects long forgotten, and so much more.
My OS takes up about 25gb. I have individual games that take up more than 100gb. That kind of OS/storage split is necessary nowadays.
How do you install a window game to a drive other than c??
I recall installers always asking you where you want to install things. Sometimes, that's hidden behind "custom install" or something like that. Is that not the case anymore?
It'll generally default to C drive on Windows. Most of the time, you'd click "browse" and select another drive.
I just highlight the "C" portion of the path and change it to "D." No browsing, and the program gets put in whatever folder it wanted to be in.
Also in Steam you can add a library anywhere you want and it'll install and manage your games there. :)
Steam lets you install on any drive. You can set it as a default.
My D drive is for games, and my E drive is for spillover games.
In steam at least there's a setting to add a separate steam library at another folder. You can make that folder on your other drive and then have new games install there by default.
I just slap two 1tb nvme drives in raid0 to get 2tb and all the speeds. If it comes crashing down all my stuff is stored on my server that I care about and I try to not keep more than a few games installed plus with fiber it takes a few minutes to re-download anyways, now I just need to setup a regular backup of my config. I have a habit of doing a clean install every few months so I'm used to living mostly off my server at this point
My usual go to drive layout, when it's impractical to put everything on a single drive, is to have a fast, but small, OS drive with core applications, if it's large enough then also use that for user data. Add in drives for anything/everything else size intensive. Like for games, I'll get a lower quality SSD that's larger than my OS drive, like grabbing a SATA SSD that's 3-4 TiB for games, with a 500GiB NVMe OS drive for programs and user data.
If money is tight, then having your fastest storage for OS and using a HDD for everything else, is a decent option..
For a while there I was running a 240GiB OS drive, and relocated all my user data, and games to a 1TiB HDD. The system ran fine like that, with few exceptions.
One big issue was that major windows updates basically failed every time, it would seem that having your user account/profile anywhere other than C:\ is problematic for that kind of thing. It's odd, but ultimately not that big of a deal. Regular security updates and whatnot worked without any issues.
Dont skimp on ssd for games. Large sata is fine. Hdd for games is not fine. Get worse anything else instead . Loadings are gonna be the death of you.
It's not as bad if the HDD is dedicated to games. With your os and games on the same drive, you're going to get wrecked.
I'd still recommend all flash everything in a decent home computer/gaming rig, but on a budget, at least separating your os from your games on different physical drives can help quite a bit.
I feel like attaching a second drive to my deck defeats the purpose
Not me got a 4tb gen 3 nvne for my main and a 2tb gen4 nvme + 2tb sata ssd.... And a 18tb, 12tb, 4tb, 3tb, 1tb HDD for other things....
Good golly gee whiz that's a lotta porn! You saving up for a rainy day or somethin?
Sorry, that first line reminded me of this
The zombie apocalypse, also known as DJT winning the presidency, somehow... Again...
How do you even manage that much storage? Btrfs or snapraid or something?
Windows.....
I'm so sorry.
well i dont need much space for my minimal linux install.
games, however, are getting bigger and bigger.
It blows me away when I play a game like Valheim or Vampire Survivor and find out the game that took 1000 hours of my life is smaller than a two hour movie.
Meanwhile Quake: I took you life and soul in 50 megabytes
When I built a new PC last year, I was wondering how I managed to filled up a 4TB NVME in only 6 months... until I downloaded one of those programs that breaks down your hard drive usage.
Games, it's all games. I don't even consider myself a gamer. I can't even begin to imagine the struggle of an actual gamer who is still stuck with a 256GB SATA SSD as their only high speed drive. What do you do when nearly every game that comes out these days is 100GB+ and requires an SSD?
Also the system files aren't really the most important files. While it's a pain in the ass, you can reinstall your OS and get that all back again.
Reinstalling all of your games is going to take more time, and if you lost a save file, well you're never getting that back. Personal photos, videos, etc. are even a bigger priority.
So I tend to to think of the drive /home is mounted on to be the "primary drive" as it's the most important. The root is just the system files, needed for the OS, but not nearly as important as /home.
What the f*** is this? Where's my TÜV? This is even a German license plate, what the third-world-hell is going on here
So awhile back I tried this by having my system SSD be a smaller 500GB drive and I had another 1 TB SSD for games but turns out I was doing it all wrong.
Seriously just invest in a 1 or 2TB M.2 SSD and thank me later, especially if you’re on windows. Then have a hard drive for programs you care less about and for data storage. My current config has even kept the 1TB SSD as an auxiliary gaming drive that I use for games of lesser importance or demand.
I just wouldn’t ever put a windows install onto a drive that’s slower than any of your other drives and also you have to be very careful about the size of that drive. I tried to do this on a 100GB SSD like a decade ago and it didn’t go very well
If you have enough data for a extra hard drive id recommend a nas.
A good 2Bay one is between 100 and 200. Add 2 drives for a raid 1 and your data is protected against drive failure. Now you have a storage place that is accessible from all Devices. Wanna watch a video?Well its there and playable from PC, Phone or your TV.
You know how that goes though, now the ethernet isn't fast enough to allow that nas experience to be seamless. 2.5gbit... 10gbit? Now you need a new switch maybe a new router too. It just goes downhill from there haha
I did the same. Have not had any real problems with the configuration. I would have gone for more storage but high speed high capacity ssds do get expensive.
At the time I got my current system, I did 1tb SSD for the main, and a 4tb HDD for data drive.
For my next system, I think I'll split that a bit more evenly, as most of my games end up on the HDD which means they a bit to load
I found that moderate compression (like zstd-2 or -3) not only increases your effective storage capacity, but increases R/W speeds for HDDs.
