Solved New installation-Locations

[Heywood_ja]

Hello,

Long time dabbler, getting back into it with new Quantum HD 2 20 x 24 for Christmas and whatever version of F studio pro is shipping with it. (8.1?)

(Not happy that you have to be a plus user to post on the Fender boards)

Specs in Signature. I Have used S1-3 Artist, 5-pro and 6-prime.

Melodyne 5, Tonalic, + various (crappy) plugins and sound sets.

I don't need any of my old projects, and want to start out as if a new user.

I am Looking for recommendations on installation locations for System, Projects, and Plugins based on my drives listed below.
I watched some old videos from Gregor, but wanted the latest reccomendations.

Currently Melodyne and Tonalic and most plugins are on the are on C drive. with some sound sets on the 4tb spinning drive.

Nothing on M2 drives

I was getting some break up and glitches on larger projects that sounded like static / clicks. (Scarlett 8i6 interface)

Is this best strategy?:

--- Main system on C SSD,
Everything else on 2 TB Internal M2 SSD?
Should I split some onto Internal 1TB MS SSD?

Or use External M.2? ( I don't plan on taking items anywhere else.


(I will install after Christmas so I can buy new hardware in between.)

Guitars, Acoustic and Electric, Direct and miked, Rhode Nt1, (+ other mics) Bass, (limited) vocals, Akai MPK mini KB.

​

 

[Vocalpoint]

Suggested moves - pre Christmas - if you are investing in new hardware - ensure your system drive is NVMe (not SSD and certainly not an old spinner HDD)

C: (System) (NVMe) (500GB-1TB in size)

Windows OS, all Software and aLL plugins. No exceptions.

D: (Data) (SSD minimum - 500GB in size)

Over here - I redirect all Windows special folders to my D drive immediately after installing the OS (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures and Video).

This ensures that when I install Studio Pro clean for the first time - it will automatically place it's main payload right into it's designed system location - which is D:\Documents\Studio Pro.

Once Studio Pro is installed - take a trip to Studio Pro->Options (Main Menu) and check these locations and ensure they look like this:

User Data

SoundSets

E:\ (or whatever letter you want) (Content)

Ideally - if you have a third drive attached to the system - ensure it is at least SSD and use that as your "content" drive for all your other virtual instruments like say a Toontrack or Native Instruments etc - where they install huge sound libraries. I use a dedicated NVMe for this so all my VSTs with sound libraries load and playback with optimal speed. You can also use this area to stash your sample libaries like loops, one shots etc if that's your thing.

Been building drives out this way since 2002 - it's a great system - optimized for your specific motherboard drive lanes and keeps your "creative" stuff away from the OS drive and placed in such a way that makes backup and archiving easy.

Let us know how the build goes.

Cheers

VP

 

[Heywood_ja]

Thank you so much for the quick and thorough response.

I noticed that for whatever reason , my specs didn't save in my signature.

PC Self built in 2020, so no bloat wear. I am not really feeling the need to build a new one, but I am probably due.

With Z490 Chip set and 10th gen I7, MB M2 Limited to NvMe 3.0 speed

Plan-

Back C up

Clone System drive (SSD Sata-3) to 1TB Samsung SSD970 EVO plus ( Acronis tru-image or Samsung Magician )

Install New FSP as you described on the 1TB

For 2 TB Samsung SSD970 EVO plus, make it the D drive as described.

For content, is it better to add to the same 2TB NvMe, or to the Sandisk Utra 3d 1TB SSD? (Current system disk).

Also have the 4TB spinner.



Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz (3.80 GHz)
Installed RAM 64.0 GB
Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6 GB)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 26H2
Installed on ‎7/‎20/‎2025
OS build 26300.9711
System 1 TB SSD-Sandisk SDSSDH3
1TB Samsung SSD970 EVO plus
2 TB Samsung SSD970 EVO plus
Data 4TB WDC WD4003 HDD
External various USB-C 1TB m2 SSD, external docks and Qnap