Organising my files for best performance

[Dogg Thang]

Well I have a new computer incoming! Rather than dilute the hardware thread with a non-hardware question, I'll ask here - where should I put everything? I have a boot OS drive, another SSD drive (project or swap drive) and then a storage drive. And a whole ton of messy, messy files.

So the OS goes on the boot drive. I also install programmes here, right? All programmes or just the ones that I need best performance from? And I put nothing else on that drive, right?

The other SSD becomes my cache drive so I want to keep it pretty clear but I can keep my current projects in progress there for quick access. And then other files, completed projects and older stuff goes on the storage drive, right?

Anything I'm missing for good organisation? Historically, I have been terrible for just chucking files everywhere but I want to do better with this one. Oh, I'm on Windows 7. Still considering the jump to 10 but I'm mid-project and want to wait until that is complete in case any problems arise.

[briareos_kerensky]

One drive for OS and programs, one for files, one for swap and temporary files.

[Dogg Thang]

Thanks. Will just stick to that then.

[Dogg Thang]

Another question - Windows automatically puts its default stuff on the C drive, such as my Documents folder and Photos etc. But really they shouldn't be there, should they? They could fill up with stuff - although already programmes are dropping stuff in Documents (such as Adobe stuff). Should I try to get those on the files drive? Can those be switched? Or should I just leave them where they are?

[briareos_kerensky]

I don't know if you can move the default Windows directories, I never use them; it's only a problem if you use other MS programs (Office suite, IE), all other programs allow to default to a different directory and/or remember the last used. You can change the Creative Cloud file directory location through the CC main program (the one from where you install and check for updates), though cache and swap location is program dependent. AE and Premiere caches can fill up pretty quickly, and I would keep everything on one drive for the sake of consistency (and the ease of backing up the least amount of data possible from the boot drive).

[QualityChimp]

Totally unhelpful, but the topic title reminded me of a previous co-worker who complained her computer had stopped working.

It turns out she thought her computer was messily organised and started moving files into one big alphabetical order within the program files!

[Brad]

Another question - Windows automatically puts its default stuff on the C drive, such as my Documents folder and Photos etc. But really they shouldn't be there, should they? They could fill up with stuff - although already programmes are dropping stuff in Documents (such as Adobe stuff). Should I try to get those on the files drive? Can those be switched? Or should I just leave them where they are?

We do this at work. My home folder (and therefore my Documents, Photos, Videos etc.) is on my D: drive. Obviously replace D: with whatever drive you want to have as your home folder:

1. In case something goes wrong create a System Restore Point
2. Log in as Administrator
3. Move everything under C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME to D:\YOUR_USERNAME
4. Run Regedit.exe
5. Find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
6. Look through all the entries in there until you find one that has ProfileImagePath set to C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME
7. Change it to D:\YOUR_USERNAME
8. Reboot and log in as your usual username

[Dogg Thang]

Fantastic, thanks Brad. I'll try that out later!

[kryss]

Linux distributions organise stuff sequencially, removing the need to defragment. If you're moving a large number of files which won't be changing it's not a bad idea but hassle if you don't use linux already.

WIndowsmight do this now too, but I'm not really in the know about that.

[briareos_kerensky]

That's not Linux per se but the file system used; you can read/write ext3 and 4 on Windows, but I would stick to NTFS nonetheless.