How Many Storage devices do I need in my pc?

Ben May

Ben May

Ben May

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18 Dec 2021
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England
Hi I am looking to build a new pc and the only thing I am stuck on is whether one m.2 SSD (512gb) is enough. I do also have a 1TB external hard drive.

Thanks.
 
I have a 1TB NVME, a 480GB SATA SSD and a 2TB mechanical hard drive for po..... Storage.

Regularly played games on the NVME, Less regularly on the SSD and everything else on the mechanical.
 
I've got the following

C - Samsung 980 PRO - OS. 500GB (nvme m.2 pcie 4)
D - Sabrent M2 - Games. 2TB (Sabrent rocket nvme m.2 pcie 3)
E - Samsung EVO - OS IMAGE. 120GB (EVO 850 SATA)
F - Samsung EVO - Software, Docs. 250GB (EVO 850 SATA)
G - Samsung EVO - OS clone. 500GB (EVO 850 SATA)

Macrium OS clone from C > G comes in very useful. I used to use Windows backup and restore to create a system image, but this screwed me over once as I restored a corrupt image.
Once the OS clone is complete I should really disconnect the drive but never do as its a faff.
A 500GB OS close takes 3 mins 15 even to the old EVO 850 SATA drive, though drive is only 70GB full

I would highly recommend having a seperate OS to games drive then backup stuff.

External wise, I also
2 TB Samsung portable SSD T7
1 TB mechanical WD Mybook with photos on
1 TB WD drive which I've had for years connected to a WDHD TV
 
It really depends on mainly what you use your PC for. As previously said you better off with a 1TB nvme as they are cheap right now and can be useful in a future build (like a scratch disk).
 
Guest2 said:
I've got the following

C - Samsung 980 PRO - OS. 500GB (nvme m.2 pcie 4)
D - Sabrent M2 - Games. 2TB (Sabrent rocket nvme m.2 pcie 3)
E - Samsung EVO - OS IMAGE. 120GB (EVO 850 SATA)
F - Samsung EVO - Software, Docs. 250GB (EVO 850 SATA)
G - Samsung EVO - OS clone. 500GB (EVO 850 SATA)

Macrium OS clone from C > G comes in very useful. I used to use Windows backup and restore to create a system image, but this screwed me over once as I restored a corrupt image.
Once the OS clone is complete I should really disconnect the drive but never do as its a faff.
A 500GB OS close takes 3 mins 15 even to the old EVO 850 SATA drive, though drive is only 70GB full

I would highly recommend having a seperate OS to games drive then backup stuff.

External wise, I also
2 TB Samsung portable SSD T7
1 TB mechanical WD Mybook with photos on
1 TB WD drive which I've had for years connected to a WDHD TV
Click to expand...

Cheers that’s really helpful, looks like I will go with 2 storage devices + my external
 
Ben May said:
Cheers that’s really helpful, looks like I will go with 2 storage devices + my external
Click to expand...
No probs. It's worth having a similar sized cheaper SATA drive for cloning your main.
This way, if things go **** all you need to do is go into BIOS and switch drive order to boot from the clone, then clone back to your main. Windows backup and restore have worked for me for the most part
 
hartgeh3 said:
I got
1TB Windows
2TB for games
4TB external for backing up all that crap lol


Edit this should be posted in the storage section i think
Click to expand...

Why so much for windows? Or are you using that also for installing apps/programs on? Seems a real waste if not, I'd bet Windows would barely be using 20% of that space even with updates cached.
 
Semple said:
Why so much for windows? Or are you using that also for installing apps/programs on? Seems a real waste if not, I'd bet Windows would barely be using 20% of that space even with updates cached.
Click to expand...
I know. My 500GB main OS drive is 70GB but has a load of software installed. Windows is 'only' 20GB (not like the good old days of Windows 98 taking ~200MB)
 
Semple said:
Why so much for windows? Or are you using that also for installing apps/programs on? Seems a real waste if not, I'd bet Windows would barely be using 20% of that space even with updates cached.
Click to expand...

I usually have some other media on there, plus it wasn't all that much more compared to 512gb
 
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