Having 2 hard drives

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  1. Posts : 51
    Windows 10
       #1

    Having 2 hard drives


    Does anyone here have 2 HDDs or 2 SSDs that they use one for the soul purpose of the OS and use the other for installing software? I'm highly considering that. Is that possible in Win10?
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  2. Posts : 9,652
    W10 Pro, W10 Home
       #2

    ukcatsfan83 said:
    Does anyone here have 2 HDDs or 2 SSDs that they use one for the soul purpose of the OS and use the other for installing software? I'm highly considering that. Is that possible in Win10?
    Actually I have W8.1 Pro and W10 running on two separate SSD's, with two HDD's for backups and storage. I favor that kind of setup, because if something goes wrong with the drive on which the OS is installed I don't have to worry about losing any data.
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  3. Posts : 51
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    LittleJay said:
    Actually I have W8.1 Pro and W10 running on two separate SSD's, with two HDD's for backups and storage. I favor that kind of setup, because if something goes wrong with the drive on which the OS is installed I don't have to worry about losing any data.
    What i'm wanting to do is get another SSD and use that ONLY for software installations while running my Operating System on a drive by itself. :) The thing is, I'm not quite sure if there's a way to migrate my already-installed software from the current drive over to a new one.
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  4. Posts : 17,838
    Windows 10
       #4

    ukcatsfan83 said:
    What i'm wanting to do is get another SSD and use that ONLY for software installations while running my Operating System on a drive by itself. :) The thing is, I'm not quite sure if there's a way to migrate my already-installed software from the current drive over to a new one.
    Doesn't make sense though, to make the OS, running on one drive, to make a 'call' over to another drive to bring up programs.
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  5. Posts : 3,264
    Windows 11 Pro 64 bit Version 21H2
       #5

    ukcatsfan83 said:
    What i'm wanting to do is get another SSD and use that ONLY for software installations while running my Operating System on a drive by itself. :) The thing is, I'm not quite sure if there's a way to migrate my already-installed software from the current drive over to a new one.
    Most people would not use a drive just for OS. If so think smallest now is 120GB.Second or third drive as stated should be used for backup or (documents. music, videos, pictures ). I use 1 for OS and software, one for games and one for backup, first 2 are SSD's.
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  6. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #6

    ukcatsfan83 said:
    What i'm wanting to do is get another SSD and use that ONLY for software installations while running my Operating System on a drive by itself. :) The thing is, I'm not quite sure if there's a way to migrate my already-installed software from the current drive over to a new one.
    Since your System Specs shows you are using a Desktop most times one can have anywhere from 2 to 6 SATA drives and could include a mix of SSD, HDD and ODD.

    If wanting to use different boot/system drives you'd have to install software on the programs drive in each Operating System while each OS is running, that's just a thing with Windows in that support files have to be installed in proper Folders, icons and Start menu items created and Registry entries created so Windows knows how to run the programs. Also at issue is whether the licensing of programs will allow it.
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  7. Posts : 9,652
    W10 Pro, W10 Home
       #7

    ukcatsfan83 said:
    What i'm wanting to do is get another SSD and use that ONLY for software installations while running my Operating System on a drive by itself. :) The thing is, I'm not quite sure if there's a way to migrate my already-installed software from the current drive over to a new one.
    I have never tried that myself, but I suspect, like already stated that there could be issues with trying to run Apps/programs on a separate drive. Is there a specific reason you want to do this?
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  8. Posts : 51
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #8

    jds63 said:
    Most people would not use a drive just for OS. If so think smallest now is 120GB.Second or third drive as stated should be used for backup or (documents. music, videos, pictures ). I use 1 for OS and software, one for games and one for backup, first 2 are SSD's.

    I have WD My Cloud NAS for storage :) My SSD is 180GB. I have 129GB free.
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  9. Posts : 1,255
    Windows 10 Pro
       #9

    It is quite common to have a drive separate from the OS for data. Windows has always supported that. This allows reinstalling the OS without touching your data. But I fail to see the point in installing application on a separate drive. This is most often done out of necessity when the OS drive is too small. It just makes things more complicated with no real gain. And if you reinstall the OS all applications (except for portable applications) will have to be reinstalled anyway.
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  10. Posts : 12,799
    Windows 11 Pro
       #10

    If you would put your OS and programs on your SSD and User files and Games on a second hard drive, you would never fill your SSD up. Having a Data drive is common and avoids many problems when things go wrong, but there is no advantage to installing programs on another drive. You bought an SSD to speed up opening programs faster with great response times. Your plan would defeat that purpose. Plus many programs would object to being placed other than where they expect to be placed.
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