Two SSDs and one HDD, Where should I install Windows, Users folder etc

full title:
Two SSDs and one HDD, Where should I install Windows and Where should I move Users folder (including AppData and Temp folder) and my programs and games in terms of performance?

i have two SSDs (128GB NVMe M.2 + 128GB SATA SSD) and a 1TB HDD. each of them has one partition.
my purpose is gaming and then using some programs like Photoshop CS6. where i should install Windows in term of gaming performance? i think if i install Windows as well as my important games on the NVME M.2 SSD, it might affect the performance of my games since the OS also uses this SSD. i guess installing games and OS on different SSD would be better( OS on SATA SSD and important games on fastest SSD), if im wrong correct me please. on the other hand, i heard that some important files and dlls used in games (like DirectX and .NET framework) are in Windows folders like System32, so maybe installing OS on second SSD (SATA) is even worse?

also my important programs are about 5GB (many of them are portable) and rarely used programs and other data are 70GB and my common user folders (like Downloads, Videos, Music, Pictures) are 80GB.

i know i can easily move common user folders with Properties -> Location tab, but how about AppData? yesterday i read an article that said it is possible to move whole Users folder during Windows installation. (Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10). are you recommend it? where should i move it? i think its good idea to move AppData to same SSD that i moving the important programs to, right? (i guess if their data is near them, they can access it faster)

im completely confused and cant test these many things myself because its too time consuming and requires technical knowledge.

A classic installation would be programs and O/S on an SSD. with the HDD used primarily for data.

Your choice of 128GB SSDs may be somewhat restricted- a 256Gb SSD would be a better option. Mine are typically half full- and I have a lot of programs installed.

The least you fiddle with and make changes to the O/S and where standard folders are located the better.

For example, I leave the default library folders alone- they are filled with folders put there by programs I install so I feel they are not 'mine'. Where I have a HDD as well as a SSD I simply create my own 'My documents' etc on the HDD - then those really are mine. Som people have made really serious errors in changing the location of those- it's easy to make such errors alas.

When considering where to locate folders and data, also plan your backup and recovery strategy.
Having most of my personal data on a disk separate from the O/S makes that immediately simple and straigthforward.

Users folder.
Technically it's possible to relocate this- but as you will see from this tutorial, that's not trivial.

Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10

You also need to consider future implications- what would doing that mean if you had to clean install Win 10? Personally- I've no idea.

Always plan ahead, think of the possible implications.

As for speed- well, that depends on how much and how often your game needs to swap data between disk and RAM. If you have 8GB of RAM- could be a problem. 32GB - well.. different matter.

i think its good idea to move AppData to same SSD that i moving the important programs to, right?

Don't even think about it.

It is not something I do.

However, if you rt click one of your user folders and select properties > location.




If there is no location tab, that would seem to indicate it is probably not a good idea to move it.

That's the one I mentioned where if you get it wrong.... oops!

Keep it simple. Keep user data away from the O/S as far as possible. Plan for backups.

8GB- depends on your games.. and how much of that your graphics uses if any.

Agreed, keep the KISS principle in mind. Unplug all drives except the one desired to have the Operating System on then install. Connect additional drives after the OS is working. The issue is the possibility that I've experienced is that Windows may put part of itself on other connected drives during the install or that the BIOS supports RAID and later removal of a drive may break the boot process, have had to clean up a few where folks didn't consider that. After the OS is working one can then proceed with the desired processes. Used to be certain things had to be in a default location for other programs finding what they needed to work with such as the Virtual Memory and the Temp folder.

SIW2 said:

It is not something I do.

However, if you rt click one of your user folders and select properties > location.




If there is no location tab, that would seem to indicate it is probably not a good idea to move it.

That's what I do to relocate user documents, pictures and videos which use most of the storage. Definitely install Windows and programs on the fastest SSD. I also have a large SSD to install games many of which are otherwise slow to load from a HDD e.g. MS Flight Simulator 2020.

No contest windows + non portable apps on nvme. You can put games (portable apps) on SSD if space is tight on nvme. General data on HDD.

Steve C said:

That's what I do to relocate user documents, pictures and videos which use most of the storage. Definitely install Windows and programs on the fastest SSD. I also have a large SSD to install games many of which are otherwise slow to load from a HDD e.g. MS Flight Simulator 2020.

Note that there's nothing magical about these default library folders.
You can create your own, and add them to libraries, and even create your own libraries.

If you choose to 'Locate' them - note the warning added to the tutorial to first create a disk image

Why? As I've said, it's just too easy to make a mistake setting the destination- and if you slip up it's almost impossible to untangle that. Days in some cases- that's if someone's prepared to try. (See previous threads).