128Gb SSD and an internal 1 Terabyte standard hard disk help?

sportsfan148 · 04 Mar 2019

Ive just got a new PC with a 128gb SSD which is the C: System drive and a 1 Terabyte Data drive which is the D: Data drive. Ive never had an SSD drive before so this is new to me.
If I install games and large applications to the D: Data drive are there ever problems when a Windows feature update is forced through windows update?
The reason I ask is....I had an unusual thing happened the other day when 1809 was forced through Windows Update. After the 1809 update My Personal Files Folders (Documents etc) which I had relocated to the D: Data drive prior to the 1809 update had set back to defaults and were relocated back to my C:Users folder. My personal folders were still however showing on the D: Data drive so no data was lost but it was no longer relocated there as previously.
Are there ever any such issues with Games or programmes being recognised that have been installed to the D: Data drive....are they ever affected by future Windows 10 feature updates such as 1809. Or will they always still work correctly afterwards?
This question is particularly relevant because I know it wont be long before there is another feature update released.. Windows 10 1903. If I install all my Games on my D: Data drive I want to be sure they will still work correctly afterwards?

dalchina · 04 Mar 2019

No problems with that if you manually install programs to another partition or drive.

sportsfan148 · 05 Mar 2019

dalchina said:

No problems with that if you manually install programs to another partition or drive.

Thanks Dalchina. I know that whenever you install Games or any programmes or utilities for that matter to a drive other than the drive where Windows is installed windows still creates registry entries ( and maybe other things too I don't know) for those games on the drive where Windows is installed. I just wanted to verify that whatever is installed to another drive (for instance the D: Data drive) remains untouched and are still recognised after the Windows 10 twice yearly feature updates have been pushed through Windows Updates. I wouldn't want to install all my games and several other programmes onto my D: Data drive only to find out later that a Windows 10 feature update stops them working correctly.

sportsfan148 · 19 Mar 2019

Ive just been speaking to Tech support about something totally unrelated and we started talking about my SSD drive. The Technician just told me that Games or any other applications that have been installed on the secondary 1 Terabyte internal standard HDD (D:/Data) because of there being limited space on my 128GB SSD can be affected in a similar way because they will have registry entries etc written to the SSD C:/ system drive. He said that after a Windows 10 feature update such as 1803, 1809 or the upcoming 1903 this can cause problems with any Games etc that have been installed on the D:/Data drive. He said that links to any programmes on the D:/Data may be broken and not recognised when the 6 monthly Windows 10 feature updates are installed. Is this correct?
He said that in order to avoid such future issues it would be better to clean install Windows 10 on the 1 Terabyte standard HDD along with all my Games and other Apps. He said it would be better to then just use the 128GB SSD as a secondary drive for data. This seems like a complete waste of an SSD drive to me though (you'd lose the speed improvement of bootups on SSD's for a start). He said if I don't do this then every 6 months when Windows pushes its feature updates that when the C:/ SSD drive gets the updated OS I will have problems running Games and other Apps that have been installed on the D:/Data drive. Is he correct? I'd appreciate any advice from other users who have an SSD drive and a much larger standard internal HDD as well..particularly those of you with a smaller SSD drive such as my 128GB SSD.
Thanks, in advance

dalchina · 19 Mar 2019

I have lots of progs installed primarily on D: on one PC - with corresponding registry keys and other files on C: - a choice that is historical for that machine.

I've upgraded progressively from 1511, skipping 1803.. no issues with those programs.

I can't speak for games in particular..

sportsfan148 · 19 Mar 2019

dalchina said:

I have lots of progs installed primarily on D: on one PC - with corresponding registry keys and other files on C: - a choice that is historical for that machine.

I've upgraded progressively from 1511, skipping 1803.. no issues with those programs.

I can't speak for games in particular..

I wonder if the Technician is implying then that there will be problems with Games specifically

Ztruker · 19 Mar 2019

Should only be a problem if you do a clean install.

sportsfan148 · 20 Mar 2019

Ztruker said:

Should only be a problem if you do a clean install.

So are you saying that the 6 monthly Windows10 feature updates such as 1803, 1809 etc don't cause any issues with Games or other programmes that aren't installed on the SSD system drive C:/. They will still run exactly as before even though they are located on the 1 Terabyte internal HDD D:/ ?

I sometimes use the Reset this PC option to clean install in Settings/Recovery but to ensure a clean install I don't keep personal files I always select to remove everything. I would also clean everything off the D: drive at the same time. Would there be any issues there? I would install games and other programmes back to the empty D: drive later

I only use the Media Creation Tool as a last resort to clean install Windows 10 and in that case I delete all partitions during Windows Setup including all partitions on both C: and D: . That leaves two lots of unallocated space (one for the SSD and one for the internal HDD). Then I just select the SSD and click next to install Windows 10. After Windows is installed I use Disk Management to create a new simple volume on the unallocated HDD and give it a drive letter.

dalchina · 20 Mar 2019

Why don't you convince yourself by making sure you have a current disk image before you next upgrade, and see what happens?

You can restore your image if anything goes wrong (as well as having the option for reverting to the previous build for 10 days).

margrave55 · 20 Mar 2019

What makes you think that a Windows update will cause problems?

What makes you think the sun will rise in the east?