Can I put VST on different drive than the OS?

Ralphiano

I am about to implement a new-to-me computer to host my soon-to-purchase Galaxy Vintage D, along with my already purchased Garritan CFX. This computer has the i7-4770 processor, and 16Gb of RAM, so I think it should be powerful enough for my purposes. It has Windows 10 (ughh) on a spinning 500Gb disk drive. I have purchased a 512 Gb SSD (SATA) and plan put the VSTs on it. I have a few questions, though:

Is it OK to put the VST on a different drive(the SSD) than the drive that the computer’s operating system is on(the 500Gn HDD)?
Do I need to format/partition the SSD as a “bootable drive”, or will the VSTs work on it if it is formatted and partitioned like a storage drive without the “bootable” configuration?

I am quite unskilled at computers, so, if you recognize any other dangers ahead of me, I’d love to be forewarned about them. And, to receive any instructions you think appropriate.

Thanks,
Ralph

David B

Ralphiano Is it OK to put the VST on a different drive(the SSD) than the drive that the computer’s operating system is on(the 500Gn HDD)?

I'm not familiar with every VST, but I do run VI Labs, and VSL libraries on an external SSD and they run great on my Mac (especially is the software is M1 compliant).

Ralphiano Do I need to format/partition the SSD as a “bootable drive”, or will the VSTs work on it if it is formatted and partitioned like a storage drive without the “bootable” configuration?

The VST software that I'm familiar with gives you the option to designate where the samples are read from when installing them. The software could be on your main drive and read the samples off of the external drive.

God Bless,
David

HZPiano

Hello,

Ralphiano ,

Yes, if your main drive is spinning, it is very wise to put the VSTs on an SSD.

If you're talking about SATA, I assume the SSD is also built in yet as a second drive, so not external through USB.

The only drive that'll ever be 'bootable' is your main drive where the OS resides. So your SSD in this case is regularly formatted, not bootable. Format it as NTFS with the default cluster size.

Cheers and happy installing,

jdg78

Hi Ralph,
In regards to your first question, yes this is possible - I have my system set up this way. For VSTs requiring more than 100 GB storage space, I keep the actual soundbank files on an external SSD, and just have the player installed on the internal drive.

When going through the initial installation process, it usually asked you which location you want to use to store the sound files. You just need to choose the external SSD drive and once installed, the player should know to pull them from that location whenever you load up the instrument. As long as the external drive is attached via an up-to-date connection (at least USB 3), it should load pretty fast.

At least, this is how it works on my Mac - I don't know if the installation process is different in Windows. I'm also not familiar w/ the the HD formatting requirements for Windows, so can't help you with that part of it.

But in theory, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to set it up this way.

MacMacMac

I would instead use a larger SSD as the main C: drive and put everything there … OS and VSTs.

These days I prefer to limit HDDs to a backup role.

n-player

Windows 10 and that 4770 processor are pretty good IMHO.

As Mac³ alluded, if you could get someone to load up Windows 10 on the SSD and just run that I think the computer would be a bit snappier and simpler. You could use the HDD as backup.

500GB is (more than) enough if you just want to run a few of these VI pianos and do some internet surfing. If you want to do more, maybe consider a bigger SSD. Some basic requirements:

Windows 10 _30GB
Garritan CFX Full _140GB
Vintage D and player _20GB

Note Windows 10 sunsets in October 2025, but by that time you might consider a computer upgrade (or just not connect to the internet). Someone might (or not) be able to upgrade your system to Windows 11 but I wouldn't even think of that now as W11 is buggy.

Frédéric L

On my computer, I have a 2TB SSD (system, VSL samples, games - Steam/valve doesn’t permit me to change the location), and is more than 50% full.

I have a second 2TB SSD (other samples), and a 4TB HDD (cold files like photos, downloaded files… and system backup). I plan to add a 8TB for all backups (the USB connection is too weak to bear a full backup on an external drive, then only the system is backuped !!)