When installing a additional diskthis can be used on a Windows PC for separate the operating system from personal files. The main advantage of doing this is that even if your computer no longer starts up or has problems, you can always reinstall Windows without any risk of losing your documents, photos or any other type of added file.Ideally a computer would be optimized for speed with the operating system installed on an SSD and a larger, more spacious hard drive to store files, but we can actually do a lot with a secondary drive installed on the computer.
In the guide that follows we will show you how to use an additional disk connected to your computerso that we can make the most of this configuration when we use the PC in the office or in other shared network environments.
READ ALSO -> How to install a second internal disk in the PC
1) Create a redundant RAID
The first thing we can do is combine the 2 disks into one volumecreating a set of disks in RAID so that data written to one disk is also written to the other in “Mirror”. This ensures an always up-to-date backup and a working computer even if one of the two disks fails. Alternatively, you can combine the two disks into one large storage space; in this case, however, if one of the two disks were to fail, the data on both would be lost.
So that performance is not affected we have to use two discs that are very similar in speed and capacity: this is the only way we can be sure that the RAID works as it should. If we have an SSD we try to do a RAID with a similar SSD, while if we have a mechanical hard drive we use a similar mechanical drive for the RAID.
2) Create symbolic links to folders
Another very useful thing we can do with a secondary drive is move folders from one drive to another with symbolic links. Program folders can never be moved from one disk to another because otherwise the data structure of that software would lose all references and would not know where to look for the files.
Symbolic links are widely used in business because of their convenience: they tell the computer that such a folder or file is on one drive while it is on the other, without having to physically move the folders from one place to another. They are useful, for example, for moving the Outlook folder or the Chrome cache.
3) Move user data folder
Without resorting to symbolic links Windows allows you to easily change the path of user data folders for move the Downloads, Documents, Music, Videos and Pictures folders on the additional disk.
To proceed, press the right button on one of the folders mentioned, let’s go to the menu Propertylet’s be sure to open the tab Path and change the path by pressing the button Move and choosing another destination folder. You will be asked if you want Windows to move the files, and after you are done, the data folders will still be accessible in their normal location.
4) Install heavy programs
When installing a program, you can almost always choose the directory where you want to install it. This can be particularly useful if the main disk is small while the second is much more spacious.
On the secondary disk we can install heavy programs such as video games, so as to keep the primary disk as light as possible. On the subject we can read our guide on how to move programs from C: to another disk on your PC.
5) Move the paging file
Windows uses a paging file to store data on the disk that cannot be kept in RAM memory. The paging file is saved in the Windows root directory which, by default, is C:\pagefile. To save system disk space, you can move this paging file to another disk.
Ideally you should keep the paging file on the fastest drive, however, if you have a lot of RAM, you can move it to the secondary drive and save space on the main drive. To move the paging file go to Control Panel> System> Advanced Settings> Settings (under the section Performance) > Advanced> Change. We remove the tick where it is written Manage automaticallywe select the additional disk and then we set the space managed by the system.
In this regard we can also read our guide on Page file setup, Windows pagefile.sys.
6) Move Windows to an SSD
Among the most recommended procedures when installing a second disk on the computer we find the one that foresees it moving Windows to a solid state drive SSD. If we have a desktop computer where there is a solid state drive in addition to the mechanical drive, it is convenient to keep the system on the SSD which is faster and the rest of the data on the traditional hard disk or the fastest SSD.
This can also be done on a laptop because, in many models, you can put the SSD drive in place of the CD player (any computer technician can do that if you don’t trust yourself).
Following the linked guide you can then move Windows without reinstalling it and take advantage of the best speed of the SSD disk.
7) Create shared spaces on the network
If we often use the computer on a corporate network and share folders on the network, it may be a good idea to move the shared folders to the secondary drive, so as not to saturate the resources of the primary disk. By sharing only the secondary disk folders, the other computers will only use the disk in question, without slowing down the operating system (which will mainly work on the primary disk).
To create new network shares we advise you to read our guides on how to share files and folders on computer network on Windows PC and how share files between PCs and view shared folders (Windows, Mac, Linux).
Alternatively we can also share the entire secondary disk on the network and add it to the other PCs, as seen in the guide on how add network drives in windows.
Conclusions
It is not uncommon to find business PCs or PCs intended for work with 2 or 3 drives installed inside. The primary disk in most cases is SSD and on it there are the operating system and programs; on the secondary disks we find personal files, system backups or heavier programs. Secondary disks lend themselves to numerous purposes, as we have seen: it is up to us to choose how best to use them.
To avoid bottlenecks we recommend that you only use SSDs on modern PCs: the speed of transferring and opening files will benefit a lot. If we don’t know which SSD to choose as a secondary disk, we suggest you read our guide to best SSD for PC.