SSD/HDD

[Glockwyrks]

I'm not entirely sure which category to post this in, but I figured as it most involves gaming here would be a good start?

My SSD seems to be overflowing with OS and general rubbish, I only currently have an internal HDD.

I'm looking at grabbing an external drive, I assume SSD will out perform the HDD but I intend to use it as my main STEAM library. I've read there was some issues doing this unless STEAM itself is installed on the same drive as your library, but does anyone have any advice for or against this?

And what particular drives I should be looking for , solely for this purpose.

 

[BeardyHat]

Steam will be fine with games installed to a secondary disk. I do this myself in two of my systems at home.

That said, I'd advice against an external HDD; you're already taking a pretty substantial performance hit by loading from an HDD (My desktop loads games installed on its HDD significantly more slowly than my laptop with the same game loaded on my NVMe) and it's only going to be worse over an external USB connection.

Assuming you're using a desktop, there's really no reason not to choose an internal drive. It'll be both faster and cheaper. No particular suggestions on brand; couldn't even tell you what brand I have in my various computers.

 

[Pifanjr]

Steam will be fine with games installed to a secondary disk. I do this myself in two of my systems at home.

I haven't had any issues with installing games on multiple disks either.

 

[Colif]

I've read there was some issues doing this unless STEAM itself is installed on the same drive as your library, but does anyone have any advice for or against this?

none of my games are installed on the same drive as Steam, that isn't a problem. I have used another drive for games for as long as I can remember. Used to make recovering from a fresh install of windows faster, no need to download the games again.

Considering you can move steam folders between PC, this isn't a problem

Can I store steam games on external hard drive? :: Help and Tips

steamcommunity.com

My SSD seems to be overflowing with OS and general rubbish, I only currently have an internal HDD.

what size is the current hdd? I would think about replacing it instead of using external

Looking at posts you made, you have a Desktop PC so the idea of adding another internal is a good one too. Unless motherboard or case is lacking.

load times will be slower on an external drive

And what particular drives I should be looking for , solely for this purpose.

normally I would say an ssd or nvme but storage prices are silly right now.
My track record with external hdd dying isn't great. But internal drives, I would pick Western Digital or Seagate

Ideal situation is pick up an external drive enclosure and buy a drive yourself. As a lot of the ones for sale may promise to be much bigger than they really are.

Info Thread 'Beware of 16tb External SSD or 8tb USB Flash drives.'

Aug 6, 2022

You currently cannot buy a real 16tb or larger external SSD or USB drives larger than 1tb, at all. They don't exist.

But if you look on almost any retailer now they show you drives that are labelled 16tb, or 30tb or bigger still. These are fake.

Same applies for any USB flash drive bigger than 4tb, they don't exist.

Almost all 8tb, or 16tb external ssd on the market now actually have sd cards in them. The memory controller in the sd card has been reprogrammed to tell any device its attached to that its got 16tb of space. It doesn't, in many cases its less than 60gb. Once you write more...

• Colif
• Replies: 9
• Forum: Desktop Hardware

• 
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thread showing age, can get 1.5tb sd cards now. Not sure about Flash drives. Samsung stopped a lot smaller. I wonder if they moved onto making fake ram as that is where money would be now... although when 4tb ssd cost over 1k here, maybe not.

 

[Rolfil]

If your motherboard has another M.2 NvME slot then you can get a 2TB PCIe4.0 drive for ~£220. A 1TB would cost around £140 at the moment. These prices are from scan.co.uk

You can often find these drives on sale with around £20 off the average price.

If you are going not going to replace your system for a completely new one for at least 3-4 years then it might be worth it. Just don't buy a PCIe5.0 drive - you really don't need it at the moment and they are really expensive.

 

[mjs warlord]

i use this because i have problems with my hands and did not want to risk opening up my pc in case i caught something and shorted things out.

Amazon.co.uk

Some gamers say you are not supposed to use something like this for games especially as its external. I have used it for 2 years and not had any problems , the usb cable is not very long but its long enough for you to rest the ssd on top of your rig. After you have connected it it will be added to your steam library and you just search the relevant tab to choose the drive to install games on.

NOTE ..... once it is connect you wont have the usual right click to safely remove like you do with flash drives unless you go into its properties box and change things. When you do a virus scan it wont get scanned unless you do a separate scan from the av custom scan menu

 

[Colif]

Just don't buy a PCIe5.0 drive - you really don't need it at the moment and they are really expensive.

They also run too hot. Gen 4 is as fast as you really need, and really gen 3 is fast enough for game loading, but they hard to find now.

 

[Glockwyrks]

I am currently using a MSI Mag B550 Tomahawk motherboard, my machine is kind of outdated now but I think if I upgrade from a 2060 to 5060 and grab myself another SSD it should see me through for another few years at least.

 

[Colif]

AMD B550 Chipset

6x SATA 6Gb/s ports
2x M.2 slots (Key M)
M2_1 slot (from AMD Processor)
Supports PCIe 4.0/ 3.0 x4 1
Supports SATA 6Gb/s
Supports 2242/ 2260/ 2280/ 22110 storage devices
M2_2 slot (from AMD B550 chipset)
Supports PCIe 3.0x4
Supports 2242/ 2260/ 2280 storage devices
1 The supported specification depends on installed processor.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK/Specification

Your motherboard can attach one more nvme, it will only run at gen 3 speeds but that is fine for games.
Or you can attach 5 more sata drives if case has the space to put them

Your motherboard has less nvme slots than the current boards but it supports more Sata ssd/hdd slots. X870 is where they stop having as many sata ports.
You have 6, I only have 4.

 

[Glockwyrks]

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK/Specification

Your motherboard can attach one more nvme, it will only run at gen 3 speeds but that is fine for games.
Or you can attach 5 more sata drives if case has the space to put them

Your motherboard has less nvme slots than the current boards but it supports more Sata ssd/hdd slots. X870 is where they stop having as many sata ports.
You have 6, I only have 4.

Thanks Colif, would one of the specific M2 slots be better than the other or are they about as equal? (Apologies for what appear to be stupid questions).

 

[Lutfij]

Per your motherboard's specs;

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK/Specification#

Slot M2_1's max speed is PCIe4.0x4 while slot M2_2's max speed is PCIe3.0x4. What is the make and model of your NVMe SSD currently on operation? If your current drive is PCIe4.0x4 speeds and a large capacity, you can format the OS partition and drive, you can have that as the game library drive while you invest in a smaller capacity PCIe3.0x4 drive to have the OS, app's and launchers on.

 

[Glockwyrks]

Per your motherboard's specs;

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK/Specification#

Slot M2_1's max speed is PCIe4.0x4 while slot M2_2's max speed is PCIe3.0x4. What is the make and model of your NVMe SSD currently on operation? If your current drive is PCIe4.0x4 speeds and a large capacity, you can format the OS partition and drive, you can have that as the game library drive while you invest in a smaller capacity PCIe3.0x4 drive to have the OS, app's and launchers on.

I'll need to do some digging to find that out, as I don't have it to hand.

All I remember spec wise is that I am running a AMD Ryzen 5 3600 on the MAG B550 Tomahawk (MS-7C91) with Corsair DDR4 32GB memory at 1799Mhz and display is a RTX 2060 Super.

 

[Colif]

The top slot in most motherboards is linked directly to CPU and is generally faster than the other slots. On a B550, that is the case. The 2nd slot is controlled by chipset on motherboard and due to needing to communicate through the board, its slower than the top slot.

You can download Crystal disk info, it will tell you what drives you have now, as well as their health

CrystalDiskInfo

About CrystalDiskInfo A HDD/SSD utility software which supports a part of USB, Intel RAID and NVMe. Aoi Edition Standard Edition Shizuku Edition Kurei Kei Edition Download System Requirements OS Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019/2022/2025 Architecture...

crystalmark.info

click on tab at top to go between drives.
Drive health dropped 1% in almost a year... I will be dead before it needs to be replaced. The other two drives are still on 100% but they hardly get any use.

If for some reason you don't want to install that, its just getting info off PC anyway.
You can search for system information application on windows search
When it opens, look in left column and choose Components/Storage/Disks and it should show you the Manufacturer and Model of all your drives.

Or you can look in device Manager
right click start, choose Device manager
click arrow next to Disk Drives, should show the names there.

 

[Glockwyrks]

The top slot in most motherboards is linked directly to CPU and is generally faster than the other slots. On a B550, that is the case. The 2nd slot is controlled by chipset on motherboard and due to needing to communicate through the board, its slower than the top slot.

You can download Crystal disk info, it will tell you what drives you have now, as well as their health

CrystalDiskInfo

About CrystalDiskInfo A HDD/SSD utility software which supports a part of USB, Intel RAID and NVMe. Aoi Edition Standard Edition Shizuku Edition Kurei Kei Edition Download System Requirements OS Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019/2022/2025 Architecture...

crystalmark.info

click on tab at top to go between drives.
Drive health dropped 1% in almost a year... I will be dead before it needs to be replaced. The other two drives are still on 100% but they hardly get any use.

If for some reason you don't want to install that, its just getting info off PC anyway.
You can search for system information application on windows search
When it opens, look in left column and choose Components/Storage/Disks and it should show you the Manufacturer and Model of all your drives.

Or you can look in device Manager
right click start, choose Device manager
click arrow next to Disk Drives, should show the names there.

Thank you for the advice & information Colif, I've opted for the system information route given that the UK has decided to ban IMGUR for whatever purpose and can't see the screenshot.

So, supposedly my SSD is a WDS500G3X0C-00SJGO and my HDD is ST2000DM008-2FR102. I haven't checked, but I am pretty sure my SSD is running off the slot below the CPU/GPU. So it's probably best to grab one and install it for the top slot connection and run the OS off that?

 

[Colif]

I haven't checked, but I am pretty sure my SSD is running off the slot below the CPU/GPU.

Easiest way to check would just be to look under the heat sink of the 2nd nvme slot, since it should be viewable under the 2nd PCIe slot
I would show a screenshot of the layout of your motherboard here but you can't see them
So page 13 of this:

https://download-2.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/MAGB550TOMAHAWK.pdf

If its empty the 1st slot has to have the ssd in it. I expect its easier to get to. I can't tell if the heat sink is pre attached, as screenshots of board show it as attached, but its always possible it isn't attached out of the box.

At least its easy to get to that one on your board, my extra M,2 slots are literally under my GPU, I would have to take it out to access them. Well, the nvme anyway. my SSD is on back of motherboard tray
To get to my main nvme, I would have to remove my CPU Cooler as its underneath it. One way to keep it cool.

Windows can't tell what slot its in. I don't think it gets that info.

So it's probably best to grab one and install it for the top slot connection and run the OS off that?

Well, I assume the new ssd will be gen 4 so might as well put it in the top one, and move the other ssd down to the slot below 2nd PCIe slot. It won't slow down your current SSD since its only Gen 3 now.

If you try to install windows on the new ssd with the current ssd installed in PC, windows will see the old install and would, instead of creating a new boot partition on the new drive, just add your new install onto the already existing one on the old drive. This is a potential problem in the future if you replaced the other nvme or it stopped working.
Ideal situation is remove the current ssd when you install windows on the new one, or wipe C at same time as you install windows. 1st option probably easier unless you can copy everything onto hdd

Also stops another habit of the installer. If it sees empty space on another drive, it may copy parts of itself onto it instead. Always easier to just have one drive in PC when its installing windows fresh.

WD Black 500gb Gen 3
Seagate 2tb HDD

 

[Glockwyrks]

Easiest way to check would just be to look under the heat sink of the 2nd nvme slot, since it should be viewable under the 2nd PCIe slot
I would show a screenshot of the layout of your motherboard here but you can't see them
So page 13 of this:

https://download-2.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/MAGB550TOMAHAWK.pdf

If its empty the 1st slot has to have the ssd in it. I expect its easier to get to. I can't tell if the heat sink is pre attached, as screenshots of board show it as attached, but its always possible it isn't attached out of the box.

At least its easy to get to that one on your board, my extra M,2 slots are literally under my GPU, I would have to take it out to access them. Well, the nvme anyway. my SSD is on back of motherboard tray
To get to my main nvme, I would have to remove my CPU Cooler as its underneath it. One way to keep it cool.

Windows can't tell what slot its in. I don't think it gets that info.



Well, I assume the new ssd will be gen 4 so might as well put it in the top one, and move the other ssd down to the slot below 2nd PCIe slot. It won't slow down your current SSD since its only Gen 3 now.

If you try to install windows on the new ssd with the current ssd installed in PC, windows will see the old install and would, instead of creating a new boot partition on the new drive, just add your new install onto the already existing one on the old drive. This is a potential problem in the future if you replaced the other nvme or it stopped working.
Ideal situation is remove the current ssd when you install windows on the new one, or wipe C at same time as you install windows. 1st option probably easier unless you can copy everything onto hdd

Also stops another habit of the installer. If it sees empty space on another drive, it may copy parts of itself onto it instead. Always easier to just have one drive in PC when its installing windows fresh.

WD Black 500gb Gen 3
Seagate 2tb HDD

Thanks Colif for all the advice, I think I'm going to opt for a full wipe and re-install everything from fresh.

One of the cat's jumped on the tower and turned it on one day, I tried to shut it down instantly and it advised that someone was logged in, which seemed weird. So, probably best to do a full cleanse and get rid of any poltergeist living inside of it along the way.

Just need to find myself a reasonable SSD now, I've even considered a new case with some room for future expansion, I'm due a bonus July time and have my eyes set on a new GFX Card assuming my CPU doesn't bottle neck the life out of it.

 

[Colif]

The last two times I reinstalled windows was to try to fix problems that ended up being caused by peripherals. Its a long time since I reinstalled windows because of something it did... more me causing them.

Windows version updates, the ones released once a year, in the past would replace lots of parts of windows when installed and replace the current install. It meant you didn't really need to clean install windows as often as oldest files are only 1 year old at most. The 25H2 update didn't do that process.

Only clean installs I done on last 2 PC was the first one. You can fix Windows 11 without needing to reinstall, in most cases.

I haven't replaced C drive though, so there is that aspect. I don't really put anything apart from windows and applications on C, so currently have 1.5tb of free space on that drive. Not sure what I will do with the rest.
If I want more space, I add another drive.

I only use 2.23tb, all mine could fit in the space you have now but it would be cramped. Not ideal with ssd, they work better with 10% free.

Many reinstalls of windows prior to win 10 means I have learned to only put basics on C and use the other drive(s) for everything else, as then if you need to wipe C all your data still on the other drives. Windows is way harder to break now, but habits are hard to break. I probably could get away with 1 drive but I can't do it.

One of the cat's jumped on the tower and turned it on one day, I tried to shut it down instantly and it advised that someone was logged in, which seemed weird. So, probably best to do a full cleanse and get rid of any poltergeist living inside of it along the way.

maybe your cats set up a user...

A new case can make PC look new. And give you more space.