I've noticed that it's taking considerably longer loading songs with soft synths inserted. I know it was always recommended to use a separate drive for audio but is the same thing true for soft synths?  Is it easy to move Dimension pro, Rapture, True pianos and any other vsts to another HD & get Sonar or Platinum to recognize them?

Moving samples to an SSD will speed start up considerably for projects containing sample based plug-ins like DimPro and Session Drummer. Moving them to another HD not so much. Rapture, while sample based, usually does not load very many samples per program so relocating Rapture samples may not matter.
 
Moving the samples is easy using mklink, here is a thread about it http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3155382.
 
Moving plug-ins will do practically nothing to decrease project load times.

You will have to uninstall DimPro and Rapture first. Then do a custom or advanced install to assign where the librarys go. I have never had any luck just moving the librarys and getting those synths to find the samples. This may have changed in Platinum but I doubt it.
In earlier versions of Sonar no matter what you did DimPro would still install the library on the same drive as the synth. I would like to be able to move that library easily myself.

I am discussing this very same thing ( more or less ) with some observations at this thread:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Depending-on-your-new-Sonar-version-What-should-we-install-not-install-m3160725.aspx
 
Might be of interest to your question ..
 

Sidroe
You will have to uninstall DimPro and Rapture first.

Not true. All it takes to relocate the samples is move them to another location and create a directory junction to the new location.

Sidroe
In earlier versions of Sonar no matter what you did DimPro would still install the library on the same drive as the synth.

This is another reason to learn how to use mklink. It always works.

aidanodr
I am discussing this very same thing ( more or less ) with some observations at this thread:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Depending-on-your-new-Sonar-version-What-should-we-install-not-install-m3160725.aspx

No, this thread is about project load times.
 

OK, but it is similar in that you are discussing moving libraries and the like to achieve better load times but all I am saying is the request is similar though end result required might be different ..
 
Sorry if it feels like a hijack - but that was not the intention. Might be some crossover is all .. that could be helpful in both cases! 

scook
Moving samples to an SSD will speed start up considerably for project containing sample based plug-ins like DimPro and Session Drummer. Moving it to another HD not so much. Rapture, while sample based, usually does not load very many samples per program so relocating Rapture samples may not matter.
 
Moving the samples is easy using mklink, here is a thread about it http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3155382.
 
Moving plug-ins will do practically nothing to decrease project load times.

Thanks, I didn't know they used symbolic links at all with Windows OS. They're very commonly used in Linux. As for load times, that is not as important as reliability. The reason I'm getting concerned is sometimes when i open up the program with a few synths loaded I see a [not responding] message at the top left of the screen. It takes about 20 or 30 seconds to load up O.K. & the message to go away and the track name to take it's place. I'm just tempted to move things to another drive and see if it makes a difference. Now I'm not sure if having samples on the same drive that I'm recording to is a good idea either. Is there any recommendations on that scenario? 
 

More info about your setup (hardware, OS, SONAR version) may help in arriving at a solution.

I can back you on that one. I also notice the NOT RESPONDING quiet alot when loading a file with a few synths. I have to wait, then it loads. In my case I have an i5, 8GB Ram, 1 TB harddrive ( my laptop ) .. as you said the latter might be the issue + how Sonar gets on with the harddrive speed. 
 
I would be also concerned with this NOT RESPONDING though. Right now I have a file with 3 tracks. Two loading separate HYBRID Synths and one track loading Addictive drums. Takes about 40 seconds to load with the NOT RESPONDING sometimes.