Sonar installs files in at least the following locations:
 
C:\Cakewalk\xx 
C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\xx\xx
C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\xx\xx
C:\Users\(name)\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\xx\xx
C:\Users\(name)\Documents\Cakewalk\xx\xx
 
Can I consolidate some of these to minimize "scatter"? Or is "scatter" a good thing?
 
Also, each Sonar version has it's own folder hierarchy duplicating many of the same files. Can these be moved to a "common" folder for all versions... and delete the duplicates?
 
Result:
 
C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\xx\xx
D:\Cakewalk\Audio Files
          "           \Content
          "           \Picture Cache
          "           \Projects
          "           \Sample Content
etc.
 

I do not believe there is much savings there. Have you done the math?
 
C:\Cakewalk\xx is not a default location, I have no idea what is there.
 
The SONAR folders in C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\xx\xx contain master files copied user directory, C:\Users\(name)\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\xx\xx, during the personalization process.
 
In my installation C:\Users\(name)\Documents\Cakewalk\xx\xx only contains a couple of folders and pointers to the project folders.

Thanks scook, I'm not worried about savings. Just trying to consolidate scatter... or understand what appears to be scatter.
 

scook
In my installation C:\Users\(name)\Documents\Cakewalk\xx\xx only contains a couple of folders and pointers to the project folders.

Mine contains Sample Content, Groove clips, Tutorials, Loopmasters files, X-Mix, etc. @1.5 GB.

Those are all in my Cakewalk Content directory tree; certainly all optional content and easily relocated, if not deleted. It may be the new installer uses my documents if there is no previous Cakewalk Content folder. My most recent build, about a year ago, I already had a partial X2 and X3 install before adding Platinum.

I have a similar situation with multiple bits of x1, x2 and x3 hanging around and Platinum that I'm running.
I've consolidated duplicates wherever possible...
 
what I'd like to know is whats the best drive to have these on anyway...
I'm guessing the one that Sonar/OS is on, rather than my audio drive, libraries drive or backup drive...

FYI, if you really want to consolidate, you could use "directory junctions" to move a folder and put an alias in its original place, I have done that e.g. for some sample libs which installed in the C: drive ...
 
see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_junction_point
 
Apart from that I would not change / care much about where the files are. Only "C:\Users\(name)\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk" is a bit of a pain as it is a hidden folder, which you may not have included in your regular backup setup.  However, you can move the important files (e.g. your templates) to different locations and change the path in Preferences/File/Folder Locations

As per my other post, my system crashed after trying a free clone app that totally messed it up. Yesterday I got it back from the shop and now have a 512GB ssd main OS drive so everything can go in it's default location without worry.
 
I've since read that cloning software is a crap shoot.... mostly crap. My lesson learned and advice to others is Don't Doit!
 
The 128 GB drive will be for recovery and OS image files.
 
There's a 3rd internal 1TB drive for DAW files and everything else but I will be migrating them all to an external 2TB USB3 drive.
 
Now back to reinstalling everything.