Hi - sorry if this is in the wrong area im new to Forums as well as this DAW lark! And also computers. So a total loss....! Sorry its a long post....
Im at my wits end with a new system i have - i was running X3 Producer ( via the Steam client ) fine on my laptop with a couple of choice plugs, then got BFD3 and Uhe Diva and it was struggling.
So my lovely wife went and got me a desktop PC - a gaming rig really but should be fine for Audio Production ( i7 , 16gb RAM, 2TB HDD, 128G SDD ) it has a D:/ recovery partition on the SSD by the looks of it.
So i cleared all the bloatware and uneccessary programs and start installing Steam, Sonar, AD drums etc ( only plugs i have beyond things that are with Producer are BFD3, GEIST, TAL UNO X, Diva, Z3TA+2, Sgear amp sim, Izotope Nectar and a couple of waves dynamics plugs, so not loads n loads ). I believe i have to install the programs to the C:/ drive in the Program files folder in order for them to work correctly. I was then going to install the big sample libraries of BFD and GEIST to the E:/ drive.
So far so good - except even without the sample libraries it appears theres not enough space on the C:/ drive - i ran Sonar and most plugs didnt work ( i checked the scan paths were correct ) and a message saying 'not enough space' shows when trying to load the ones that show up. I was sure with the limited amount of programs that even the small drive would cope
Its driving me mad as im without a recording setup - i was looking at a couple of possible solutions
1/ Buy a larger SSD and put the OS on that - but Windows 8.1 is pre installed so ill have to somehow clone/ copy the drive to the new one
2/ Obtain a cooy of Windows and install it to a partition on the E:/ drive - slower but if it works thats fine.
Or maybe these ideas are clueless and wont work!!!! Please help im going crazy i was loving Sonar and recording.
Thanks for any assistance and sorry for the long/noob post.

Remove Sonar and start again...

Keep the SSD for windows only.

When you re-install Sonar, install it to drive E. Put everything on drive E.
If you want to by another SSD that's great. Put Sonar on that and all your sample/audio data on drive E.

When you're installing Sonar pay close attention to the drive it's asking to put things on....

Hi Karyn
Thanks for the swift reply :)

I did attempt this before but it seemed not to work, i thought some flles needed to be in the Program files folder on C:/? Not sure where i got that idea from ....
I will try this and pay close attention to where all the programs are installing as this may well have been my problem last time.
I will maybe create a couple of folders on E:/ ( VST, Program files, Samples etc ) then i can keep easier tabs on where stuff is.
Files and folders are a nightmare!!!
Guess i need to learn fast for Audio Production!
Thanks again Karyn this seems to be a great community

There's plenty of room on a 128 gb ssd, windows doesn't need more than what, 40-50gb ?.  I have mine divided in three partitions c: for windows and programs that insist on going there (like pieces of Sonar), d: for office related programmes and e: for Sonar Producer, Cakewalk synths and their multi/samples.
 
Cakewalk content (loops, etc), sonar projects and everything else (windows user data) are on HDDs.
If I had large third party sample libraries I'd get another ssd.
 
 

The 128G SSD drive you have should be enough for your exe and dll files just make sure all the samples that go with them are else where. I have a 256G SSD for my C: drive and have the OS, three large DAWs (including X2 and X3). BFD3, Native Instruments KOMPLETE 9, Vegas Pro and various and sundry other applications. I'm currently using only 116G of space on that drive.
 
The key is to split apart the content (samples) from the executable files (exe and dll). Hope you get it sorted.
 
Regards,

Thank you all for your help people, as i say file types and which ones i can seperate from the C:/ drive are an absolute mystery to me - i should do my homework now i think and take some time to learn about them.
As i say i know i can seperate the sample libraries from the main program on things like BFD and Geist but which files are imperative to keep on the C:/ drive for programs to work is like a science to me!!!
So im putting the exe and dll files on the c:/ drive in the folders that the programs assign themselves to, and all other content of the programs to another drive? Would that be applicable to Diva's presets or do they need to be in the same program folder as Diva? Sorry to be so stoopid im just trying to learn and am pickung the brains of people with experience :)
Thanks again for all the support.

Sorry, also to add can anyone clarify that i can put the VST folder of a program on C:/ onto my E:/ drive and as long as my scan path is set correctly ( to the destination folder of the VST on E:/ ) then this should cause no probkems with the operation of the program in Sonar?

You may want to spend some time learning and experimenting with the DOS command mklink using the /d and /j switches. Using links can help with relocating software and avoid registry edits.
 
VST2 plug-ins can be installed anywhere. SONAR the path added to the VST scan path in Preferences.

Ok im back home with the PC now my C:/ drive has 71.7gb free of 107gb
My D:/ ( recovery drive ) has 1.22gb of 10gb ( so im assuming its a partition of the SSD )
And my E:/ drive is utterly clean with 2.72TB on it.
I assume deleting the recovery drive would be a bad idea!! Especially just for 10gb....

Thanks scook i think my fragile brain may explode from any of that - im a 40 year old guitarist so have a shrews brain capacity!!! DOS involves programming is that right?
Thank for the time to reply :)