Hi all. Well I've now got a new flying PC with an SSD and HDD and about to re-load some VSTs - Hammond B4, Realstrat etc.
 
I hear it's best to put the "libraries" on the HDD and keep the SSD free for speed, which I understand, but not all these VSTs install in the same way.
 
My question is: How do I ensure that all the VSTs installed on the HDD will still appear in the Cakewalk HS softsynth menu which will be running from the SSD?
 
Any advice anyone??

All your VST's (.dll) should be (ideally) on one drive, otherwise you'll have to let Sonar's scanner know exactly where you're installing them......being on different drives might also cause issues in trying to run a particular VST.
 
Your samples should be on a seperate HDD.
 
This is how my setup is and it works really well as I have these 3 drives installed in my new PC:

C: OS/All Software Programs on SSD
D: Sonar Projects (1 TB HDD)
E: Synth Samples (3TB HDD)
 
All my VST's are installed on my C:Program Files\Cakewalk\VST\ (and some subfolders)
 
After you let Sonar's plugin scanner (Plugin Mgr.) know where all your VST's are, Sonar should recoginze them.......but it's advisable to keep all your VST's on one drive (so you won't confuse yourself).

most will try to install something on ya C: drive (or look for a "vstplugin" entry in your registry to find where the default location is), normally most vst's are fine located in another place.. and you just point sonar to that new folder.
 
I split mine into 4 folders off a vstplugins folder.. . 1)32 bit 2)64 bit and another 2 that are daw specific (sonar and my other one).. e.g. some of the ones I have with sonar, check sonar is the host DAW.
 
it's not the plugins that are the issue, it's their big libraries also .e.g. kontakt or dim pro take a fair bit of space.
 

Thanks for your input guys, that has been most useful. Moving from old pc to new one has been a bit of a challenge, so to see how others cope with the management structure has been really helpful.