I am having the usual disk space problems with Windows...
My C drive is an SSD with 256 GB capacity.
When I purchased my laptop last year this was plenty of space... Now there is not much room left.
My BIAB Audiophile installation was running from C drive with all real tracks and real drums on Drive drive E.
I have tried all of the usual tricks to no avail and have now moved my BB folder to the installed D drive.
No problems encountered there.
Just wondering, will there be any benefit if I invest in a 4TB external SSD and run everything from there?
Many thanks in anticipation

Just a little faster.

I run all of the RealTracks and RealDrums from my external USB3 Audiophile drive. This means minimum disk space requirements on the system internal disk(s).

You can definitely run BiaB from any drive. It doesn't have to be C:

The RealTracks and RealDrums tracks don't have to be on the same drive that BiaB is installed on. They can be on a separate drive.

Since you have an Audiophile Edition, you can install Band-in-a-Box to the external hard drive that was shipped to you and run everything off of the external. It makes it easier to remember where to install other add-ons as well if everything is in one place. Out of an abundance of caution, we'd suggest making backups of your song files to another location other than an external just in case if it gets damaged years down the road.

A lot of computers nowadays come with a separate internal HD you can install to that is much bigger. For example, my computer back home has a 200GB SSD for the C drive but has a 1TB D drive installed. I install everything there on my personal computer just so I know exactly where everything is going.

If you wanted the benefits of installing to an internal HD and happen to have a separate larger internal drive that's not a SSD, that's another option - you can always install the program in full to that drive and run it from there, and keep the external HD we send out as a backup (similar to what Chantelle said).

If you decide to go with a separate external HD, you can definitely install the full program there if you wish to. Just be sure that you are installing it to the correct locations. For example, the default is C:\bb, but if your external HD is E, make sure it is set to E:\bb and not E:\MyMusic\Band-in-a-Box\bb or something along those lines, as this will make installing future patch updates or content difficult.

The external HD that we send out is plenty sufficient to run the program from, and quite speedily! Most people won't notice the difference between running off an internal HD versus running from an external HD as the drives come with a 3.0 USB attachment, but some people like the comfort of having the installers on the external HD we send solely as a backup and not having it plugged in all the time, and in the case of the Audiophile, only if wanting to utilize the uncompressed files.

Ultimately, whatever decision you make we're always here to help! So if you run into any snags you're welcome to contact us and we are happy to walk you through the process or clarify any questions you might have.

I agree with Ember. I have two 4 TB internal HD's. One of them used for BIAB. The second one I use for downloads for various updates and/or new versions.

Works well for me!

Speaking of internal SSD drive ... I'm down to 10GB of free space (thanks to all those Windows 10 updates). Guess it's time to visit Best Buy, have them transfer my original SSD content (including OS) to a bigger one. Has anyone in this great community ever had to do this and how successful was it? Would love some input on that.

Thanks!

I haven't tried to do that too often, because I like starting with a fresh OS. However, the few times I tried using the vendor's drive cloning software, it has not worked for me.

I do put most of my application software on other drives, but unfortunately most applications insist on writing something to the boot drive so you will have to reinstall those. If there is an unregister/de-authorize command, like there is for BIAB, run that before you do anything else.

Thanks for your input, VD!

For cloning boot hard drives, in the past I've used Clonezilla and Acronis True Image, and they've typically worked fine. I'm mostly on Mac these days so I haven't used either of these tools in a while.

Thanks, Matt. Sorry that I missed your comment. Good feedback, as always!

Thanks, Simon. That may be the way to go!

Hi,

I use Drive Snapshot Diskimaging for Windows NT
Drive Snapshot
Works for me.

George

Cloning a drive means make an exact copy doesn't it? So if you clone a 1 TB drive to a 2 TB drive will you get a 1 TB clone and another 1 TB partition? Or will you get a 2 TB C drive?

I have had success with Macrium Reflect. I tested it out on a couple of computers and it cloned the C drives perfectly. But I cloned to the same sized drives.

I used the free, home version of +++ Lazesoft Recovery +++ when I swapped this computer's primary drive from a hard drive to SSD. The software is very easy to use and has worked well for me. One thing I like is the site doesn't require an email address, you don't have to join a mailing list and the software doesn't have embedded advertisements.

Sounds like a great idea! I might give that a whirl!!! Thanks, Jim!

Most of the software out there gives you the options you need to clone your drive and make the extra free space available on the new larger drive. Usually intuitive as they give you a graphic representation of the drive and space etc. I have used EaseUS Disk Copy, Partition Master, Macrium Reflect and others with much success. They are all pretty much alike in my experience.

No worries, hope it works for you!




Most cloning software these days is not a 1:1 clone, mostly because a 1:1 clone would also clone all the empty space on your drive, but also because most hard drives are not exactly the size they say they are - for example one 240gb SSD could be 239,932,643,840 bytes but one from another brand could be 240,013,248,651 bytes. Generally speaking, a good cloning software should fill the empty space on the drive.

I've also used Macrium Reflect, but I haven't used it to duplicate a boot hard drive.