I’m using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit as my OS and I have currently a two-partition setup where my C drive is the system drive and is about 300GB in size, and my D drive is for sample libraries en masse, project files etc and its about 700GB in size. They are both on the same 1TB SSD but I wanted to have a separate mass drive in case my OS went kaput and a reformat and reinstall was needed. Basically I keep my stuff on the D drive if its a) irreplaceable like project files etc or b) it’s a pain in the butt to install. For example, my EastWest Symphonic Orchestra and Choirs are on 50+ DVDs… All has been fine and dandy but, as of today, I have amassed quite a collection of VST software aswell, and would hate to have to go through the hassle of reinstalling and reconfiguring everything in the afore-mentioned kaput scenario, so I came here to ask you this: If my Cubase 8 Pro and Absolute 2 Instrument Collection were installed on my safe drive D instead of the current system drive C, would I be able to use them after reinstalling Windows 7, or are there any essential registry entries or something like that which are generated upon installation that would require me to reinstall my Steinberg software anyway? Cheers!
Unfortunately most software does add registry entries and uninstall files etc. so you cannot just do this, it is a shame as reinstalling all your vstis takes ages! I have found that I do not have to reinstall all the data though
What I have been doing successfully for a few years is to set up my system drive (C-drive) with Windows and all of my programs (e.g., Cubase, virtual instruments, etc.) and put the (large) data files for the virtual instruments on a separate drive. Then, I clone my system drive and keep that as a backup. Since it is identical to the original, I am able to use it without having to reinstall any of the virtual instruments. I clone the drive with MiniTool Drive Copy (which is free and works great).
I make a full backup of my C (windows) drive every few weeks depending on what I install in the period. I use paragon HD manager for it but I guess any soft will do. To be sure I usually keep 2 backups (One new and the last before it) that way a reinstall only takes half an hour and everything is ready to go. I learned this the hard way of course. Do make sure the back up is not only on your SSD d partition as SSD’s can also die completely without warning. You couls also do a full disk backup on a 1tb HDD. That way you are always safe.