best folder to install sse (or even steam in general)

[phillipjohnmc]

i'm planning to redo my sse and i wondered if there were a better place to put the game. i don't have an SSD drive, only HDD, and just a C drive. it's currently in the programs (x86) folder, and i've read that that's not the best place. i'm redoing my game, mods etc to improve stability. it was playable before, but with some hiccups, so i'd like to make it even better (on my current system of course).

 

so given all this, what's the best place/folder to install sse and steam in general? or does it really matter?

Edited March 14, 2018 by phillipjohnmc

[leonardo2]

Any folder would due, except for the UAC-protected C:\Program Files(x86) and sometimes even the C:\Program Files folder should be avoided whenever possible.

 

That applies for Steam as well.

 

 

A word of advice.

 

I highly recommend that you split C:\ into at least one more partition and only having one partition is not recommended at all due to virus, a lot of temp files when using a web browser plus gamesaves take a lot of diskspace.

Edited March 14, 2018 by leonardo2

[phillipjohnmc]

so should i move everything over to, say, the C:/Games folder? not sure how to 'split c: into at least one more partition'. is that like setting up a new drive, like a d: drive? i'm only sort of tech savvy lol (edit: nvm about partitioning, google informed me in under 5 mins, super easy)

Edited March 14, 2018 by phillipjohnmc

[Evangela]

You should get another(and bigger) HDD just for games. They(game files) are getting larger and larger, and it's just not a good idea to put games on the main drive anymore. I took all my games off my SSD because 125GB isn't enough.

[phillipjohnmc]

i have a laptop, so, don't think i can. i have 1tb though, and 400gb for games, on a new 'd' drive partition

[jones177]

I have read that it is not the best place as well.

 

I have had Skyrim/SE & Fallout 4(all Steam games) in the default location with no issues on 3 different computers. If someone would like to tell me why it is a bad idea I would appreciate it.

 

I use one SSD or HD with one visible partition. If I use 2 or more they are in a raid configuration. Windows 7 likes to see only one drive. If it sees more, data reads are slower(not boots). Also the slowest drive on your system dictates its speed. I have only tested this with Windows 7 & back. My Windows 10 computer has 1tb SSD.

 

If you decide to get another drive get one as fast as you can afford. Skyrim SE is accessed all the time when you play & the large files can overwhelm the cache on a cheap drive causing low frame rate & stutter.

 

Later

[3aq]

I keep my all my games and game related programs in its own separate directory.

 

Here's where I installed my SSE.

 

C:\z\Bethesda Softworks\The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Special Edition

 

Then I place MO2 - SSE, LOOT, SseEdit, Mator Smash, and Merge Plugin in C:\z\

 

I installed Steam as well as other none game (and non-vital load intensive program) on my D drive to save space on my C: (in fact I put as much non-vital programs, files, data on D as possible to maximize my SSD, as you will know modding can be extremely storage demanding)

 

Lastly, I installed my NMM onto my E drive (external travel 2gb ssd) which acts as my mod databank as well as my overall backup (I routinely copy and archive my latest stable game; skyrim folder and mo2 - sse folder in its entirety in case something goes horribly wrong (surprise update, messed up SSEedits, drunken mishaps, etc)

 

Note on MO2 (as well as other games) and NMM: I use NMM strictly as a download manager, and will use MO2 to install mods I will actively use via adding the files from NMM's download folder. This effectively isolates and protects my downloaded NMM files from unintended tampering as well as increasing my SSD's storage capacity what with not needed to store unused mods in the same drive. (Before I did this, I was dwindling down to 60 gb free space on my ssd, with each mod slowly chipping down on that number, what with all the mods I download; now however I though I am constantly hovering around little less than half of my current SSD free storage-- 112 gb free, and this is regardless of the amount of all the mods I am still downloading. In short it's a totally awesome method, and I highly encourage it)

 

This to me have many benefits, to name a few: better organization, effective double redundancy, shorter directory (hence going back on better organization), increased memory performance (hence better game load times).

 

Hope this helps, regardless though, all the best.

[phillipjohnmc]

thanks for that. as is, i've got everything on a newly partitioned d drive and it seems to work fine. i got rid of nmm entirely and use mo2 for everything. i definitely prefer mo2, as you can find out what's overwriting/being overwritten, and i like my vanilla data folder being clean. game's running basically fine, although i had a freeze-up when i first bought a horse and then ate/drank something while riding it, then froze on quicksave. i haven't played enough of my current savegame yet to know if the past issues i had (ctds) will start reoccuring (ctds that occurred even after cleaning masters and swtiching the touchpad handwriting feature off from windows, although those things did reduce the number of occurrences). anyway, i'm getting off-topic, but it was because of these past issues that i've switched to mo2 and tried to set up a better system/separate drive, to hopefully be able to handle issues better if they start up again, or hopefully they just won't start up again at all. i've had no ctds so far.