Why does some text appear broken up with blank spaces where some words or letters should be? Is it related to a bigger display problem?

Oh oh, Neil, I didn't realize that...about how the SSD fills up (with operating system and programs), spills over to the HDD, and then the HDD slows down the system.

I see now what you mean about ideally a computer should have just one big SSD and no HDD, for top speed.

Cost wise that wasn't possible when I set up this Asus. It came with the 2 T HDD. And I did want that kind of storage space on the computer - so speed wasn't my first or highest concern. I certainly needed the RAM upgrade more than I needed addtional speed, so I bought a little bit of both.

About speed, though, I'm still not clear about the situation with the 2 drives - if a computer keeps only storage items on its HDD (photo, docs etc), does that slow down the speed of the SSD?

On this Asus, clearly I'm in little danger of filling up the 512 GB SSD with OS and programs since, after 5 years, I'm still only using 80 GB of SSD. But let's say, max, I use up 200 GB of SSD, so still about half empty SSD. Then, continuing to use the HDD for only storage, how much of the HDD can I fill up before that will affect performance? Also half of it, i.e. 1T ? - which is what I would like to do. Or is that not how these things work ? lol.

Of course, your explanation now makes me wonder about my much more expensive iMac. It also has 2T HDD but only 128 SSD! Though I realize that Apple uses some sort of magic proprietary system to optimize the two drives as a Fusion Drive, whatever that might mean. (btw, just to mention that they intended to replace both drives on my broken Mac, but when I go it back, they had only replaced the SSD. It seems to be working well, though I don't have much on it yet.)

Looking forward to your reply, as usual :)
Skye

Hmmm, now the way you have your drives setup on your Asus is actually the way most computers are setup with combination SSD & HDD.

The SSD is meant to be for your operating system and programs (for speed) and the HDD is meant for things like storage of photos, videos, files, etc...

But what most people find is they run out of space on their SSD quickly and then start having to use their HDD for programs and stuff too....which then slows the whole system down.

One thing I have learnt from having computers since they first came out (I had a ZX80 in 1980) is that they always default to slowest bottleneck in the system. In your case it will be the HDD.

So, you are setup correctly as in what most computers are setup like with the two drives, but in my honest opinion, if you want a really fast computer, get rid of the HDD and invest in a larger SSD. If everything is on your SSD, your computer will be so much faster and not face any bottlenecks in slowdown due to your HDD slow speed in comparison to your SSD speed.

I hope this makes sense to you.

Kindest regards,

Neil

Hi Neil,

I've looked at all your two sets of instructions about creating a new recovery disk, and it looks like I should be able to do it fine from what you've sent. Thank you.

Now, about the 2 drives in this Asus: It came with 2 T HDD and then I added 512 SSD for speed. Or, I should say, that's what I was trying to do. Best Buy had to install the SSD sometime later after the purchase because they had to bring it in as a special order. Unfortunately, I guess my original instructions got lost in the meantime, and instead of adding the SSD to the HDD, they removed the HDD and replaced it with the SSD. lol.

So when I got the machine back, the C drive was the SSD. And when I had them add the HDD back in, it became the D drive. I assumed they would set it up so the things that needed speed would be on the SSD and the other stuff would be saved to the HDD. But, when I finally had a look at the drives, I saw that there was virtually nothing on the HDD - every thing was on the SSD.

When I asked Best Buy about this they said - Well, if you want to be saving to the HDD, then you will have to manually move your things over there. That's not how I thought things would be set up to work. But that's what I've been doing. At this point I have about 80 GB on the SSD and another 80 GB on the HDD - because I keep most of my content (400 GB+) on external drives.

Would you have any suggestions to give about this set up, or should I just continue with the cumbersome way I'm using them? I did have a look at my iMac for comparison, but it's a proprietary Fusion Dive, so I can only see what is on the drive as a whole - it doesn't show a break down of what is on each drive.

Looking forward to your reply,

:)

Skye

No problem Skye. Ask away when you're ready.

Neil

Aha! That makes sense - the updating Chrome Icon on my desktop. Also I appreciate the explanation of the desktop Refresh function which I have avoided using because I wasn't sure what it did.

Tonight I'll have a look at the Asus recovery disk options you've mentioned. I'm off right now to pick up my Mac with the two new hard drives, and then set it up from scratch. I want to get it up and running right away because there are only a few days left in the manufacturer's warrantee!

Which, btw, reminds me that I did have another question related to this Asus and its two hard drives . But I'll have to ask that in my next message tonight or tomorrow morning.

Till then, thanks again for your help,

:)
Skye