For an editing PC, storage is not just about capacity, it determines how smoothly your timeline scrubs, how fast proxies generate, and whether 4K or 6K footage drops frames on playback. Unlike gaming where sequential read speed is king, editing demands sustained write performance, low latency for random access, and a configuration that separates your operating system, active projects, and cache files so no single drive becomes a bottleneck. Getting the best storage settings for editing pc means prioritizing a dedicated scratch architecture, correct file system and power settings, and proper allocation of fast NVMe bandwidth before you worry about adding more terabytes.
As codecs have become more demanding in 2026, with heavier Long-GOP and RAW formats now common even on mirrorless cameras, a misconfigured drive can throttle an otherwise powerful CPU and GPU. The goal of this guide is to give you actionable, reversible settings you can apply today in Windows, your BIOS, and inside Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and After Effects to eliminate storage-related stutters and extend drive lifespan.
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Quick Recommended Settings
| Setting | Recommended value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Storage Sense | Off for editing drives | Prevents automatic deletion of cache and proxy files during active projects |
| Power Plan – PCI Express Link State Power Management | Off | Stops NVMe drives from throttling to save power during timeline playback |
| Drive Write-Caching Policy | Enable write caching + Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing (with UPS only) | Improves sustained write for rendering; disable buffer flushing only if protected by battery backup |
| File System for Active Project Drive | NTFS with 64KB Allocation Unit Size | Reduces fragmentation for large video files and improves sequential throughput |
| Premiere Pro / After Effects Scratch Location | Dedicated NVMe (not OS drive), e.g., D:\AdobeScratch\ | Isolates heavy cache I/O from system operations |
| DaVinci Resolve Cache Path | Preferences > Media Storage > Separate fast drive for CacheClip | Prevents cache and gallery files from competing with media reads |
| BIOS NVMe Mode | NVMe RAID/NVMe mode = NVMe, M.2 Link Speed = Gen4 or Gen5 x4 | Ensures full PCIe bandwidth and lowest latency |
| Over-Provisioning | 10% to 15% free space always reserved | Maintains write performance and endurance on SSDs |
| TRIM Schedule | Weekly via Optimize Drives | Preserves random write speed without excessive wear |
Setting-by-Setting
1. Windows Power Settings for NVMe Drives – Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings
What causes it: Windows Balanced power plan enables PCI Express Link State Power Management to reduce power when drives are idle, which introduces latency when the drive wakes during playback or rendering.
How to check: Press Win + R, type powercfg.cpl, press Enter. Click Change plan settings next to your active plan, then Change advanced power settings. Expand PCI Express > Link State Power Management. If it shows Maximum power savings, your NVMe may be throttling.
What to do: Set Link State Power Management to Off. Then go to Settings > System > Power > Power mode and set to Best performance while plugged in. For laptops, create a custom plan for editing and switch back for battery use.
How to undo: Return to the same menu and set Link State Power Management back to Moderate power savings or Maximum power savings.
2. Write-Caching Policy – Device Manager > Disk drives > Properties > Policies
What causes it: By default, Windows may not fully enable the drive’s DRAM cache for write operations, limiting sustained write speed during exports and proxy creation.
How to check: Press Win + X > Device Manager > Disk drives. Right-click your NVMe (e.g., Samsung 990 Pro, WD Black SN850X) > Properties > Policies tab. Note the state of Enable write caching on the device and Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device.
What to do: Check Enable write caching on the device. Only check Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing if you have an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or laptop battery, as this prevents data loss on power failure. Click OK and reboot. Valid range: enabled is recommended for all editing desktops with stable power.
How to undo: Uncheck Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing first, then uncheck Enable write caching if you experience instability, and reboot.
3. File System Allocation Size and TRIM – Format Window and Optimize Drives
What causes it: Using the default 4KB allocation unit size on a drive that stores 50GB+ video files increases Master File Table fragmentation and adds overhead for large sequential reads.
How to check: Open File Explorer > This PC, right-click your media or scratch drive > Properties > General tab to check File system (should be NTFS). To check TRIM status, press Win + S, type Defragment and Optimize Drives, open Optimize Drives, and check Media type and Current status. Open Command Prompt as admin and run fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify – a result of 0 means TRIM is enabled.
What to do: For a new empty project drive, format with NTFS and set Allocation unit size to 64 kilobytes in the Format dialog (Right-click drive > Format). For existing drives, do not reformat without backup. To set TRIM schedule, in Optimize Drives click Change settings > Check Run on a schedule > Frequency: Weekly > Drives: Select your SSDs only.
How to undo: Reformat with default 4096 bytes allocation if you repurpose the drive for small documents. To change TRIM frequency, return to Optimize Drives > Change settings > Set Frequency to Monthly.
4. Adobe Creative Cloud Scratch Disk Location – Premiere Pro > Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks
What causes it: Leaving Captured Video, Video Previews, Audio Previews, and Peak Files on C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\Adobe\ forces simultaneous OS paging and cache writes on one drive, causing timeline lag.
How to check: In Premiere Pro, go to Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks (on Mac: Premiere Pro > Preferences > Scratch Disks). Check the path for each category. In After Effects: Edit > Preferences > Media & Disk Cache. If all paths point to C:, it needs relocation.
What to do: Create a folder D:\AdobeScratch\ (or E:\Scratch\ if D is your media drive). Set all dropdowns to Custom and Browse to D:\AdobeScratch\CapturedVideo\, D:\AdobeScratch\VideoPreviews\, etc. Set Media Cache location to D:\AdobeScratch\MediaCache\ and set Maximum Disk Cache Size to a range of 100GB to 250GB depending on drive size. Click OK and restart Premiere Pro.
How to undo: Return to Scratch Disks and set each location back to Same as Project or C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\Adobe\.
5. DaVinci Resolve Media Storage and Cache – DaVinci Resolve > Preferences > Media Storage
What causes it: Resolve writes optimized media, render cache, and gallery stills to the same volume as your source media by default, creating read/write contention when caching and playing back simultaneously.
How to check: Open DaVinci Resolve > DaVinci Resolve > Preferences (or Edit > Preferences) > Media Storage. Check the listed volumes. Then go to Playback > Render Cache > CacheClip location under Preferences > System > Media Storage. Check file location: C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\ or a custom path.
What to do: Click Add to add your dedicated scratch NVMe (e.g., D:\ResolveCache\) and move it to the top of the list for Cache files. Set the first entry for Media Storage to your fast media drive (e.g., E:\Media\), and ensure the CacheClip path is D:\ResolveCache\CacheClip\. Set Preferences > System > Media Storage > Cache files location accordingly. Value range: allocate 200GB to 500GB for cache on 4K workflows.
How to undo: Remove the custom cache path and set cache location back to the default on C: or your media drive.
6. BIOS NVMe and PCIe Configuration – BIOS Setup (Del/F2 on boot)
What causes it: Some motherboards default M.2 slots to Auto or PCIe Gen3 for compatibility, or share bandwidth with SATA ports, which limits a Gen4/Gen5 drive to half speed and higher latency.
How to check: Restart and press Delete or F2 repeatedly to enter BIOS. Navigate to Advanced > Onboard Devices Configuration or Settings > IO Ports > NVMe Configuration (names vary by ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte). Check M.2_1 Link Mode and PCIe Slot Configuration. In Windows, verify with HWINFO64 or CrystalDiskInfo that Transfer Mode shows PCIe 4.0 x4 or 5.0 x4.
What to do: Set M.2 Link Speed to Gen4 or Gen5 (match your drive spec) and set NVMe RAID mode to Disabled unless you intentionally run RAID 0. Disable SATA ports that share lanes if not used. Press F10 to Save & Exit.
How to undo: Return to BIOS and set M.2 Link Mode back to Auto and re-enable shared SATA ports.
7. Over-Provisioning and Free Space Reservation
What causes it: Filling an SSD beyond 85% to 90% capacity forces the controller to perform more garbage collection, which dramatically increases write latency and can cause dropped frames during capture.
How to check: Open File Explorer > This PC and check free space on each SSD. If the bar is red or shows less than 15% free, performance is at risk. For Samsung drives, open Samsung Magician > Over Provisioning; for WD, open WD Dashboard > Tools.
What to do: Keep 10% to 15% of the drive permanently free. For a 2TB drive, that means leaving 200GB to 300GB empty. Alternatively, use your SSD toolbox to set dedicated over-provisioning: Samsung Magician > Over Provisioning > Set OP > 10%. Never fill the OS drive below 20GB free.
How to undo: Reduce over-provisioning to 0% in the toolbox or allow the drive to fill normally if you need temporary capacity.
By Hardware Tier
Low Tier: Single 1TB NVMe + 2TB HDD (Budget Build)
Keep Windows and apps on the 1TB NVMe (C:). Partition 250GB as D: for scratch if you cannot add a second SSD: In Disk Management (Win + X > Disk Management), right-click C: > Shrink Volume > Enter 256000 MB > Create New Simple Volume as D: with NTFS 64KB. Point all Adobe and Resolve cache to D:\Scratch\. Keep all active project media on C: or D: and archive completed projects to the HDD at E:\Archive\. Disable Storage Sense for drives C: and D: via Settings > System > Storage > Storage Sense > Off, and set Optimize Drives to weekly TRIM only for the NVMe. This tier should avoid 8K RAW and use proxies stored on D:.
Mid Tier: 1TB OS NVMe + 2TB Project NVMe + 4TB SATA SSD or HDD
This is the sweet spot for most editors. Install OS on the 1TB Gen4 drive (C:). Use the 2TB Gen4 drive as E:\Media\ and F:\Scratch\ via two partitions or a single volume with folders E:\Media\ and D:\Scratch\. Set Premiere Pro Scratch Disks to D:\Scratch\ and Resolve CacheClip to D:\ResolveCache\. Format the project NVMe with 64KB allocation units and enable write caching. Set BIOS M.2_1 and M.2_2 to Gen4 x4 independently. Keep 15% free on both NVMes and offload exports and stock footage to the 4TB SATA drive. File path example for proxies: D:\Proxies\%ProjectName%\.
High Tier: 2TB Gen5 OS + 2x 2TB Gen4 RAID 0 or Separate Scratch + NAS Archive
Use the Gen5 drive only for OS and applications to benefit from fast app launch without wasting Gen5 endurance on cache writes. Use one Gen4 2TB NVMe for current media (M:\Active\) and the second Gen4 2TB NVMe exclusively for cache (N:\Cache\) with no partitions. In BIOS, avoid chipset-shared slots; place scratch drive in CPU-connected M.2 slot for lowest latency. For RAID 0 scratch (optional), configure via BIOS > Advanced > NVMe RAID > Create RAID Volume > Select both Gen4 drives > Stripe Size 128KB > Create. In Windows, format the RAID volume as NTFS 64KB. Set export destinations to a 10GbE NAS at \\NAS\Exports\ to avoid competing with scratch. Maintain UPS protection before disabling buffer flushing.
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1: Putting Everything on One Drive
What causes it: Default installer paths place OS, media, previews, and exports on C:, saturating the drive’s queue depth.
How to check: Check Premiere Pro > Preferences > Scratch Disks and Resolve > Preferences > Media Storage. If all paths are C:\, you are affected. Also check Task Manager > Performance > Disk during playback; if C: stays at 100% active time, it is bottlenecked.
What to do: Create dedicated folders on a second physical drive and relocate cache as described above. Move active media off C: entirely.
How to undo: Set scratch paths back to Same as Project on C:.
Mistake 2: Letting Storage Sense Delete Your Cache
What causes it: Settings > System > Storage > Storage Sense deletes temporary files and Recycle Bin contents, which can include preview renders and peak files.
How to check: Go to Settings > System > Storage > Storage Sense. If it is On and configured to delete files in Downloads or temporary files automatically, it will interfere.
What to do: Turn Storage Sense Off for editing workstations. Manually clear cache via Premiere Pro > Edit > Preferences > Media Cache > Delete > Delete all media cache files, or Resolve > Playback > Delete Render Cache > All.
How to undo: Re-enable Storage Sense and set Run Storage Sense to Every month.
Mistake 3: Using exFAT for Active Editing
What causes it: exFAT is convenient for cross-platform shuttling but lacks journaling and performs poorly with large sequential writes and small metadata updates needed for editing.
How to check: Right-click drive in File Explorer > Properties > General. If File system shows exFAT and you are editing directly from it, you have added latency and risk.
What to do: Use exFAT only for shuttle drives. Copy footage to an NTFS 64KB internal NVMe for active editing. To convert, backup data, then format: Right-click drive > Format > File System: NTFS > Allocation: 64 kilobytes.
How to undo: Reformat back to exFAT if you need Mac/PC interchange for transport.
Mistake 4: Disabling Page File or Putting It on a Slow Drive
What causes it: Disabling virtual memory to save SSD space causes out-of-memory crashes during long renders, while placing pagefile.sys on an HDD causes severe stutter when RAM fills.
How to check: Press Win + R > sysdm.cpl > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced > Virtual memory > Change. Check if paging file is set to No paging file or located on a slow drive letter.
What to do: Set paging to System managed size on your fastest OS NVMe (C:). If you have 64GB+ RAM, you can set Custom size with Initial 8000 MB and Maximum 16000 MB instead of disabling. Click Set > OK and reboot.
How to undo: Return to Virtual memory > Check Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
FAQ
Should I use RAID 0 for editing scratch on an editing PC?
RAID 0 stripes data across two matched NVMe drives and increases sequential throughput, but it doubles failure risk and often does not improve timeline latency, which depends more on random IOPS. Use RAID 0 only for scratch and cache volumes that you can recreate, never for sole copies of original media. For most editors, two separate drives (one for media, one for cache) provides more consistent performance than a single RAID 0 volume. If you use motherboard RAID, create it in BIOS > NVMe RAID configuration with 128KB stripe size and format as NTFS with 64KB allocation.
Where should I put proxies, previews, and exports?
Place proxies and previews on your dedicated scratch NVMe to keep them separate from camera originals. Path examples: D:\Scratch\Proxies\ and D:\Scratch\Previews\. Place exports on a different drive than your source media if possible, such as a SATA SSD or third NVMe, to avoid reading and writing to the same controller simultaneously. In Premiere Pro this is set at Export > Export Settings > Output Name > Browse to E:\Exports\. In Resolve, set Deliver > Browse to your export drive. This separation prevents the read-modify-write bottleneck during final renders.
Do I need to enable BitLocker or encryption differently for editing drives?
BitLocker hardware encryption on modern NVMe drives has minimal performance impact, but software BitLocker can add latency. Check status at Control Panel > System and Security > BitLocker Drive Encryption. For active media and scratch drives, if you enable BitLocker, ensure the drive supports hardware encryption (Opal 2.0) and enable it via Manage BitLocker > Turn on BitLocker > Use hardware encryption if available. Otherwise, keep scratch drives unencrypted for maximum throughput and only encrypt archive drives containing client material. Always save recovery keys to your Microsoft account or USB before enabling.
How often should I clean the media cache and defragment?
Never defragment an SSD. Use Optimize Drives only for TRIM on a weekly schedule. Clean media cache manually between projects, not daily. In Premiere Pro: Edit > Preferences > Media Cache > Delete Unused Media Cache Files. In Resolve: Playback > Delete Render Cache > All. In After Effects: Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache, located at C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\ or your custom D:\AdobeScratch\ path. Leave the cache intact during an active project to avoid regenerating peak files and conformed audio.
