but also the intermediate rendered files. That includes not only the source media files etc. It should be possible for all files relevant to a project to be stored on any volume, migrated to any other volume, plugged into any computer having appropriate installed applications, and everything to work the same way as when the project was on its original volume being edited on the original system. That is, it should not be tied to any particular instance of a data storage volume, let alone a particular computer (system).

I like the idea of a video project being a free-floating data-object.

Backup of a system drive that includes media files will typically require significantly greater archive space and will take significantly greater time (than a clean system).

Ultimately the system drive can even become full, making the operating system itself sluggish or even less stable (and video playback less smooth.

System drive can become clogged-up by many or large video files of which that the user is only partially aware, their creation having happened implicitly during their use of the NLE etc.

On the other hand, an informed representative of a well-known UK supplier of video editing laptops advised me that in his experience, most users of laptops with only a single internal drive (as system drive) do use that drive in this way (for portability).

Cache files are indeed media files that are written and read. On the upside, such drives may have high-bandwidth to the system, but on the downside, the system can interrupt their use with highest priority, whuch may (I guess) pose a risk to smooth playback (though I am aware that buffering may possibly reduce this risk, I haven’t done or seen any such calculations).

Larry Jordan, at least in the recent past, advises against using the system drive for media read/write.

System Volume may serve poorly as a media drive.

In the case of Adobe’s primary video-editing apps, Premiere and After Effects, my experience (on Windows 7) is that they save intermediate preview-renders to the system volume.

When I start-up any application, I like to understand at least the main side-effects it’s having on my system.

Adobe reader cache location