How to stop Windows from using my external HDD for temp files?

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Was the 2TB ext. drive connected when you disabled the page file? In my system, I noticed that connecting a drive after configuring my page file, that drive would receive the default page file settings.

 

nope it's nothing to do with being an external drive or pagefile


i've just noticed with certain apps such as .net that it decides to extract to a temp directory on a drive with the most space. I have my Hdd's partition and every now and then would find some installer had extracted to another partition rather than the temp folder or pagefile drive i've set-up.

 

It's not Windows that's doing this. It's the installer.

Different installers use different locations for temp files. Some use %temp%. Some create a random directory in the root of the drive with the largest free space. The only way to prevent this is to remove the drive letter (disk management) or disconnect the drive. But that's a whole lot of trouble for something that, frankly, I don't see why you even care about.

It's temporary. Stuff is deleted as soon as the installer exits. How often do you install stuff anyway, using an installer that does this (keeping in mind that most use %temp%)? Besides, installs are typically largely sequential in their disk access. It's unlikely you'll notice any difference in installation speed (and again, it's not like this is something that happens every day or even every week). And in most cases, it's a good idea to use a separate drive. If your boot drive is a spinner, then using the same drive means that you are copying from and to the same drive, which is much slower than from one drive to another. The only exception would be a SSD, which you have, but that's relatively uncommon, and there are a few people who do have SSDs would prefer not to have the extra wear.

Bloody tempest in a bloody teapot. But I suppose that's par for the course for you, eh?