A few years ago when I first started out with Cubase, I bought Elements 11. This was installed on the SSD drive on my Windows 10 laptop. I gradually installed quite a lot of 3rd party VSTs also. The main VST folders are in the Steinberg folder in Program Files in the SSD drive.

I eventually outgrew Elements 11 and upgraded to Cubase 12 Pro a couple of months ago. As my SSD drive was pretty full, I had to install Cubase 12 Pro in the HDD drive on my laptop instead. It seems to work ok, but do you think it would run faster if installed on the SSD drive?

Anyway, my main question is, if I uninstall Elements 11, how can I make sure it keeps all the folder with the VSTs in? I use these VSTs with Cubase 12 Pro so I don’t want to get rid of them. Will all folders under ‘Steinberg’ get deleted upon uninstalling? Or can I move the VSTs somewhere else beforehand, perhaps? And is it ok to uninstall via my laptop, or does it have to be done via the Steinberg Download Assistant?

Finally, if I wanted to reinstall Cubase 12 Pro onto the SDD drive, can it be deleted off the HDD drive and downloaded/installed again as part of my licence I got when I bought it? I’m wondering if I’ll lose my current Cubase projects and files if I do this also. Thanks.