i am confused about daz and ex hard drives

Yeah, i have libraries all over the place, it's so bad i may rebuild.

I store my Daz Library on my SSDs, and have one 750GB SSD dedicated just for that purpose, makes DAZ load sooooo much quicker when it's instant access.

In that folder i create collections for example:
D:\DazLibraries\
Genesis8 <Main folder for everything kept>
ManyContestFolders <Usually one per contest if it starts getting complicated>
QuickLoads <Frequently Used Items>
Testing <PreLoad items here, if i like them, re-load to Genesis 8>

The Daz Icons mean nothing, i just customized the folders to use that icon from
"\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\DAZStudio.exe"

Each of those three folders has the standard layout in it.

I'll install all new products to testing, play with them, decide whether to keep them or not, etc... then for the keepers reinstall them to the Genesis8 library.

Contests Library is where i save scenes, create presets, poses, objects and store them while i'm working on contests, usually duplicates of what i have in the main (Genesis8) library, but just using the (+) to add them there for quick access.

Now, to your question:

Have libraries wherever you want, no need to scan for items with that DAZ feature... takes too long, doesn't always work. In Content Library, Right click on DAZ Studio Formats and select "Add a base directory" and browse to the root of where your files are installed at ie... c:\daz3d\my library // or x:\dazStuff or g:\graphicLibraries ... whatever you installed them too, should have the runtime, data, people, props etc... in them and select that folder.

Done. Your library is now in DAZ.

It doesn't move the files at all, it leaves them where they are. Then using the common structure of the folders, it mingles and loads all the background stuff like the DATA folder in to the daz core.

DAZ works some magic in the background and loads all the data files and everything you need, however, i recommend living out of one directory, since sometimes, items get a hard link to the real path, and not the DAZ path. Not often, but it's always after you remove products from testing or something and you try to open a previous scene pointing to them.

Same for poser content, right click on Poser Formats in content library and select Add A runtime Directory. Just browse to the runtime directory under your library folder instead. Gotta do that for some of the legacy and poser only stuff.

Just shooting from the hip here, i don't ever read the books, there may even be a better way, but it's what i do.