Set up Windows on SSD, everything else on HDD

[shamrin]

Does anyone have a proven, cookie-cutter approach to this? I'm not crazy about setting up a Windows 7 machine this way but we've made a commitment to try. All the guides that I can find seem to be flawed in one way or another. Our objective here is to put Windows on the SSD and default the user folders and programs to install onto the mechanical drive. I know that there are plenty of machines shipping this way over the last few years but I can't find a dependable way to replicate it.

 

[NYJimbo]

Maybe make the second drive the "\user" reparse point (like a unix mount point) but I would hate to think what would happen if it breaks.

This would pretty much make all the crap people create to end up one the second drive, but of course if they "save as" they would end up putting it anywhere.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Don't accept default installs on programs, during install...direct from C:\Program Files to E:\Program Files..or something like that.

Only thing is, you loose the speed of launching the programs. Cuz they're on a spindle drive. Sure having Windows installed on the SSD is great for bootup, and crunching in WIndows updates. But for the other 7.9 hours of the day you're launching and working with programs....wouldn't you want those to launch fast too?

User storage...easy, just relocate the users libraries.

 

[cypress]

Just curious as how big is the SSD drive and the mechanical drive? Or does the user just want the programs and data stored on the mechanical drive? If so the way @YeOldeStonecat would be the correct way but you still wouldn't see the best performance.

SSD prices continue to drop, even the 1TB are looking a lot better now.

 

[NYJimbo]

SSD prices continue to drop, even the 1TB are looking a lot better now.

I just replaced a 160gb drive on an old laptop with a 250gb SSD drive that cost $70 and its incredibly fast. All it takes is a quick pull, a clone and put it back in and you get amazing performance for $70.

 

[lcoughey]

Perhaps you want to try and replicate what Apple's Fusion Drive is doing, but in Windows.

Setup the SSD and the HDD as a JBOD with the SSD set as the primary device.

 

[A/CPC]

For my personal and production systems, I always use an SSD for my System drive (which includes windows, anti virus, imaging programs, etc.) Everything else gets its own partition. User folders get moved to the Data drive (but not the whole profile...appdata et al remain on the system partition), apps get installed on the Apps partition, etc.

 

[shamrin]

I ended up going with the workaround here to avoid the brittleness of the technical solution. There's a 1-line registry hack to default program installs to the D: drive (which still doesn't work 100%, FireFox ignores it then points it's desktop icon at the D: drive).

Customer has lots of pictures and lots of games with a 256GB SSD. The user will have to remember to put all his pictures on D: instead of C:

I agree that a bigger SSD is a much better answer at these prices.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I. The user will have to remember to put all his pictures on D: instead of C:.

If you just "move/relocate" the users libraries..they don't have to remember. They just continue to save documents ,downloads, pictures, music to the regular folders like usual. They don't have to "know" where those folders live, if you just do the relocation steps. Windows knows they're on D or E..and saves them there like normal.

 

[brandonkick]

250 or even 500GB SSD's are not that expensive any more.

Run windows and applications from the SSD, use the mechanical
drive for storage.

This past patch tuesday saw one of the win 7 machines at my first job
take around an hour and a half to complete 28 updates. My machine
at home, running a 256 samsung 850 evo, did the job in five min. If they
are going to bother using an SSD at all, use all the applications on it and
not just windows.

 

[Mainstay]

For my personal and production systems, I always use an SSD for my System drive (which includes windows, anti virus, imaging programs, etc.) Everything else gets its own partition. User folders get moved to the Data drive (but not the whole profile...appdata et al remain on the system partition), apps get installed on the Apps partition, etc.

View attachment 5238

This is a nightmare scenario! Why would you do this to yourself?

Just buy a 500 GB SSD for the primary, which includes Windows, Programs, AppData, and user files. If user files are anticipated to get huge (large photo libraries or music collections) then relocate the user profile to a 2+ TB "D" Drive. No worrying about space allocation for each partition. Just straight forward computing.

If you need even more space then it is time for a QNAP / Synology NAS. And at that you are only offloading installation files, data archives, etc.

 

[Thedog]

Not sure if I have misunderstood the question but if you go to "properties" of a user folder (for example documents) and click move and select a folder on the other disk it will change the windows registry so that default document folder get pointed to the other partition. For programs you can change regedit so default %programfiles% and similar points to another partition.

 

[cypress]

I just replaced a 160gb drive on an old laptop with a 250gb SSD drive that cost $70 and its incredibly fast. All it takes is a quick pull, a clone and put it back in and you get amazing performance for $70.

Yup I am doing one tonight for my step fathers laptop. The Samsung EVO 250gb I got for $75 arrives today, clone the HD and tweak it a little big with Samsung Magician and backup and running in under 1 hour.

 

[A/CPC]

This is a nightmare scenario! Why would you do this to yourself?

I've been 'doing this to myself' for 15 years or more. It serves my purposes quite nicely and requires very little effort to maintain. I insist you do it my way!

Seriously, though, it's all about what works for one's needs. I can see how your methods could work well for some. I also realize that my setup isn't for everyone. It is, however, the perfect setup for my needs. I believe I'll keep it.

 

[thecomputerguy]

I do this for ALOT of customer computers and have yet to have any significant issue doing so.

Ill equip the desktop with a 250GGB SSD and 1TB 7200RPM drive. 250GB is almost always more than enough for programs and windows etc.

What you do is go into the user folder, right click on all of the important folders i.e. Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music etc..

And I change the location to

D:\User Data\Desktop
D:\User Data\Documents
D:\User Data\Pictures

and so on and so forth...

I'll also create a folder and call it Outlook Data for all the outlook stuff, and Shared Data if anything is shared ...

Then setup computer to backup the big 1TB data drive with crashplan or carbonite and you don't really have to worry about the 250GB SSD.

When people save stuff to their documents/pictures its totally transparent to them and they dont even know they are saving it on the 1TB

In a super small business environment I'll do the same (2 computers) but make sure the desktop sharing all the data has a 1TB Mirror

Its a good sales pitch too... I order run of the mill Intel i5 desktops for about $600 a pop with a 3-year warranty, throw in a 250GB SSD, I already have a USB recovery made because I order the same desktops everytime and charge $1000 for them. The selling point is if you order this config from dell it will cost you $1300+

Dell murders you on SSDs

 

[Mainstay]

I believe I'll keep it.

Well... alright then. I suppose I'll let this go. This time.

It serves my purposes quite nicely

That, of course, is the ultimate argument... it is whatever works best for your needs. I like minimal deployments - they get complicated enough, real fast, without having to concern myself with space limitations.

I am onboard with @thecomputerguy... sleek and simple.

 

[A/CPC]

I am onboard with @thecomputerguy... sleek and simple.

Agreed. It's how I set up client machines. User folders, data, email, etc. to D:\.

 

[Geoffsplace]

Does anyone have a proven, cookie-cutter approach to this? I'm not crazy about setting up a Windows 7 machine this way but we've made a commitment to try. All the guides that I can find seem to be flawed in one way or another. Our objective here is to put Windows on the SSD and default the user folders and programs to install onto the mechanical drive. I know that there are plenty of machines shipping this way over the last few years but I can't find a dependable way to replicate it.

Dont forget to change Sata IDE to Sata ACHI in bios before installing windows. It can be done afterwards but is a bit of a pain.


also you can MOVE all the default folders eg my documents, my pictures etc and any other folders you want to the second HD so they automatically are stored on the large "data" drive.

1. Right-click the My Documents or Documents folder. ...
2. Click the Location tab.
3. Click the Move button.
4. In the resulting dialog box, go to your name folder in drive D:, create a new folder inside it called documents , and select that.
5. After you click OK, click Yes to move your files.

rgds
Syb

 

[PC Problems]

You can also change the WLM store location, and the IE11 Temp files folder too. Even if the HD dies, Windows still boots to desktop OK, it just complains and shows nothing in your folders and on the desktop.