Its more to do with my SSD setup, not wanting to thrash it with loads of reads, only using it for apps i need to performance boost from. I have way more partitions than anyone needs, I know that (disk0-C: for system, disk-1 P: for programs, G: for games, U: for users, M: for media and V: for pagefile)
I just like to organise things. My real life is the same, sadly. :)
So, I install things like drivers to the SSD, alongside the OS, as well as other apps I'd like to see a performance boost from. Everything else gets sent to P: on an HDD.
I suppose, I'd prefer A single program files directory with both x86 and x64 subdirectories (it makes more sense to me, than two directories of the same name) - but as far as the advice goes, I guess that's a no
I would not worry about the SSD. Just treat it like any other disk.
Moving the programs and the pagefile or any other system files off the SSD is a mistake. At best I would reduce the pagefile size to 2GB and only move very large programs (like some games) to the HDD. But that only for space considerations (because the SSD is usually small) not to save read/write operations.
My user data I always move to the HDD because I always use 60GB SSDs that really do not have enough space for the user data. On laptops I use a 32GB stick. Has the advantage that I can carry the data from system to system.
My oldest SSD is nearly 4 years old and still works perfectly.
I'm curious as to why you feel something like "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IE(x86)" and "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IE(x64)" is more organized than "C:\Program Files\IE and "C:\Program Files(x86)\IE"? It seems to me it ends up with the same amount of sub folders so what's the difference?
As far as your reasoning that it would cause less thrashing of your SSD, I doubt it would make any discernible difference.
I feel your pain as I'm an organiser too.
However, so is Windows.
You may find this article useful for throwing light on the subject of 32-bit programs in a 64-bit environment.
How Windows 64-bit Supports 32-bit Applications
My setup is sliced and diced as in Set 7 Free. I have 15 partitions on two 1TB drives in Windows, 19 partitions total. This is a system of organization that has developed over many years, and serves me quite well.
But as for combining the Program Files folders, it doesn't really save any room on a hard drive or have any noticable effect on HDD performance.
I understand there is no space saving benefits of combining those folders. There may be the same number of subdirs, but there are less dirs higher up the hierarchy, which seems more organised to me. As far as moving the pagefile off the SSD, that wasn't part of my 'lets not thrash this' plan, more habit, i like it on its own partition. same goes for programs etc.
User profiles stored on SSD, media and docs stored in separate partitions on HDD
I will check out Set 7 Free.
sorry, I know this reply is a bit all over the place (a bit ironic, really) but im at work and typing quick :)
That is OK if you like that. But it is counterproductive and slows down your system - defeats the purpose of the SSD.
As far as moving the pagefile off the SSD, that wasn't part of my 'lets not
thrash this' plan, more habit, i like it on its own partition. same goes for
programs etc.
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