SSD drive/HDD Temp folder advice

Hi Everyone,

My system consists of 17-970, 12GB 1600 RAM, 120 GB Vertex-2 SSD for my OS, 1 TB WD Black Caviar HDD for data.

I'm trying to avoid writes as is typical of a SSD setup. I plan on having my page file @ 2000MB static on my SDD, My firefox cache on a 4GB Ramdisk.

I'm wondering what to do with my temp folder. Should I dump it onto my WD? I really don't want to see it if I dump it there, so I was thinking of creating a 50GB partition and naming it Z: and putting my temp folders and maybe my index folder in there as well.

Any advice?

Well, I'm trying to keep the write cycles down to a minimum. From what I hear that is an issue so I'd like to move it to the mechanical drive.

I move my more active temp files to my spinner, Photoshop, games etc, also my page file.

However, as BFK says, atleast on the intels, it would take writing to them continuously for 5 years straight to approach the fail time. So it really isn;t a big issue on the current crop of quality drives. (may be on some cheaper ones still)

Though with the new .25nm chips coming out I am starting to worry again Now gotta wait to see how those shake out! (Typically the smaller the etching the fewer the write cycles)

OK, I see you have your temp directory and other things moved to your spinner, I figured I'd keep my page file on my SSD, and my FF/IE cache I'm going to put onto the RAMDisk. I want to have Photoshop and Illustrator on my SSD for speed, and have their primary scratches on RAMDisk, and secondary wherever the temp folder is gonna go.

I really don't want the temp folder on my SSD. Not only because of writes, but space. 120GB (well much less now with win 7 and other system overhead) is not much space, and even a few GB of essentially dead files (I don't want to have to monitor it and clean it everytime I install) is too much. If I move it off the SSD, I'll feel better I think.

So how should I do it? I'm a neat freak. I have yet to format and partition my new 1TB drive. I'd like to partition and format once and never again for the life of the system. Assume that the spinner will be D: I don't want to see a folder named TEMP everytime I look at my D: drive. I was thinking of creating a partition Z:, maybe 50 gb. How do you have yours setup fseal?

I always get burned when I try to partition drive then get stuck with partitions that is too small or too large and wasting space. I don't do it any more :) I just have my 1tb D drive as a single partition. I do have a single folder I try to stick all my scratch/tamp folders under though so the root of the drive isn't just full of them

So far I haven't felt the need to try to create ram based scratch disks though, I have 12 gig and have yet to max it out with PS. I don't know if it's ever even used the scratch space.

art2011 said:

Well, I'm trying to keep the write cycles down to a minimum. From what I hear that is an issue so I'd like to move it to the mechanical drive.

It won't be an issue with normal usage, so spend your time and efforts enjoying the system. You're worrying about something that doesn't warrant the thought.

fseal said:

I always get burned when I try to partition drive then get stuck with partitions that is too small or too large and wasting space. I don't do it any more :) I just have my 1tb D drive as a single partition. I do have a single folder I try to stick all my scratch/tamp folders under though so the root of the drive isn't just full of them

So far I haven't felt the need to try to create ram based scratch disks though, I have 12 gig and have yet to max it out with PS. I don't know if it's ever even used the scratch space.

I know what you mean. The ONLY reason I would partition is so I don't have to look at dozens of scratch folders.

Is it acceptable to have the temp folder inside another on your 1tb and not at root? Ever run into problems with nesting folders?

How about the cache for FF/IE..have you redirected or left alone?

@DeaconFrost, Thanks..I appreciate that..I've been hearing similar sentiment more and more. Just a little nervous and my actions always seem to run against the grain of what is "correct" so this time I'm doing my due diligence. These SSDs are cool, but the technology seems still a little young. Hopefully in a few years the tech will be as seemless as the old spinner.

The SSDs have had several generational updates now, so they are ready for everyday use, and are just as seamless as installing a spinner drive now. If you had one of the very first SSDs, I'd probably suggest upgrading to a newer one, but they are just as safe to use as a spinner. They're only downside now is cost, unfortunately, but that will change over time.