Changing documents folder from D: and its effects

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  1. Posts : 11
    Windows 7 64 bit
       #1

    Changing documents folder from D: and its effects


    Hello!
    I have recently bought a lenovo y580 intended as a desktop replacement but more so for gaming. The game is play is arma 2. For speed, I installed a crucial 256 GB SSD and I have my OS on it, I also put the games on to it.
    Now an inherent problem with the laptop is the heat it generates - after researching I found that the build is fairly poor in that the CPU and GPU heat transference happens on to the HDD which heats up to alarming levels.
    While installing mods, the installer ends up putting the mods into the documents folder which (I do not know HOW this happened!) reside on D: (the hdD and not SSD). I thought the default, while installing the OS, would be on C:
    So while playing the game some stuff is still accessed from the HDD, I would ideally like everything to be read off the SSD, this is for 2 reasons - one is speed and the other is the above mentioned reason, if I dont use the HDD then its heating might reduce.

    So that was all the background - now to the meat of the question. I know I can change my Documents location from one drive to another. My question is would games/apps work without changes, would the registry changes happen automatically when the location is changed? I did not want to end up hitting the move button without knowing the repercussions. Hence the question, please let me know your opinions and options I have.

    peace
    Ananth
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  2. Posts : 1,476
       #2

    If you make the changes using the Location tab in the folder's Properties, then everything else will follow automatically and everything will be ok.
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  3. Posts : 11
    Windows 7 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    So all I got to do is to hit the MOVE button and move it to C:\Users\<whatever>, I was just concerned with settings in game and registry :)

    Thanks for the the answer

    PS: One more help - I am sure that you would be more knowledgeable than me, so can you give me any suggestions for the heat issue that I am facing. I did get a laptop cooler but that did help me only so much - so any other tweaks that I can do?
    Please do let me know
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  4. Posts : 1,476
       #4

    cannondt said:
    So all I got to do is to hit the MOVE button and move it to C:\Users\<whatever>, I was just concerned with settings in game and registry :)
    The game depends on the location, and you're changing it properly so the game will follow automatically because it's just set to use the location that Windows reports to it. Also, I think that the reason this works is it's making all the changes necessary in the Registry for this to work.


    cannondt said:
    Thanks for the the answer

    PS: One more help - I am sure that you would be more knowledgeable than me, so can you give me any suggestions for the heat issue that I am facing. I did get a laptop cooler but that did help me only so much - so any other tweaks that I can do?
    Please do let me know
    I'm not sure. Cheaply-made laptops (and tablets) that have an Ivy Bridge CPU are notorious for overheating.
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  5. Posts : 504
       #5

    Yup, as TwoCables already said, using location tab and moving the files won't be a problem. This change is global, means the location of Documents folder "changes automatically" for everything that accesses it.
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  6. Posts : 11
    Windows 7 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #6

    @TwoCables, @nilank
    Thanks for all the help :)
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  7. Posts : 1,476
       #7

    You're welcome, cannondt!
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  8. Posts : 504
       #8

    cannondt said:
    PS: One more help - I am sure that you would be more knowledgeable than me, so can you give me any suggestions for the heat issue that I am facing. I did get a laptop cooler but that did help me only so much - so any other tweaks that I can do?
    Please do let me know
    Most of the heat is generated by your i7 CPU as compared to GPU and HDD/SSD. Lots of heat is generated when you run a CPU intensive application like a game, for instance. And that's because your i7 is temporarily overclocked (Turbo Boost feature). To prevent this overheating follow this:

    1. Go to control panel -- Power options
    2. Click 'Change plan settings' link present against the selected power plan.
    3. Now click on 'Advanced power settings'.
    4. Now expand 'Processor power management' and select 'Maximum processor state'.
    5. Now select a lower-than-100 value such as 95.
    6. Click OK. Done.

    Doing the above disables turbo boost and underclocks the CPU depending upon the value chosen.

    In my case, I chose the value as 99. This just disables turbo boost and the cpu runs at a maximum of stock clock speed.

    The performance difference is NOT noticeable at all (for lower than 80 value, it might be noticeable).

    Choosing the value as 99 reduced my cpu's temperature by around 20 deg C (that's a big big difference) and totally cured overheating.

    If you're still wondering about the performance dip (which you shouldn't at all), then create a seperate power plan and apply the above settings to that plan. Now you can switch between normal power plan and this newly created optimized plan when you want. Just select the optimized plan from the taskbar before starting a cpu intensive application such as a game.

    This solution is bound to help!
    Cheers!
    Last edited by nilank; 28 Mar 2013 at 11:14.
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  9. Posts : 11
    Windows 7 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Thanks a ton, nilank. I followed your instructions but somehow my game thing is acting weird, will do a 2 hour gaming session tomorrow and report back the temps. If it works as you say, the beer is on me
    Also the problem with my laptop is due to poor body design where the heat from CPU and GPU heats up my HDD - the allowed limit for my hdd is 55 and I cn see it go up to 58-60 while gaming - so hot chips is not too far away is what I reckoned :).
    So if your solution works, then I guess CPU heat must fall which in turn must help with better temps on HDD - so I am so looking forward to testing this.

    Any more of such tips would be most welcome :)
    I just knew there would be extremely knowledgeable folks out here aka you :)

    Peace
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 504
       #10

    Thank you very much! How's your game acting weird? Can you describe?
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