New Win 7 Laptop setup doesn't "See" 2nd Internal HD

Format the hard drive to Basic NTSF and pick a partition letter of your choice. Except A,B,C, or D.
Movies, music, large documents ect. on the hard drive

I would keep programs on disk '0', 'C' partition along with Windows 7.
Some gamer's put their games on the hard drive because some are large.

What kind of programs are you talking about?

Jack

Windows is hardwired to look for program files on the system drive in the Program Files and / or Program Files (x86) folders. Some programs will allow you to change the install folder during installation, and still work many will not (due to their designed use of the registry and need to do this from the system drive).

Unfortunately there is also a lot of data that must be located on the System Drive eg the hidden ProgramData and Appdata folders I say must be but there are methods to achieve this but they tend to be unstable so I do not recommend them - If you feel you need to do this I'm sure we can find one of our members with experience of this to guide you

There is another option for some programs PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable, and cloud drives which produce special versions of some common programs and utilities which will allow you to run them from anywhere and without the use of the registry.

The placement of the default data folders is a lot easier, if you right click one of these special folders eg. Documents you should see a Location Tab on the properties, this can be used to move the location of the folder to another drive, and will even move the contents for you. I have used this technique for many years without problems, I created a folder structure on my data drive with a folder for each of the personal folders and then used the location option to move them all over, Even folders like Desktop are moveable if you are someone that tends to dump stuff on the desktop, (only temporarily of course )

Although this may not solve all of your issues It should make things easier for you .

To give an Idea of how much space this can move off your system drive I've just checked the "My Stuff" Folder structure on my data drive, that contains my relocated personal folders and some other business data etc and it is currently 197 GB+

@FirstShirt, this is a quick video of what @Barman58 is talking about. It was done on Windows 10, but is exactly the same on Windows 7.

As you can see FirstShirt, their is many methods one can choose if needed to move things.

***I would recommend making a backup or clone of your 'C' partition to a external drive before moving things. Just in case.

I personally don't move things because I have no need to. My ssd's are big enough to handle everything.

If you read and understand Barman58 post #14 and watch and understand essenbe video post #15 you should do just fine.

Let us know how things go for you.

Jack

I'm glad we were able to help. Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for your service.

Most everything we do on this forum is learn and help other.

Your thank you, brings a little joy to my day.

Jack