Installing new SSD to use for OS only

[yk7]

How can I put windows 7 and some games on an SSD and have the rest of the files on a HDD? I'm using Macrium Reflect as my backup solution.

 

[yk7]

Anyone?

 

[cheezz]

Anyone?

Here's what I did on my pc: Disconnected original HDD (1.5tb) with c drive and 4 other partitions. Games, data, media, and disk image were in those partitions.
Installed SSD and loaded clean win7. After everything running I connected the original HDD. Everything on that drive worked perfectly. Had to do some drive letter changes since SSD is the c drive.
Also, under advanced power options set the HDD to never sleep that way you can have immediate access to it.
Hope this helps. BTW, I'm running win7 64bit Home Premium and it's working flawlessly.

 

[kbrady1979]

Do you have a means of doing a clean install of Windows 7, such as a license and the actual media? If so, I would recommend a clean install onto the SSD for best results.

If you want to transfer the OS from a hard drive to your SSD, follow this tutorial: SSD Install and Transfer

When you get done with all of that and get Windows back up and running, you can change the location of your "Users" folder, which has your Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, Downloads, etc, to another drive using this tutorial: Users Folders - Change Default Location

Any questions, make sure you ask BEFORE you dive in and realize you don't know how to do something.......it is much easier to answer a question than track down and fix a problem.

 

[yk7]

I'm planning on installing a new copy of windows onto the SSD. Don't need to transfer the OS from the HDD unless that's really necessary.

 

[JackALope52x]

Do you have a means of doing a clean install of Windows 7, such as a license and the actual media? If so, I would recommend a clean install onto the SSD for best results.

If you want to transfer the OS from a hard drive to your SSD, follow this tutorial: SSD Install and Transfer

When you get done with all of that and get Windows back up and running, you can change the location of your "Users" folder, which has your Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, Downloads, etc, to another drive using this tutorial: Users Folders - Change Default Location

Any questions, make sure you ask BEFORE you dive in and realize you don't know how to do something.......it is much easier to answer a question than track down and fix a problem.

Both great posts by cheez and kbrady1979!

I recently got a 240GB SSD for my computer and went through this whole process. It is a fairly simple process but you just have to be careful and pay attention to what you are doing. When I went through this both my SSD and my HDD (3TB) were un-formatted.

As cheez said, connect your SSD and install Windows 7 on it (make sure the HDD is not connected, I made this mistake). Once Windows is installed and set up connect the HDD and it should just show up as another storage drive. You really want to make sure you don't fill up your SSD so I recommend doing what kbrady1979 mentioned and moving your User Folder to the HDD to save space. The tutorial he posted is absolutely perfect. After that you should be good to go. Just be careful though when you install new programs / games you save them in the right place.

With my setup I have Windows and all of my programs on the SSD and all my games, videos, music and pictures on the HDD. Let us know how it goes. Good luck!

 

[bigmck]

How can I put windows 7 and some games on an SSD and have the rest of the files on a HDD? I'm using Macrium Reflect as my backup solution.

I hope you realize that if you don't put your programs on the SSD you are defeating the purpose. If programs are on a HDD they will open slow like they always have. The only advantage from the SSD will be that it boots fast. If you programs are on the SSD, they will open fast and work fast. The way you need to set it up is Win 7 and programs on the SSD and any documents, pictures, music, etc on a HDD. Even if you put the games on the SSD, you will not get any benefit except the few seconds that it opens faster. They still will play the same. Put your games on a HDD also.

 

[kbrady1979]

SSD: Operating System, Programs/Applications, and games if you just have a few.

HDD: User Folder, Videos, Music, Documents, Pictures, and games if you have several.

 

[IoNGeNeRaL]

I find it much easier to just have Windows on my 120GB OCZ SSD with some programs installed on it also. I only have programs I had no options to change installation paths for. Everything else, such as Games, videos etc are on my 1TB drive. I also have a 500GB Internal backup HDD with Windows XP on if I can't boot into Windows 7.