Is there a way to "lock" a hard drive from programs installing on it?

[mroneeyedboh]

I have an SSD that is 64gb. I use it only for the windows operating system. I noticed that some programs can default to C: and load onto it. I have to remember to select D: ( my storage ) when loading new programs on...

Is there a program that can lock it to be a system drive only?

Oh and also, I noticed that the drive was at ~25 GB left after the fresh install of windows 7, now I only have 15gb left in the SSD. Is there anything I can delete or do to try and get some GB back? I would assume its from all of the updates windows has been downloading because of the fresh install.

 

[USAFRet]

1. No, there is no good way to completely prevent installing on the SSD. Nor do you really want to.

2. Spacewise, look at reducing your pagefile, and turning hibernation off.

3. For other files (doc/music/video/etc), see this:
Win 7 & 8: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html
Win 8.1: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2024314/windows-redirecting-folders-drives.html

 

[dariens007]

well are you using windows hibernate and is your page file huge? you could disable hibernate that should free up some space. and fo ryour page file if you have like 8gb of memory and your not maxing it out all the time change it to like 2gb or something? might be helpful.

as far as locking windows...i dont think it works like that but somebody will probably chime in on that.

 

[Geef]

You can change the default setting using Regedit. Check out this site. Its the one I found to do the exact thing for myself.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/change-default-program-files-directory-windows

Also for getting some space back. Try changing your swap file to something really small since computers hardly ever use more memory than whats installed. Also set your System Restore/Protection settings to really small like 1% so it only uses a tiny bit of space.

 

[mroneeyedboh]

Thanks guys!

 

[USAFRet]

You can change the default setting using Regedit. Check out this site. Its the one I found to do the exact thing for myself.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/change-default-program-files-directory-windows

Also for getting some space back. Try changing your swap file to something really small since computers hardly ever use more memory than whats installed. Also set your System Restore/Protection settings to really small like 1% so it only uses a tiny bit of space.

And Windows updates often has an issue with that type of Registry edit.

 

[mroneeyedboh]

I have 8gb of ram and only use 2.5gb usually... Pagefile is set at 8gb too. What should I reduce to?

 

[USAFRet]

I have 8gb of ram and only use 2.5gb usually... Pagefile is set at 8gb too. What should I reduce to?

I have 16GB RAM, and the pagefile set at 1GB min/max. Have seen zero performance issues in 2 yrs of operation.

 

[mroneeyedboh]

Appreciate it. Also I went into the reg and edited Hibernate from a 1 to a 0 to disable it.. thats it correct?

 

[USAFRet]

Appreciate it. Also I went into the reg and edited Hibernate from a 1 to a 0 to disable it.. thats it correct?

Do it via this:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/819-hibernate-enable-disable.html

 

[mroneeyedboh]

Thanks again.

 

[mroneeyedboh]

edited. Answered my own question...

 

[USAFRet]

should I retain system restore? I just noticed that it is off...

Completely up to you. Mine is off. Once a month or so, I just make an image with CloneZilla. Saved elsewhere.

 

[mroneeyedboh]

Alright.. Im loosing it here. I just installed my Office 2013 and CHOSE d: drive ( my storage ) and W T F. It went into C: still.