Secondary Harddrive question

[rrballer]

How do I direct things to install in another hard drive? since i have a SSD and a secondary data drive?

 

[LeetLawrence]

P.S: Back up your registry before doing this... Do so by opening regedit (mentionned below) and clicking File > Export > Save. That will save you in case of failiure

Open regedit (Start > Run > "regedit"). Then find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion". Now look in the right pane. Change "ProgramFilesDir", "ProgramFilesPath", "ProgramW6432Dir" and "ProgramFilesDir (x86)". If your secondary drive letter is D:\, then change them to "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files" and "D:\Program Files (x86)", in that order that I just mentionned. You should be good to go from here.

MODERATOR EDIT:
Please do not do this. This will almost certainly mess up your whole system. Multiple just in here have completely scred up their OS install, requiring a full wipe and reinstall.
As below, there is never a reason to try to force your applications to always install elsewhere.

Again - DO NOT DO THIS

 

[rrballer]

everytime i download something how do i direct to to another hardrive besides the main C drive?

 

[rrballer]

I see two of each and one set are common files and the others aren't which ones?

P.S: Back up your registry before doing this... Do so by opening regedit (mentionned below) and clicking File > Export > Save. That will save you in case of failiure

Open regedit (Start > Run > "regedit"). Then find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion". Now look in the right pane. Change "ProgramFilesDir", "ProgramFilesPath", "ProgramW6432Dir" and "ProgramFilesDir (x86)". If your secondary drive letter is D:\, then change them to "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files" and "D:\Program Files (x86)", in that order that I just mentionned. You should be good to go from here.

 

[USAFRet]

everytime i download something how do i direct to to another hardrive besides the main C drive?

In your browser(s), you can designate the default download folder.
Change that to somewhere else.

 

[USAFRet]

How do I direct things to install in another hard drive? since i have a SSD and a secondary data drive?

When you install something, choose "Custom" or "Advanced". That will allow you to choose where to install it.

 

[rrballer]

How do I direct things to install in another hard drive? since i have a SSD and a secondary data drive?

When you install something, choose "Custom" or "Advanced". That will allow you to choose where to install it.

Things like Anti-Virus's for firefox? it forces me to install on first C. I have no options to change

 

[USAFRet]

How do I direct things to install in another hard drive? since i have a SSD and a secondary data drive?

When you install something, choose "Custom" or "Advanced". That will allow you to choose where to install it.

Things like Anti-Virus's for firefox? it forces me to install on first C. I have no options to change

Some things should be left on the C.

 

[USAFRet]

How do I direct things to install in another hard drive? since i have a SSD and a secondary data drive?

Let's back up a little and do some analysis.
SSD - how big is this SSD?

 

[LeetLawrence]

How do I direct things to install in another hard drive? since i have a SSD and a secondary data drive?

Let's back up a little and do some analysis.
SSD - how big is this SSD?

If he's like me he probably has a relatively small SSD boot drive paired with a mass storage HDD. So he wants to: A) Redirect his downloads to his mass storage and B) Change his download folder to his HDD

To the O.P: As USAFRet said, keep key programs (antivirus, browser, etc.) on your boot drive. That means faster load times and no lag in everyday tasks when, for example, scanning the HDD. Many other examples can apply.

 

[AlpineKid]

P.S: Back up your registry before doing this... Do so by opening regedit (mentionned below) and clicking File > Export > Save. That will save you in case of failiure

Open regedit (Start > Run > "regedit"). Then find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion". Now look in the right pane. Change "ProgramFilesDir", "ProgramFilesPath", "ProgramW6432Dir" and "ProgramFilesDir (x86)". If your secondary drive letter is D:\, then change them to "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files" and "D:\Program Files (x86)", in that order that I just mentionned. You should be good to go from here.

How do I direct things to install in another hard drive? since i have a SSD and a secondary data drive?

Not in any of the post did I see that this did indeed work.
Would someone tell me this worked. And how well.
Thank you.
I just installed Windows 7 64-bit onto a 120 SanDisk and did all the tweaks. This is the last thing before I start installing programs.

 

[kinggrove]

I tried this but it didn't work and now I can't open regedit to restore it. I can't open a lot of things actually. PLEASE HELP

P.S: Back up your registry before doing this... Do so by opening regedit (mentionned below) and clicking File > Export > Save. That will save you in case of failiure

Open regedit (Start > Run > "regedit"). Then find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion". Now look in the right pane. Change "ProgramFilesDir", "ProgramFilesPath", "ProgramW6432Dir" and "ProgramFilesDir (x86)". If your secondary drive letter is D:\, then change them to "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files" and "D:\Program Files (x86)", in that order that I just mentionned. You should be good to go from here.

 

[USAFRet]

I tried this but it didn't work and now I can't open regedit to restore it. I can't open a lot of things actually. PLEASE HELP

P.S: Back up your registry before doing this... Do so by opening regedit (mentionned below) and clicking File > Export > Save. That will save you in case of failiure

Open regedit (Start > Run > "regedit"). Then find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion". Now look in the right pane. Change "ProgramFilesDir", "ProgramFilesPath", "ProgramW6432Dir" and "ProgramFilesDir (x86)". If your secondary drive letter is D:\, then change them to "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files" and "D:\Program Files (x86)", in that order that I just mentionned. You should be good to go from here.

Please start a new thread on your issue.
But there is ZERO need to do any regedit junk.

 

[kinggrove]

I started a new thread. maybe you could help me there?

I tried this but it didn't work and now I can't open regedit to restore it. I can't open a lot of things actually. PLEASE HELP

P.S: Back up your registry before doing this... Do so by opening regedit (mentionned below) and clicking File > Export > Save. That will save you in case of failiure

Open regedit (Start > Run > "regedit"). Then find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion". Now look in the right pane. Change "ProgramFilesDir", "ProgramFilesPath", "ProgramW6432Dir" and "ProgramFilesDir (x86)". If your secondary drive letter is D:\, then change them to "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files", "D:\Program Files" and "D:\Program Files (x86)", in that order that I just mentionned. You should be good to go from here.

Please start a new thread on your issue.
But there is ZERO need to do any regedit junk.

 

[Feliks]

I heard this method is risky. Is this true?

 

[USAFRet]

I heard this method is risky. Is this true?

I recommend strongly against doing that registry change.

 

[tfitch11]

Yep dont change your registry. I was EXTREMELY lucky that I was able to fix what I did . So just right click on your destination folders, click on properties, then location.. Change C: to D:... VOILA!

 

[Fabio_V]

Here’s a different procedure that worked perfectly for me.

Create a *.bat file in the same folder of your *.exe installation file.
Edit the *.bat file with the following content:

install_file_name.exe TARGETDIR/INSTALLDIR=”E:\Program Files\folder_name”

I’m not a computer expert… don’t know if it will work for everyone.