Setting up with 64GB C: drive and 4TB D: drive

[cinci-hal]

I bought a PowerSpec G212 that has 4TB Raid 0 - (2 x 2TB SATA HDDs) 5,400 RPM (D: drive) and a 64GB SATA Solid State Drive (C: drive) with a Windows 7 OS. First off, I want to mention that I am used to using only one hard drive, the C: drive, for storing everything and I'm used to using the Windows XP Pro OS. I assumed with this new computer it would be set up already to store applications and files in the correct places when transferring and installing and that I would have no problem getting my system up and running. For manual transfers, I have been careful to put files such as 'My Document' type files on the large 4TB, but the software installations have been automatic. It didn't take long till I ran out of space running the Windows Transfer Utility, And trying to figure out Windows 7 method of storing things is really confusing to me. So what am I doing wrong? I use a lot of software applications, so shouldn't the C: drive be much bigger so it can store all the OS and software files? Or is it possible to move some of the program files to the large D: drive? I have been getting by for several years running programs such as AutoCAD, Photoshop, 3dsMax, etc. on a PC with 2.4 GHz Athlon 64 3700+, with 1 GB PC3200 SDRAM, So I am excited about having a faster PC, but at the same time, I don't think it would take much to please me. In other words, I'm willing to sacrifice some performance for convenience. So if there is a hard drive configuration that would work better for my situation and sacrifice a little performance than I am willing. Also, I don't rally like Raid 0 and there is no way I'm going to need all that storage space. Would I lose much performance if that were changed to raid 1 instead?

Other specs of PowerSpec G212:
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 - 2600K Processor
Motherboard:Intel DP67BG
OS: genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
Memory:16GB composed of 4- 4096MB DDR3/1333 DIMMS
Video: Dual Radeon HD6790 PCI Express cards in Crossfire™

 

[RetiredChief]

1) A 64 gig SSD is the smallest recommend size, the recoomended size is a 120/128 Gig SSD.
Some tips:
A) Disable Hibernation (save 16 Gigs space as windows will reserve an amount of SSD to store what is in ram when it hibernates.
B) You have 16 gigs of ram. Windows will setup a page file that is way more than you need. Set min/max to 1024 Mbs (if you ever get an out of memorry message you can always increase it) Also you can set this to be on the HDD and NOT on the SSD. Only a small performance hit, if any.
.. Above two will save you close to 20 gigs.
C) mange your restore points, over time this can add up to a large chunk. (Just google "mange restore points.
D) Only install most often used programs on "C", redirect lesser used programs to D:
E) Move temp folder and My Doc folder to D drive. (again just google and you shall see how.

My preferred set up would be:
1) SSD on Sata III (6) port 0
2) The Two hardrives on the sata II ports (leaving the 2nd SATA III port free for a 2nd SSD). Only benifit of a sata III HDD on sata III is in burst speed, sustained performance does not excceed SATA II.

On Raid0 vs Raid1 vs two single drives. If you do not need the performanace of Raid0, then I would break the array and have two seperate drives - One for your data, the 2nd for a backup drive. Raid1 only protects against a drive failure - there are other failure modes and just as with raid0 - you snozze, you lose. Also simplifies set-up as controller can be set to ahci for all three drives.

PS - Great rig, would have prefered a Z68 based MB over the P67.

 

[cinci-hal]

Great answer! I was about to return the PC to Microcenter and tell them they could have it back. I will look into your solutions and see if I can't make it work.

1) A 64 gig SSD is the smallest recommend size, the recoomended size is a 120/128 Gig SSD.
Some tips:
A) Disable Hibernation (save 16 Gigs space as windows will reserve an amount of SSD to store what is in ram when it hibernates.
B) You have 16 gigs of ram. Windows will setup a page file that is way more than you need. Set min/max to 1024 Mbs (if you ever get an out of memorry message you can always increase it) Also you can set this to be on the HDD and NOT on the SSD. Only a small performance hit, if any.
.. Above two will save you close to 20 gigs.
C) mange your restore points, over time this can add up to a large chunk. (Just google "mange restore points.
D) Only install most often used programs on "C", redirect lesser used programs to D:
E) Move temp folder and My Doc folder to D drive. (again just google and you shall see how.

My preferred set up would be:
1) SSD on Sata III (6) port 0
2) The Two hardrives on the sata II ports (leaving the 2nd SATA III port free for a 2nd SSD). Only benifit of a sata III HDD on sata III is in burst speed, sustained performance does not excceed SATA II.

On Raid0 vs Raid1 vs two single drives. If you do not need the performanace of Raid0, then I would break the array and have two seperate drives - One for your data, the 2nd for a backup drive. Raid1 only protects against a drive failure - there are other failure modes and just as with raid0 - you snozze, you lose. Also simplifies set-up as controller can be set to ahci for all three drives.

PS - Great rig, would have prefered a Z68 based MB over the P67.

 

[cinci-hal]

So I followed some of the steps suggested and have been able to get some space back on my C: drive. Hibernation was already disabled, so I wasn't able to save any there, but I changed the virtual memory settings, and found some files that could be moved. The only thing I'm having trouble with is getting some programs over to the D: drive, while keeping the main ones on the C: drive. I haven’t found much information on how to do this in Windows 7, so if anyone knows of links that show how to do this that would help out tremendously.

 

[RetiredChief]

I think the simplist way would be to uninstall the progream. Then reinstall directing it to install on the D drive (I would creat a Folder (directory) there called Programs.

 

[cinci-hal]

Ok, so I have uninstalled many of the programs that I want to have installed on the D: drive and created the Program Files directory there. Problem is, the first couple of programs that I have attempted to install do not give a location option, they just install automatically on the C: drive again. Microsoft says they do not support Changing the default location of where programs are installed by modifying the ProgramFilesDir because doing so may have adverse effect(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933700). I was thinking, however, that it might be safe to temporarily modifying the ProgramFilesDir registry value to the: D drive and then change it back after I have installed all the programs. I would like to hear from the forum if this is a viable solution or if there is some other safe way to install these programs on the D: drive.

 

[lafontma]

Ok, so I have uninstalled many of the programs that I want to have installed on the D: drive and created the Program Files directory there. Problem is, the first couple of programs that I have attempted to install do not give a location option, they just install automatically on the C: drive again. Microsoft says they do not support Changing the default location of where programs are installed by modifying the ProgramFilesDir because doing so may have adverse effect(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933700). I was thinking, however, that it might be safe to temporarily modifying the ProgramFilesDir registry value to the: D drive and then change it back after I have installed all the programs. I would like to hear from the forum if this is a viable solution or if there is some other safe way to install these programs on the D: drive.

Any modern software installation should at some point ask you in one of its dialog windows where to install the program.. Manually change it at that point to D:\whatever.

Changing the ProgramFilesDir back and forth is NOT a good idea. Alot of your programs will depend on this variable when launch and if you've changed it back and forth it might not match what is expected.

 

[cinci-hal]

Like I said, the first two programs I tried to install did not have a location option in their installation. Adobe Acrobat Reader and Belarc are programs that I would say are pretty modern and updated fairly often. If these are the first two that I attempted to install and they did not have a location option, then I'm thinking that I will encounter more on down the road. I'm guessing programs like windows live mail, won't either, though I hope I'm wrong. If anyone knows of a safe way to install these on the D: drive please let me know.