Switching to SSD boot drive

DerHausenator

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Dec 25, 2010
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hello,

I'm planning on installing a new boot drive and removing the OS from my previous boot drive so that it is just partitioned and used for storage, but I have a few questions:

I recently purchased a 60 GB which I am planning on using as my primary boot drive, whilst converting my previous boot drive, a 750GB SATA HDD, to a storage drive. I have many games on my computer; all of which would definitely not fit on the SSD so at this time I'm planning on only installing 1 or 2 games on the SSD at a time and having the rest installed on the HDD.

So, is it possible to have games/apps installed to a secondary HDD without an OS? And is this the recommended way to go about installing the new boot drive? Or would it be better to just leave the OS on secondary drive so that both have OSs installed.

Answers to these questions and any other tips on switching to a new boot drive would be much appreciated.

+ is there a guide available on this somewhere? Switching to a new boot drive with as little re-installations/headaches as possible
 

blackhawk1928

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Of course, many people buy tiny 20-30GB SSD's soley for the OS and then buy another HDD and install all the applications onto that HDD. Other buy larger SSD's like 60-100GB+ SSD to install the OS and applications onto it and then use a separate hard drive for storage such as data and multimedia. Thats how most setups are.

My recommendation for your 60GB SSD, is install the operating system on it and install your regular applications like your AV, utilities, office programs...etc onto that SSD, then take your seperate hard drive and divide it into 2 partitions. One partition will be for your very large applications like Games and Simulators and the other partition for your data/mulitmedia, ie music, videos, files...etc. Google will give you plenty of results for guide for SSD's, this forum and anandtech have many articles, charts and guides for SSDs in all the different aspects.
 

rand_79

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Apr 10, 2009
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I just did this.. there are some pitfalls I didnt foresee, but it went fairly smoothly.

1) dont have ANY other drives connected when installing windows.

2) use AHCI mode not raid or ide.

3) I would install windows and basic apps to ssd, games to a partition on storage drive.. and data (movies mp3's etc) to a seperate partition.


4) there are some good links out there for basic optimizing for ssd
 

mark_k

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Dec 31, 2008
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The links I provided explains it all and then some.....
 

mark_k

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Dec 31, 2008
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I've stated that I've gotten that info from that site already...
and they know that.
never said it was my own work.
stop hating..
it's a good and informative post....
just agree and move on...

I see that you edited your post and added my link.
I'll move on when you stop posting others material and and post the link only.
That link will give others the information to find things on their own. knowledge is power.

Good job malmental.

:bounce: