Windows 7 on ssd boot drive and user files program files on normal HD

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subarooster

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I saw on microsoft.com they post people can, and would benifit by using ssd as boot drive and have users folders and personal data on second drive may be even installed programs. making backups of personal data easier and also if you have to format the drive with the os you dont have to move personal data.

they dont say how to do this (although one place on their site they say go to the folder go to properties and change location of folder, which many people have had issues with this and it doesnt allow you do do this with all folders and it doesnt let you move the users and programs with out issues or weird broken work arrounds registry edits)

every online review of how to do this ends up in parts of the OS not working or programs and the os still sending data to the orignal location of these files and folders, so it would end up on the ssd and not on the second hd

1.) What i need or what we need to make or find is a step by step guide on how to do a dual drive set up that doesnt mess up the os, and doesnt allow the OS or programs to write to the old location.

2.) Also make a list of everything that could me moved or stored on the 2nd drive instead of on the SSD so that it takes up less room. Or move things to the normal drive that make many reads and writes to the ssd, that would shorten its life span with no performance gain.

3.) Also make a list of the items and fils and folders that would be best on the SSD for performance reasons stability ect, temp files ect things that would make the computer and OS and programs run quickest.


ADITIONAL INFORMATION

Windows 7 OS to install on SSD as boot drive or system drive, and have all user files and folders, and maybe some or all program files to install or reside on the 2nd drive normal hard drive
How do you make SSD your primary drive and all data and files on your second hard drive normal spinner hard drive with out registry edits etc
Review SSD upgrade review,
Review SSD instead of normal hard drive review
Review on why not to use a green drive as your main or primary drive that the operating system is installed on.
Review on bluray upgrade to blu-ray player

I would really like to use an SSD drive as my boot drive for windows 7 and have the user files (photos, video, etc) from everything i can find about doing this seems that is makes parts of windows not work right.
Like going to your documents folder, and properties and telling it to reside on my normal Hard Drive, many people have posted all sorts of REG. hacks but it seems that making the files, and user accounts, and maybe even the program files hang out on the normal drive makes windows updates stop working as well as many other issues. also if theses changes are not made during installation before user accounts are set up, using dos like command prompts etc (IE: if you try making this change even right after install or on an existing install has even more issues.)
I got the Intel value 40GB SSD 05/07/2010 and did the install on the SSD, not knowing i would run into these issues. I did the install and let windows do all its updates and installed all my drivers and then started looking around the web to see if there were directions on how to properly make only the necessities hang out on my SSD, and the rest of the info be on the normal Hard Drive. NO LUCK, only hacks that don't end up working right, that cause more problems then the are worth.
On windows website they state that they realize that people would like to do this and it would make things like backing up data easier, or if they ever had to wipe the drive with the OS then you don't have to worry about transferring the personal data on that drive as only the OS and drivers etc hang out there....But they don't have any directions on how to do it properly.... I found things in their TECH NET portion of Microsoft site it noted the issues that a person would have if they did this..... SO why would they say you can do it and it would have great effectiveness and in another place say if you do your causing a lot of problems.... SO MANY PEOPLE USE SSD, or want to use SSD....I'm sure someone has figured it out.. Is there a fool proof guide to make the bare min reside on the SSD, or the min. + the items that would benefit the user with speed by being on the SSD like temp files? or what things should be on the normal Hard Driveto extend the life of the SSD..
What I am currently doing is just manually saving or moving my data pics, video, docs to self made files on my 1TB normal Hard Drive, but I would really like to use my user account and just have it and other things stored remotely on the internal Hard Driveinstead of the SSD..
All i have to say is if you don't believe SSD is fast, or may not be worth the $ price per MB compared to a normal drive just go for it... I cant even explain how fast this drive makes the simplest and even the more complex things run. Even if you have an old system or a newer low end system this will make you feel like you have a much faster computer. No wait time for loading sites, no system hangs as you open a program.

TIME=MONEY
SSD=MONEY-but it save so much time its like paying yourself.


I got the bare min 40GB value Intel SSD, i could only imagine what a faster more capable SSD would feel like too. This drive can do like 5 consecutive data streams, the EXTREME Intel SSD drives can do 32 consecutive data streams.
I used to only know about Hard Drivespecs like MB/GB per sec, and sustained and average transfer speeds etc, but it seems there is a speck called IOPS, and though I don't fully understand IOPS, but I found that where a normal Hard Drivemy be doing like 100-200 IOPS even the value SSD blows a normal Hard Driveout of the water. SSD IOPS are from like 25,000 to like 60,000 per second compared to like i said 100-200 on a normal Hard Drive, these specs and comparisons I found on Intel's site, and other sites as well. On Intel's site i found a video that showed them doing the comparison with a program that showed the live stats of both normal Hard Driveand SSD. WOW.. I still can not believe that even my value SSD (got for a little more then $100) is unrealistically fast, it will amaze any one. OLD SYSTEM OR NEW
I would go for a bigger one like maybe 120GB ouch on the price but i could store way more and each thing on the drive would then be able to take advantage of the amazing speed, but even just the small drive takes the lag away from the OS trying to do its thing, and the other system bottle necks, although my understanding it a typical Hard Driveis usually the main bottle neck. I started on this project because my brand new computer ended up coming with the ONLY drive being a green drive by Western Digital. From what i can find these drives are ok for a data drive but, never use then for the drive the Operating System is installed on you will never forgive yourself or if you get a computer that is has the green drive as the main drive from the manufacture, make an image and move it to a normal drive or even better SSD for the OS and data on the green drive, or like I did OS on SSD and bought a Higher End Normal Hard Drive and sell the green drive. They only save like $14.00 max per year, but the amount of lag and system hangs, and "this program or task is not responding, or quit responding" will drive you nuts, will waste more then $14.00 of your time per day, and will really make you hate your computer experience. I am sure in the future they will fix these issues in green drive, i hope by moving to all SSD or Nano Dot, but we will see.

Issues with my old system, window 7 professional (originally was bad Windows VISTA ) slow AMD 64 3800+ processor, running out of Hard Drivespace on a 160GB Hard Drive, lots of pics etc, also i was going to upgrade video so i could do dvi or hdmi out to TV and wanted to add bluray, but i found that you have to have at least a dual core, with a higher speed, and so it would cost more to upgrade processor ect on my old computer so for like 6 months or more i was looking for a mid to high end system that was Intel based and had hdmi and or dvi out so i could go to my tv and monitor, and also wanted bluray.
On line and on computer video content stuttered a lot as well.


I wanted to step up to an Intel processor from my old AMD system and I wanted to be able to watch Blu-Ray movies and on line content hulu, netflix, tv ect on the computer on my tv. Basicly I wanted to replace everything in my entertainment center with a computer that would do it all, and i wanted a computer that would work well as my home desktop as well, and some gaming. But not spend a ton

I was hoping to stay in the mid to high mid price range, though I would have loved to had a Core i7 6 core 6 thread machine, I wanted to stay reasonable in price

After a lot of shopping and searching for the like 6 months or more I got a Gateway 4831-03, I heard from a lot of techs that they work on a lot of HP, and also Dell, SONY and many of the other would be great name computers and Bestbuy and Fry's etc said they had a lot of those brands come back as returns or repairs the consensus was Gateway or build it your self. I found that most systems that had Bluray were HP, or had AMD, both of which I was trying to stay away from. Then just the other day Fry's had a sale on the Gateway 4831-03

Intel Core i5 650
8GB ram 4 stick X 2GB dual channel
Nvidia Actual video card, not on-board, and it has 1GB of its own memory
Bluray drive
CD multi read multi burn 2nd optical drive
ect ect

I tried bluray first thing after i un-installed Norton and other bloat ware that was sent with the computer, once it got playing it was good, though the CyberLink program they use for video and bluray said it wasn't compatible with windows 7 visual settings or something, that flashed up really quick, my screen and the tv flashed a couple times and it looked as though something display resolution, or maybe window 7 aero graphics choices changed, or something and then it took me into its interface with the option to play the bluray. I didn't like how it kind of took over the computer, wanted to run full screen on my monitor on top of every thing else I had to alt + tab or something to get arround it and had to find a way to minimize it and drag it to my tv my second display. It played the Bluray ok after it had a few pauses, and it looked great, supposedly the software and graphics card will upconver dvd's as well, though I havnt tried that yet. next online video content, it did way better then my old computer but I still wanted better, plus i noticed that some times, especially when i had many windows open, but not to many the system would hang, or go slow or say this program has quit working. That is when I found that I had a green hard drive, and did some research, and everyone else has the same problem it seems. So i was going to just do a normal, but higher end Hard Drive, but I ended up getting the entry level SSD instead, and WOW

The SSD and the Higher End Hard Drive is the only hardware changes i made to my computer here are the things that I have seen so far that amaze me.
Basicly all of my pet peeves were resolved.
No lag or halts or this program has quit working, to crazy fast boot time, open browser for internet and intant, instant each webpage, email instant ect.
No shuttering video playback on bluray or online content.
It is just amazing, same system differnt hard drive, and POW crazy fast computer.

I went back down to frys and played arround with many computers that had similar specs with normal a normal Hard Drive and way better computers even some mid range core i7 with fast normal Hard Drive, and wow what a differance, my computer with a core i5 and new SSD Hard Drive beat them all. except maybe the core i7 system that came with ssd
 

cowombat

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Wow - a big entry! I'm not very PC literate, so I'll do 2 things. One - answer some of your questions, and two, pose one specific to me.

Answer 1.
A week ago I rebuilt my PC with a 100GB SSD on board, running Win 7 Pro with an I7 processor. The OS installed just fine from the disk drive after I went into the BIOS to tell it to install to the SSD. I was pleased, because I had left the old copy of Win 7 on what was the C: drive prior to the rebuild, and is now the G: drive, and was concerned there might be some system confusion. (I'll clean up the G: drive soon and remove all the old Win 7 stuff from there.)

I made a decision to load just Win 7 to the SSD C: drive, and all other program files and data to the G: drive The only obstacle was when loading some programs - they want to automatically install to the C: drive. A Google search found the solution. Had to make a registry edit, so that the G: drive is now the default. I was a bit nervous changing the registry (always am!), but it works like a treat.
Instructions are
1/ Open the Registry Editor by selecting Start > Run > Regedit.
2/ Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion.
3/ In the right pane, double-click ProgramFilesDir and change the path in the String Editor to the drive and folder you want (i.e. H:\Program Files). You must also modify the entry for ProgramFilesPath. If your path is H:\ like mine is, the path would be H:\Program Files
4/ Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer. My understanding is that some programs still require installation in the C:\Program Files folder, but I haven't found any yet.

My PC flies now - it is FANTASTIC! So I recommend giving the SSD approach a go.

Question from Me - to anyone else more knowledgeable (like just about everybody :)
I use Sony Vegas 10 video editing suite. I reinstalled it on the G: hard disk drive like all my other programs. There is space left on the 100GB SSD. Should I instead load this memory intesive application to the SSD? I still have to leave all the Hi Def video files on another HDD, so there will still be a lot of data traffic during rendering, no matter what I do.

Cheers
 

number13

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Cowombat, If you can tell the program to use the C: drive when doing editing, install the software files on the regular HDD, but do all the rendering from the C drive, depending on the size of the video of course, -make a dir for the vid files you are going to edit on the C: drive, open the program (on the regular HDD, once it accesses the program it won't need to get any info from the regular HDD) then edit and render from the C: drive, copy and paste to the regular drive to keep as much space avail on the C: drive, I would also do this with your computer and also for Subarooster if your doing a lot of work witth pictures and video's(since neither one of you stated which flavor of 7 you are using, use x64 and at least 6Gigs of RAM, then do this: Start, Accessories, Run(right click, run as admin), fsutil behavior query memoryusage, should return a =0, type fsutil behavior set memoryusage 2, reboot the computer , you have just increased the file system swap size to the max, it'll help a lot memory intensive apps
 

cowombat

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Thanks for the advice Number 13. I do run Win 7 x64 with 6GB of DDR3 RAM. All makes sense to temporarily import the video and photo files being used for a specific project onto the SSD C: drive, then when finished, export everything again to the big HDD.

Pardon my ignorance, but I didn't succeed in changing memoryusage to 2. Each time I did a right click on RUN I don't get an option to RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR. So just hitting RUN and entered fsutil behavior query memoryusage in the search box , the screen flashed (instantaneously looking like a box was appearing in the upper screen) but it disappeared in a millisecond.

How do I get RUN as ADMINISTRATOR to be active in this context? (I already activated under the CMD prompt net user administrator /active:yes)
 

JessicaD

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Cowombat,

That was a very, very long post. I apologize if I didn't quite grasp everything but what is it that you are asking specifically? Were you able to back up your old installation and import it into your new installation on your SSD?

Thanks,

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team
 

cowombat

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Hi Jessica - just for clarity, it was Subarooster who has the long entry. Mine (Cowombat) are the short ones....

Cheers, David
 

number13

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Win 7 and the Administrator thing, I went to my UAC and lowered the control settings to 1 up from the bottom, I was thinking that I might turn it off, but still mulling it over, I run WinPatrol to monitor all program activity and notify me of any changes, MSFT has too many holes and although they "claim" Win7 is the most secure version yet, does that tell you how secure, no it doesn't, and I love the fact that they got around to patching a vulnerability that has been in all versions of windows since 95, they knew about it just didn't patch it until the security "experts" publicized the vulnerability, what pisses me off is they knew about it just didn't want to so they could watch what we are doing, so now what about all the other unpatched computers out there that are still vulnerable, sorry about the rant, but neglect by not listening tells me that MSFT is spying on us, period. UAC is extension of that and gives them the ability to identify who it is, one computer/ multiple users identity
 
This is how I set user folders to a different drive on a clean build.

1. Once setup and at the desktop, don't bother doing any customisation, but start up Computer Management via Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools.

2. Local Users And Groups\Users, select Administrator and enable the account.

3. Reboot.

4. Logon as Administrator, no password, go into normal User Account management and delete the account created during setup and any and all files.

5. Startup Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

6. Change the ProfilesDirectory from %SystemDrive%\Users to for example D:\Users.

7. Close down regedit and reboot.

8. Logon as Administrator and create a user account.

9. Logoff and logon using new account and let system create profile, which is now on your D: drive which of course now the default location for all your personal files.

10. Start up Computer Management via Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools.

11. Local Users And Groups\Users, select Administrator and disable the account. Leaving this enabled is a big security risk !!!


If you can't or don't have access to Local Users And Groups, use a cmd prompt running as admin to enable/disable admin account.

net user administrator /active:yes or no
 

aceball

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Thanks for this answer, so far the most straight-forward answer to this dilema, too bad MS doesnt make this easier for us.
So, if you create an account, it cant function as an Administrator. There are certain programs and tasks that require you to be administrator to function properly. Would you have to log back in as Administrator for these programs to work? How many accounts are on the computer with this method?
Thakns
 

bruteforce05

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Wow, the information here is awesome. Awesome post subarooster. I really want to go ssd now. YOU ALL CAN LAUGH but my computer is ten years old, was my first build in college. I replaced the hard drive, cd rom drive, and I have only added one 512mb pc133 to it so I have 1gb of ram on an anthlon XP 1600+ with an AGP 128mb video card. :) Still works well on windows XP service pack 1 when it first came out. I have reformatted it about 6 times over the ten years due to spyware. I am a firm believer in building your own computer. I do it for friends and family and I have the story to prove how it pays off. Time is money and I realize that more every day. Life is short, and we need to make the most of our precious time.

I don't know much about programming and I have never changed anything in regedit, but I think that was as cut and dry as it gets. I am wondering about some of the questions subarooster had. Which programs would benefit on ssd or regular drive? What things like temp internet cache files, virus definitions and such, a list of what should be stored where?

Questions for Das_stig:

If you do what you say, "das_stig", then if you format the SSD later on, will all the programs work again that are on the other drive? And what about the administrator question from "Aceball". I am having problems with your #4 in your list, explain a little more please. And #5 has four folders under folder list each with same stuff in them but some more than others and then you have the profileimagepath in each folder, which is what you say to modify, which is
%systemroot%\system32\config\systemprofile (on my computer) to your example d:\users(my name). Do you modify this in each of the four folders? Sorry, but I am scared to play with the regedit, just want to do it right.
 

reignsupreme11

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this did not work properly. if you only have a standard user account set up you can no longer access the administrator privileges and you are stuck as a standard user. i cannot even install a program because i require administrator status.
 

eunmac

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There’s a pretty good guide here on Whirlpool which also shows you how to move Program Files too. FYI I could not get it working without doing the regedits as described below in 1 and 2.

(1) http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/moving_user_files

(2) If you are just moving folders this was a good guide but does not work unless you follow Jay Lemmons comments at the bottom of this thread to get it working on 64bit:

http://www.intowindows.com/change-default-installation-directory-in-windows-7-vista/
 

sauvesean

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I have never tried this before, but from what I read, it works.


When you install Windows, but before you choose a username and password, press Ctrl+Shift+F3.

Sysprep will offer to restart into OBE mode. Do not do this until you are finished setting up the unintended installation.

Place the following text into a new file using notepad and name it D:\unattended.xml
Note: Some parts of this code may need editing to suit your specific system.

[cpp]<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<FolderLocations>
<ProfilesDirectory>d:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>
<ProgramData>d:\ProgramData</ProgramData>
</FolderLocations>
</component>
</settings>
<cpi:eek:fflineImage cpi:source="wim:h:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 ULTIMATE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>[/cpp]

Then run:

[cpp]c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /audit /reboot /unattend:D:\unattended.xml[/cpp]

The computer will restart, back into this audit mode. When prompted upon restart, select to restart into OBE in order to finallize the installation.

Finish the installation as normal. Verify that the following folders exist on D:, but not on C:. You may have to show hidden files to do this. Then, open a command prompt as administrator and run the following
[cpp]mklink /J "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files"
mklink /J "C:\Users" "D:\Users"
mklink /J "C:\ProgramData" "D:\ProgramData"[/cpp]

Note: those junctions are not neccessary to the process, but work as good backups in case programs force themselves to use C:
 

BruceW07

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You can definitely use a script as described, in "Audit Mode" to move the c:\ProgramData and c:\Users to d:\ and, after restarting, delete any remnants on C: and replace with Junctions pointing to the live folders that you moved to d:\

Kari at Seven Forums has done a really nice tutorial.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/124198-user-profiles-create-move-during-windows-7-installation.html

And, Kari describes, in a linked post, how to enter "Audit Mode". The short answer to getting to Audit Mode, after you've installed Windows, is to:
Run Command Prompt as administrator by clicking Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories, then right clicking Command Prompt and selecting Run as Administrator.
Type this to command prompt:
C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe /audit /reboot
hit Enter.

I would argue that relocating the Users and ProgramData folders at installation or new PC setup to a separte partition is a good practice. Even if it were a second partition on the same physical, conventional drive, it would still provide some advantages.

The main hazard it introduces -- assuming C: and D: correspond to different physical drives -- is that you never, ever want to start Windows, with the data drive unavailable. If that happens, Windows will be very unhappy with you. If that happens, getting the D: drive back on line and using Windows System Restore to bring back a working registry are your only hopes. (I have survived this scenario, with my SSD C: plus WD terabyte D:, but it was scary.)

This script does not move "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)"
Trying to delete a live "C:\Program Files" and replace it with a junction would be foolish, even if it were not practically impossible from a running Windows system.

You can, of course, get in the habit of installing programs to the D: drive, when their installation programs give you the option, but the better part of valour is to leave your efforts to conserve C: SSD drive space to that.
 

Mscainandabel

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Love that your computer is 10 years old! i am still running Windows 95 . If only people realized how rebust W95 really was, after tweaking :D

 
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