Hello folks, I hope you have all had a lovely holiday. For Christmas, my parents surprised me with an OCZ Vertex 4! I am going to fit it to my PC and reinstall Windows 7 as soon as possible. However, I am wondering how I should organise my system? I know the general sweeping statement about SSD/HDD arrangement is that you keep your OS and any games that need the loading speed on the SSD and bulk files (in my case music) on the HDD. What about the applications in between? For example iTunes. Do install that on the SSD and keep the music files on the HDD, or keep both iTunes and music on the HDD? The same can be said for other applications I use; Photoshop, Adobe Audition, etc. I know there isn't really a right or wrong with this but I would like to know what other people think. Cheers
I've put programs I use alot on my SSD and other stuff on HDD. So I've got Firefox on SSD, but Office on HDD. Also got steam on HDD, and just transfer games if and when I want to. Also got all music and videos and docs etc on HDD. I don't use iTunes and never will, so can't really comment on whether it would benefit from the speed of the SSD. I've just put programs that I think could benefit from the SSD on it, and left other stuff on mechanical, it might make no difference for most stuff, but I've got the space so why not,
Make sure that anything that starts with the PC is on the SSD for sure, annd then pretty much as you said. Directory Junctions are pretty snazzy when it comes to reorganising stuff, google symlink creator and have a play, is very useful.
My setup is very simple (kind of). All of my software on my SSD, all storage files on the HDD (media mainly), in theory, I do have a download folder on the SSD which I sometimes download stuff to (as in software installers etc, nothing big) when I forget to change the default save location. For itunes/any media type stuff, the software on the SSD, the media on the HDD
Pretty much all apps are installed to the SSD. Music/Movies go on the HDD - basically stuff where access time isn't important. If the iTunes app settings doesn't allow you to choose a folder location for placing new mp3s / using existing mp3 files then it would be better to install to the HDD instead.
Simple. For 128GB SSD -> SSD: 1x partition layout - C:\ -> Windows + Apps + Most frequently played games. -> HDD: 1x or more partitions - D:\ -> Music, Videos, Movies, Less frequently played games, Documents, Projects, etc. For 256GB SSD -> SSD: 2x partition layout - C:\ -> Windows. Then for: D:\ -> Apps, Games, Currently working on projects. -> HDD: 1x or more partitions - D:\ -> Music, Videos, Movies, Documents, Projects, etc. This layout will make it easier to re-install Windows, as you can simply copy: C:\Users\<ACCONTS>\AppData\Roaming folder to another partition, re-install Windows, transfer it back, re-install your programs (see D:\ partition for your list of programs to re-install), and your done. All your personal files are on D:\. Profile folders (Document, Music, Video, etc. can be relocated, form their respective properties panel, under the Location tab)
Apologies for poking my nose here, but as I have just ordered a 256GB SSD this interested me and might help the OP. My question is what size of a partition would you recommend for the OS ie the C:\ partition? I understand SSD's work best when you leave a portion of them un-used .. what I was wondering was, does this mean in each partition also or only the SSD as a whole?
If you buy a synchronous SSD, then you don't need to worry about having unused space to store. The write amount are so ridiculous high, that is why they have a 5 year warranty on them, and not a 3 or less year warranty. Under very heavy wrights (using the SSD as an HDD), they should even last more than 5 years. SSDLife marks mine as having 9 years. And that is me programming on it. Every time I hit the compile button on a project it is a very write intensive procedure. And I do it excessively a lot. Sometimes over 100+ times within a day. But assuming 5 years, for sake of argument: 5 years from now, you'll already change your SSD to something faster and/or larger, and/or longer lasting. That is why I recommend paying the small premium price of getting a synchronous SSD, and you don't need to worry about anything. Just use as you would normally use an HDD, without defragmentation (as this is useless for an SSD. It doesn't give you a 1ms of performance increase... you just wear the SSD for nothing). Examples (among many) of Synchronous SSD: -> OCZ Vortex / Vertex 4 -> Corsair Force GT / Force GS / Neutron GTX -> Intel 520 series -> Samsung 830 Pro / 840 Pro -> Crutial M4 On a 256GB SSD, I would leave about 60GB. This should be plenty for: Windows Updates, Driver, including bloated drivers if you ever end up with some, Temp folder, Program settings, pagefile, hibernation, swapfile (new to Win8), Driver Setup temp files (the ones that loves to extract itself to a folder in C:\ drive, and doesn't clean itself up after), and so on. You should have plenty of free space also with that 60GB space. So, it's a very safe size.
I have steam, os and itunes on the ssd (C), and then a 1tb hdd (D) containing all the libraries (music, videos etc). I have also created a program files folder on the D drive, to install the less used programs to.
This all good stuff, It was a question I was curious about myself. Im looking to get an SSD at end of Jan for my birthday. I have a slighty related question.......in post 7 Goodbytes describes to move the roaming folder etc.....this is fine im just curious. Im was going to do a clean install onto my SSD as i feel my windows has got a bit clogged up :S Should I? Or is it fine to get one of these programs to do a transfer. I should also point out i done a MOBO/CPU upgrade recently and i think there is a few bugs in the works (old drivers or software for old mobo (same manufacturer))
Why bother with 2 partitions on an SSD? If you want to reinstall Windows it just chucks your original install in a windows.old directory. Just seems like extra complexity with no real gains to me. As for how to set up SSD and HDD. OS, apps, games etc on the SSD and media on the HDD. If you are worrying about the size of a new SSD and debating moving games/apps around then you bought the wrong size, take it back and get a bigger one.
Is the formatting suggested only for organization and ease of reinstalling rather than any material gain? Or is there a benefit to only needing to reinstall windows on that one partition of the SSD and therefore reducing wear (though I doubt the amount of times I reinstall windows that this is going to be significant wear ).
It is just for organization and ease of reinstalling. In the case you accidentally or you want to format the Windows partition. Assuming synchronous SSD was purchased (which is what is suggested on this forum to buy, unless a tight budget), wear level is not a concern at all.
a few years ago, it was en vogue to have a separate partition for the windows swap file.... Would that still be wise on a SDD? Say 10GB Swapfile and the rest Win+games?
Not needed at all. Unless you have an old SSD, or an asynchronous SSD which you want to extend well over its 3 year warranty in term of life span, due to its low write amount, or use cheapo SSD that uses TLC memory, instead of the norm, MLC. Or, you have a really small SSD, and you are trying to get for yourself every GB available, so you put Windows hibernation, pagefile and swap file to another drive. SSDs access time is so low, than like a single core CPU back in the old days, you feel that it can do multiple things at the same time. So writing or reading while doing something else will not really reduce performance.
I just thought sod it... and bought a 512GB SSD and stuck all my software on it. Everything is installed on my SSD and my other drives are for storage only.
Sorry for radio silence chaps, been meaning to get back. Thanks for all the advice! It turns out that my knowledge of ssd's is pretty outdated and that they are much more robust than they used to be. I'm going to install games and applications that need the SSD's abilities on the SSD and leave older games, less speed dependent apps and files on my HDD. Cheers
Neil, One thing I haven't seen mentioned here: when installing Windoze just have the ssd plugged in, otherwise the installer may well put the 100M system partition on yr HDD. Also be sure to set disks to ahci in bios and turn on trim support, if it's a seperate option to get the most from your ssd. Enjoy! Just got my first one and mmmmmm ... Crazy B
