Solved HDD to SSD Duel Boot, Game Save Info

Jarminx · Apr 18, 2014

I know, it's a confusing title.. But basically, I'll be getting a second HDD (2TB) and a 120GB SSD. The SSD I'll be moving my current Win8.1 setup there and duel booting/re-partitioning Win7 on that same SSD. My question, once I do this I need to know if disc games like Skyrim and Steam games like Planeteside 2 and Tomb Raider will be able to be saved onto one of the HDD's and not the SSD. Also, those with gamer experience, are all games able to be moved to HDD, or installed outside of the SSD where the OS's are located? I'm a new gamer and a new PC builder, the PC is built and running great for the past 3 months or so and been PC gaming about as long, so there's still some small details I'm not quite sure about. And I'd like to find out before I spend more on new hardware..

EDIT: Forgot to say I currently have 1TB HDD and all that above will be added..

blackroseMD1 · May 21, 2014

Jarminx said:
I know, it's a confusing title.. But basically, I'll be getting a second HDD (2TB) and a 120GB SSD. The SSD I'll be moving my current Win8.1 setup there and duel booting/re-partitioning Win7 on that same SSD. My question, once I do this I need to know if disc games like Skyrim and Steam games like Planeteside 2 and Tomb Raider will be able to be saved onto one of the HDD's and not the SSD. Also, those with gamer experience, are all games able to be moved to HDD, or installed outside of the SSD where the OS's are located? I'm a new gamer and a new PC builder, the PC is built and running great for the past 3 months or so and been PC gaming about as long, so there's still some small details I'm not quite sure about. And I'd like to find out before I spend more on new hardware..

EDIT: Forgot to say I currently have 1TB HDD and all that above will be added..

I have Windows 8 booting off a SSD and install all my games to a secondary 1 TB HDD. They all work fine. You should be able to do that no problem.

Jarminx · May 21, 2014

blackroseMD1 said:
I have Windows 8 booting off a SSD and install all my games to a secondary 1 TB HDD. They all work fine. You should be able to do that no problem.

Thanks

Do you by chance use Steam or UPlay? Easy to switch drives on those? Also, have you run across any games that wouldn't allow you to change which folder to install them to?

sygnus21 · May 22, 2014

Jarminx said:
I need to know if disc games like Skyrim and Steam games like Planeteside 2 and Tomb Raider will be able to be saved onto one of the HDD's and not the SSD. Also, those with gamer experience, are all games able to be moved to HDD, or installed outside of the SSD where the OS's are located?

As a gamer myself, I also have multiple HD's (2 SSD's and one 2TB HD). Anyway yes, you can have your games on different HD. They way mine is configured is I have all my games (including Steam based and Origin based games) installed on a 800gig partition ("G" drive) on my 2TB HD.

That said, you may have to reinstall all the games on the drive you want to use so that Windows knows where to find them. Other than that, there's no issue installing games wherever you want.

Good luck.

blackroseMD1 · May 24, 2014

Jarminx said:
blackroseMD1 said:

I have Windows 8 booting off a SSD and install all my games to a secondary 1 TB HDD. They all work fine. You should be able to do that no problem.

Click to expand...

Thanks Do you by chance use Steam or UPlay? Easy to switch drives on those? Also, have you run across any games that wouldn't allow you to change which folder to install them to?

I have both Steam and UPlay and haven't run into any issues so far. Every game I have installed (about 45 total) have all given me the option to choose where I install to. I think that's standard practice, especially with SSDs so common now. I don't think you'll run into problems.

Boozad · May 25, 2014

Same here. All of my games (and Steam, Origin and Uplay) are installed on drive D:, although I can only play them when logged into Windows 7 (drive J: ) as that's the OS I used when installing them.

sygnus21 · May 25, 2014

Boozad said:
although I can only play them when logged into Windows 7 (drive J: ) as that's the OS I used when installing them.

That's somewhat confusing? What's the main OS drive?

Boozad · May 25, 2014

sygnus21 said:
Boozad said:

although I can only play them when logged into Windows 7 (drive J: ) as that's the OS I used when installing them.

Click to expand...

That's somewhat confusing? What's the main OS drive?

C: It appears as C: whichever OS I'm booted into, I partitioned my SSD for the dual boot but letters up to K were already assigned so J was the next available letter. If I'm booted into 7, the 8 partition becomes J and vice versa. In the screenshot below 7 is installed on the C partition and 8 is installed on the J partition. It probably looks more complicated than it actually is.

blackroseMD1 · May 26, 2014

Boozad said:
View attachment 43816

Hahaha, holy cow dude. How much space total? 6.25 TBs?

Boozad · May 26, 2014

7.25.

Long story short; I gave my backup AMD A Series rig to my kids, then fitted an SSD for them and took one of the 2TB Caviar Blacks out of it and stuck it in my rig so I'd have 2TB dedicated storage for W8.1 when I set up my dual boot. I do a lot of backups, have a lot of games, a lot of movies and music and do a lot of graphic design work so I can never have too much space. I'm constantly tempted to fit another drive in there, there's plenty of room!

blackroseMD1 · May 26, 2014

Boozad said:
7.25.

Long story short; I gave my backup AMD A Series rig to my kids, then fitted an SSD for them and took one of the 2TB Caviar Blacks out of it and stuck it in my rig so I'd have 2TB dedicated storage for W8.1 when I set up my dual boot. I do a lot of backups, have a lot of games, a lot of movies and music and do a lot of graphic design work so I can never have too much space. I'm constantly tempted to fit another drive in there, there's plenty of room!

View attachment 43834

That's awesome. My case has a separate dedicated cooling chamber just for HDD/SSDs. I plan on filling that sucker up. Can probably fit 10 drives in here if I try.

Boozad · May 26, 2014

blackroseMD1 said:
That's awesome. My case has a separate dedicated cooling chamber just for HDD/SSDs. I plan on filling that sucker up. Can probably fit 10 drives in here if I try.

Get a photo on here mate, I'd love to see that. I could fit three more HDDs/SSDs in my rig in the hard drive cage as it is, and I have a hot-swappable dock in the front which is handy. It's not good for keeping drives in there though as they get red hot quickly.

blackroseMD1 · May 26, 2014

The bottom is the separately cooled drive bays. Needs a good dusting too, but it almost always does with animals in the house.

Boozad · May 26, 2014

That drive bay is a brilliant idea, no more than expected from a full ATX though I suppose.

blackroseMD1 · May 26, 2014

That's pretty much what sold me on the case, honestly.

sygnus21 · May 26, 2014

There was a time when I wanted as many drives as possible. Now it's as little. I've a HAF X case and I run two SSD's and a 2TB drive. Since the case provides for hot swappable drives I use those when I need to move files around.

Anyway was the OP's issue solved?

Jarminx · May 27, 2014

I got the 'hot swap' drives too..

4 HDD bays and 2 SSD bays.. I do like the quick swap bays, but I think I would have preferred the drives facing the door for better cable management.. Was a pain to get it how it is now

*And yes, my original question was solved

sygnus21 · May 27, 2014

On the HAF X, the hot swap bays are in the front. Just remove a tray, stick in a drive, and whalla, hot swap drive...

As for cable management...

I've an obsession with clean/neat cable management

Jarminx · May 27, 2014

lol You don't want to see the back panel on mine.. That's why it stays shut at all times

My first build so I got a full tower for "future upgrades" not realizing it was downright HUGE. The PSU cables just barely made it to their destinations..

So the back wiring are all stretched this way and that.. Then there's the slim fan behind the CPU behind the mobo that I had to force the wires around.. It literally took both hand and feet to push all four corners of the back case door to get it to attach back to the case lol.. I don't take that off unless I have to

I know now for the future that cable length needs to be checked before putting it all together lol

Solved HDD to SSD Duel Boot, Game Save Info

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