help with ssd!

so im building a gaming desktop and i have choosen windows 8 after trying it on my friends pc.
i want to install it on a ssd after researching it. im just wondering how big the file will be as im thinking of getting a 120gb ocz vertex 3.
i will disable hibernation to save disk space that's 8gb there.

so how big will it be?
what can i disable to free up space beside disabling hibernation.
how big should i make the partition.
once i disable hibernation and other things how can i get that space back.
are the service packs/updates installed on the partition for the actual os?
this is my first pc,please forgive me for all the questions

If you are only doing a 120gb drive, don't do partitions. You won't have enough room. Just do 1 big drive.

1. disabling hibernation is a good idea. The command is powercfg -h off. To set it back on it is powercfg -h on

2. Set the pagefile to 1GB - with 8GB of RAM that is enough. It will probably never be used.

3. The initial system will be appr. 20GB. But over time it will grow to 30+GB

4. Put all your user folders (documents, pictures, music, videos) on a spinning HDD - maybe also big games.

5. Service packs and updates will arrive automatically. There is nothing specific you need to do.

6. Here is one of my tutorials that may be helpful. SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System - Windows 7 Help Forums

Note: If you install with an installation disc, you need not neccessarily worry about the alignment. The installer will do that.

whs said:

1. disabling hibernation is a good idea. The command is powercfg -h off. To set it back on it is powercfg -h on

2. Set the pagefile to 1GB - with 8GB of RAM that is enough. It will probably never be used.

3. The initial system will be appr. 20GB. But over time it will grow to 30+GB

4. Put all your user folders (documents, pictures, music, videos) on a spinning HDD - maybe also big games.

5. Service packs and updates will arrive automatically. There is nothing specific you need to do.

6. Here is one of my tutorials that may be helpful. SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System - Windows 7 Help Forums

Note: If you install with an installation disc, you need not neccessarily worry about the alignment. The installer will do that.

Click to expand...

i will not be transfering to a hdd i will be doing a clean install from a cd i have the iso on. when you disable hibernation, do you need to do something to get the space back. example: i disable hibernation on a 250gb ssd thats filled up to 128. will i automatically have 120 or do i need to do something to get to 120?
according to this guide (windows 8 guide) i can get windows 8 down to 15gb. so if i do how much space should i set aside for windows? 25gb?
do i have to manually transfer over each user folder to my hdd? can i just go to the folder ex:atomik. right click and go to properties from there?
is their anything else you would recommend to decrease windows?

sorry if im getting annoying. i just want to be able to fit windows 8 on a 120gb ssd along with bf3 and arma ii/dayz

also, you mention alignment and how i don't need to worry if i install from disc. do i need to worry about it ONLY if i transfer the os to a ssd from a hdd

To get rid of the hiberfile, run the command, It's instant

25GB is tight. This system here is currently at 31GB. I would give the OS 40GB. Depends, of course, what you plan to install. Alternatively make just one big partition of the whole SSD.

For the user folders you do that differently. Define a new folder on the HDD for Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos. Then you move all your stuff there - where it belongs. When you are done, go back to the HDD, right click on each folder you have originally created and INCLUDE it into the respective library.

The windows installer will do the alignment. There is nothing to do in your case.

PS: what on earth is bf3 and arma - are those some games ? I never use any games. They are always the first thing I delete from the system.

don't know if trolling or for realz .
arma ii
bf3


im figuring if i get everything right.
windows 8 = 20gb
battlefield 3 = 40 (rounding up)
guildwars 2 = 20 (told my friend i would get it if he got dayz)
arma ii/dayz = 30
----
110

one more question. should i just put guild wars 2 on my hdd and use that 20gigs for the drivers(motherboard, graphics card..)

Having hibernation does allow rapid boot. My laptop boots in less than 10 seconds with it on. But with 16 gb of ram, I lose about 14gb to my hiberfile. Oh well, I'll take fast boots for now, and disable it later if space becomes too tight.

pparks1 said:

Having hibernation does allow rapid boot. My laptop boots in less than 10 seconds with it on. But with 16 gb of ram, I lose about 14gb to my hiberfile. Oh well, I'll take fast boots for now, and disable it later if space becomes too tight.

Click to expand...

i use hibernation on my laptop all the time. i have it set to when i close it nothing happens(im constantly doing other things while surfing the web) with my desktop though it will either be on high performance or off.
if you don't mind could you tell me what people me when they say "the size of windows depends on what apps you have installed". do they mean like outlook or something?

Hi there.
People have posted good details about the SOFTWARE.

Just a note about MOUNTING the SSD in the case.

As it's a DESKTOP you are using remember the SSD has NO moving parts so no vibration. You don't need to mount it in a 3.5 inch bay on the tower / case. You can just leave it anywhere (preferably away from the CPU and GPU which tend to get hot) or even on the floor of the case itself. There's no vibration etc so there's no need to fix it into any of the bays which you can leave for other devices -- especially if you want to add more spinners etc.

I have TWO SSD's just lying on the floor of my case because I have 8 disks in total - 6 spinners and two SSD's -- no space in the bays. !!

I use one 128GB SSD for the W8 OS and the other 128 GB SSD for two virtual machines that I'm always using -- a W2003 server and a Linux server. Having the VM's on an SSD as well makes the performance almost as good as Native.

Just another note here -- by using a utility like Acronis or Macrium you could simply backup the image from your old OS and restore to the SSD if you don't want to re-install the OS - although doing a re-install especially for W8 doesn't take long at all these days.

I'm now thinking of replacing a 128 SSD in a laptop for a 256 GB SSD -- these are cheap enough now -- I'd keep a 128 GB partition for the OS and create a 2nd partition for VM's rather than run these from an external USB3 drive (drive is fast enough but for portability reasons). The spare SSD in any case will make an excellent fast "Windows to Go" type of system.

Cheers
jimbo

whs said:

4. Put all your user folders (documents, pictures, music, videos) on a spinning HDD - maybe also big games.

Click to expand...

This seems like a good idea, what's the best way to move/put all folders on to a spinning HDD?

KeyboardDemon said:

whs said:

4. Put all your user folders (documents, pictures, music, videos) on a spinning HDD - maybe also big games.

Click to expand...

This seems like a good idea, what's the best way to move/put all folders on to a spinning HDD?

Click to expand...

You make folders for documents, pictures, music, videos on the HDD. Then right click on those and INCLUDE them into the respective libraries. Then you move your user folders there.

There is another method using the move button in Properties > Location tab. But I would not recommend that.

whs said:

You make folders for documents, pictures, music, videos on the HDD. Then right click on those and INCLUDE them into the respective libraries. Then you move your user folders there.

There is another method using the move button in Properties > Location tab. But I would not recommend that.

Click to expand...

When you say move my user folder, can you expand on that a little more please? As the only part I understood completely was including folders in libraries. Would I need to remove the folders on SSD from the library too or is that what's achieved when I move the user folder?

Sorry to ask so many questions, but I am about to do a fresh Win 8 install and I'm a little confused by this aspect and I want to do as much as I can to extend its lifespan and don't want my SSD getting filled with junk.

You just Copy/Paste the user folders (and that is your own folders and not the default system folders) from the SSD to the HDD folder where they belong - documents to documents, pictures to pictures, etc.

Once they have safely arrived on the HDD, you can delete them from the SSD - BUT keep the base folders of Documents, music, etc. on the HDD. Some programs will be looking for them, especially the documents folder. But those programs usually park only little data there. So that is no real space problem.

Or use this: Context Menu - Add Copy To Folder and Move To Folder - Windows 7 Help Forums