New SSD 120GB

Hi Roomies,

I will be upgrading my HHD for the final Win 8.1 final with Samsung 840 Series 2.5 inch 120GB SATA III.
I would like to install only Win8.1 on the SSD and all other programs on a normal HHD. Is their a easy or professional way of installing all my programs on the new SSD? or a sticky to follow?

Thanks [h=1][/h]

During installation of your programs, always use the "Custom" install option and when prompted for the install location, change the install folder to your D: drive (or whatever the drive letter is in your case). Most often it's simply a matter of changing the the C: destination to point to D:.

Personally, I duplicated the \Program Files (and \Program Files (x86) in the case of a 64-bit system) folders on my D: drive so when I install something and it comes up as C:\Program Files\MyNewProgram, all I need do is change the drive letter from C: to D: and proceed with the install.

@Strollin, Thanks.

I understood the changing of the drivers C to D . But the duplicating \program files I'm a bit confuse.

In your example C you don't install any files, but in D you make a new folder with D:\Program Files\MyNewProgram? or you just install everything on D like I would like to do?

Thx

I used to split the OS from programs and that required two back ups, one for the OS and the other for the programs. Nowadays, my desktop systems use a 256 GBs SSD and everything is installed on this drive. Makes life easier to backup and/or restore. You may want to reconsider the size of the SSD drive at today's prices...

I have quite a few applications (MS Office, Acronis, etc...) on my 120GB SSD boot disk, along with the OS (Win8 Enterprise) and I'm only using 60Gb of space out of the total, so 120Gb is plenty. I install everything I can on the 2TB hard drive (D. Read the documents that explain how to optimize Windows on an SSD and you'll be glad you did...

@All, thanks, now I know what I will be doing. I also did some search in Google and MS with the final needed information. Now all i need is to wait for the ISO til 18OCT.

Thanks

I have a 128 gig SSD and a 256 gig SSD in my laptop. 80 gig free of the 118 gig available on the 128 gig drive. I have office and a few other programs installed. I keep my Documents, Pictures, etc on the 256 Data drive and just let programs install to the 128 gig system drive. I just use the Location Tab to move the default User folders to my Data drive. User Folders - Change Default Location - Windows 7 Help Forums . When I do a reinstall I just leave the Data drive alone and only wipe the 128 gig system drive. You'll get a nice noticeable speed increase with the SSD drive.

Specifying "Custom" install for programs is an options just for desktop applications. As far as I know Windows 8 or 8.1 apps purchased from the app store will install only to c:\Program Files\WindowsApps which is a hidden folder.

Just one more reason why I never buy or install apps from the Win 8 app store.

By installing programs on a HDD you're slowing down the programs and somewhat making having an SSD redundant*. Using and installing a few programs isn't going to make your SSD implode. Personally, I install only games on a mechanical drive, and leave programs and the pagefile on the SSD. My SSD (SanDisk, SATAIII, 120GB) has been running for 6,249 hours, with over 2TB of data transfer; IMO, that's a hell of a lot for an SSD. The speed? Still bang on the money, no other issues, and S.M.A.R.T reads no problems or cautions at all. That's a cheap SSD, as well.

* OK, so maybe redundant is too harsh, but not nearly as effective would suffice. The pagefile being on the SSD would of course make an enormous difference, but having the program files on the SSD too would also make a big difference, particular with bigger programs.