How to use new HDD with SSD?

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Radiohead293

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May 10, 2013
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Hi, I have a 120GB SSD with my OS and some programs installed and am getting a 1TB HDD for storage this weekend. My question is what should I migrate to my HDD and what should I keep on my SSD for the best performance? Also, what's the best way to do this?

If it helps, I play games (mostly on Steam) and have a lot of music.
 
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ram1009

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Jun 28, 2007
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I keep my bulk files on an external 2TB HDD. That way I can turn it off when not in use. My games are mostly STEAM and it's very easy to load/unload local content as required so I keep my games on my SSD, however I have a 256GB SSD. I think it depends upon how many games you want to have active at any one time.
 
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jpoos

jpoos

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Mar 11, 2011
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my way is - movies, music, pictures, ect (bulky stuff that won't benefit from increased performance), onto the hdd. not much point wasting ssd space on such things unless they're being edited, then it may help temporarily having them on ssd whilst working with them. ssd is os, programs, games and duplicates of some essential small files from the hdd that i wouldn't want to lose, which i also back up onto flash drives.
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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Dec 10, 2012
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I would place the videos, music, pictures and documents on the hard drive to conserve space for the programs.

Click on your SSD drive, go to the users folder, then click your user name, right click on the "My Documents" folder, choose properties. The location tab should show "C:\Users\UserName\Documents". Change the "C" to "D" (assuming your hard drive is the D: drive). Do this for any of the folders you want to move to the hard drive (my documents, my music, my pictures, my videos, downloads, favorites are the most common to move).

The files are automatically moved. When you click on your library, it will automatically find the correct folder.
 
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envy14tpe

envy14tpe

Champion
Mar 3, 2012
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First, ship them both to me and I'll decide...but give me some time to make my decision.

OS, programs, on SSD. All files(videos, pictures, music..) and games on the HDD. Games won't load faster on the SSD but they will take up more space on your precious real estate (SSD). With that said, put your one or two favorite games on the SSD. (I put BF3 and it takes up 35GB of space..insane)

Also, once you got your SSD and system going, create a System Image of your C (SSD) drive and store it on your HDD. If you ever have issues with your SSD you will be saved by your HDD.
 
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littleleo

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May 8, 2009
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The more you load on your SSD the slower it will perform. I have my downloads go to my Data Drive and I keep any large files, documents, Videos, music...there also. I keep just smaller, and core programs I use on my SSD, and I've not experienced the speed degradation‎ over time others have complained about on their SSDs.
 
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edogawa

edogawa

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Jan 4, 2012
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The most optimal thing like others have mentioned is large data files, even small ones, on the mechanical drive.

An example of my setup is this:

240GB SSD : Programs/Software/(Files to be edited)/Games that have heavy load times/misc
3TB HD : Games/Download Folder/
2TB HD : Data
2TB HD : Data
1TB HD : Hot-swap Data Transfers

This is generally what I find optimal and should work for you too. It used to be absolutely frustrating for general desktop use with a mechanical hard drive. So happy we have SSD now.

Also leave 15-20% of free space on your SSD at all times.
 
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