How do I install the OS on one drive, but make the other drive the "main" drive?

thundagawd · Nov 30, 2013

So basically, I have a 120Gb SSD and a 3Tb HDD and I would like to know how I would go about installing the OS on the SSD, but make the HDD the "main directory" for all default downloads/installations (Basically, the 3Tb HDD would become the C: Drive, and the 120Gb SSD would become the D: Drive) . I'm asking this because I mainly want the 120Gb SSD reserved for the OS and all the essential programs (Antivirus, Anti-malware, Defraggler, etc.), and the 3Tb HDD used for everything else. My old laptop had a 1Tb HDD partitioned into 2 separate directories (C & D), and the OS was installed on the D: Drive, but I'm not sure how it was done. Any help is appreciated!

azathoth · Nov 30, 2013

All you need to do is change the download directory to the D: drive (HDD).
nothing special needs to be done.

RealBeast · Nov 30, 2013

You can make a couple of registry key changes to make the HDD the default location for all program installs.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
Then change the default path in DWORDs for ProgramFilesDir and ProgramFilesDir (x86) to the new path to the HDD letter in place of C: for each key.

USAFRet · Nov 30, 2013

See this tutorial:
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html

thundagawd · Nov 30, 2013

USAFRet :

Ah thanks, that's what I needed. I don't know nearly as much about software as I do about hardware, so simple things like this tend to confuse me.

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How do I install the OS on one drive, but make the other drive the "main" drive?

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