SSD as boot drive and HDD as main storage drive problems.

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TeaAndCrumpets

TeaAndCrumpets

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Nov 23, 2014
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I have 2 HDD's, one that has all of my data and programs as well as windows 7 64-bit. On the other Hard drive I have mainly nothing installed except for an older version of windows 7 which came from my old computer. I would like to add an SSD as the booth drive with a brand new copy of windows 7. But how can I do that and still use the old HDD for my programs and files without losing anything. Will I have to setup a new user profile for windows too?
 
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noreaster
Both SSDs and HDDs offer good reliability, the 850 Pro has a 10 year warranty (if I am not mistaken) and ultimately is less complex than a hybrid drive (as complexity increases so do the points of failure). For maximum reliability and stability look at some of the Western Digital specialty drives (Red, Purple, Blue) as they are tuned for specific purposes depending upon your needs.
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corroded

corroded

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You are truly better off not attempting to keep all the programs and start, essentially, net new. If the current drive is still good and mostly empty (less than 50% filled), you could...

Install Windows to the new SSD, plug the other drive in and then map your Profile to the old drives User folder... Re-install the applications to the older drive and they should "See" your old game info in the Profile.

However, mapping the entire Profile to an older one can be problematic, so have an image of the drives before you start mucking about.

More reading before you start:
http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/181451-move-windows-7-user-profile-to-different-drive
 
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TeaAndCrumpets

TeaAndCrumpets

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Starting new is not looking to appealing right now as I have a LOT of important programs, files, and other applications tht I wont be able to easily re download. However, if I still kept the HDD as the boot drive but used the SSD for all the games and what not would I still have the performance benefit(not for start and shut down time of course, but for game loading and processing times)? Boot time is not necessarily important to me. What is important is the performance of the game itself.

BTW SSD is either 256 GB or 512GB, not sure yet.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Pretty much the only benefit you'd see is level load times. Does not help with FPS.
 
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TeaAndCrumpets

TeaAndCrumpets

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That's basically what I expected. So I guess there is not much point in an SSD right? Would a Hybrid drive be more fore my situation?

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Not really, no. A hybrid learns and remembers the files you access most often, and stores those on the small SSD portion. Everything else still comes off the platters.
 
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TeaAndCrumpets

TeaAndCrumpets

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If I am going to have it as a secondary drive, there is not much point in an SSD.They are mainly for boot drives and OS aren't they? A hybrid would be the best of both and it would be useful as a second drive for games and programs. I'd like it to be quicker than a conventional HDD though. I mean an SSD would still be great but a hybrid would give much more value for money. Save about £150-£200. Unless an SSD will be good as a secondary drive I see it unnecessary. Any other suggestions though?
 
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noreaster

noreaster

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Using an SSD as a game data storage drive will still give you increased performance in games (levels will load faster as will textures and objects). Drive speed has no impact on FPS, so if you are looking at that one factor alone, there is no need to get a SSD.
 
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TeaAndCrumpets

TeaAndCrumpets

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I have narrowed it down to mainly 2 options: 1) I get a very high quality SSD such as Samsung 850 Pro and migrate all the data over to that SSD and use that. OR 2) I keep the the current HDD as my main drive and get a smaller capacity SSD or a hybrid drive and use that as my secondary drive for programs. In the end the first option will be much more difficult but possibly more rewarding and the second option will be easy but wont necessarily improve anything but load times and general processing. In the end it comes down to reliability, I have a VERY flexible budget. Which would benefit me more?
 
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noreaster

noreaster

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Both SSDs and HDDs offer good reliability, the 850 Pro has a 10 year warranty (if I am not mistaken) and ultimately is less complex than a hybrid drive (as complexity increases so do the points of failure). For maximum reliability and stability look at some of the Western Digital specialty drives (Red, Purple, Blue) as they are tuned for specific purposes depending upon your needs.
 
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Solution
TeaAndCrumpets

TeaAndCrumpets

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I have decided to buy a Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD and clone ONLY the OS onto the SSD. I will then have that as the boot drive and HDD as my mass storage drive as I wanted. Then I can uninstall programs from HDD and reinstall them on the SSD so I can have just what I originally wanted except a little easier.
 
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