I'm adding a 2nd SSD, what is the best way to configure them?

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ConcernedDad

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Aug 5, 2013
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I have a PNY XLR8 120Gb SSD that is my boot drive and has bitdefender and a few small utilities installed on it. I am adding a 240Gb OCZ ARC 100 to replace an outdated and slow HDD that has the majority of my programs & games installed on. I plan to keep the old HDD for storage of photos/videos/music files. What is the best way to configure the 3 drives for the best performance?

My build is as follows:

AMD 8320 BE CPU w/ CM Hyper 212 EVO Cooler
8 Gb Gskill DDR3 1333Mhz RAM
ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ Mobo
Windows 7 Home Premium OS
Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X R9 270X 2GB Video Card
120Gb PNY XLR8 SSD
WD Caviar Black 500Gb 32Mb Cache 7200RPM HD
Ultra LSP 750 Watt PSU

I mainly play WoW, Starcraft, Diablo 3, and a little Skyrim & Elder Scrolls

I'd really appreciate the forum's help with this. Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
SBMfromLA
Assuming you're keeping your first SSD for Windows... here's what I'd do:

Use the new larger SSD to install all your games and programs onto... and keep the first SSD with Windows on it with your drivers... utilities... and misc. programs... and for your old mechanical drive.. I would move your Music, Videos, Downloads and all your backups onto that. To move your system files.. click the start button... click your profile name.. and look for Music, Videos, Downloads.. right click on each one... then go to properties... and select location... then choose the drive you want to move them too... if you do that.. it will keep your SSD small and tidy... and make backups run very fast.
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SBMfromLA

SBMfromLA

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Nov 11, 2011
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Assuming you're keeping your first SSD for Windows... here's what I'd do:

Use the new larger SSD to install all your games and programs onto... and keep the first SSD with Windows on it with your drivers... utilities... and misc. programs... and for your old mechanical drive.. I would move your Music, Videos, Downloads and all your backups onto that. To move your system files.. click the start button... click your profile name.. and look for Music, Videos, Downloads.. right click on each one... then go to properties... and select location... then choose the drive you want to move them too... if you do that.. it will keep your SSD small and tidy... and make backups run very fast.
 
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ConcernedDad

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Aug 5, 2013
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Thanks for the details, sorry it was a long time responding, I was waiting on the mounting bracket and cables to arrive before installing the 2nd SSD, they came the other day. A question I also have regarding my older HD, when I installed the 1st SSD and did a fresh install of Win 7 on that, the HD still has win 7 on it as well, once i move my prgrams/games to the 2nd SSD should I reformat the older HD to wipe everything clean so I can just use it for storage of the recommended music, photos and video I wish to store? I have tried using the uninstall feature within WIn 7's control panel to uninstall some of the duplicates that exist on both the HD and 1st SSD but I cannot get the control to access the HD (which is my E: 465GB). I am only able to see the 1st SSD (C: 111GB) and then there is also a D: ( 99.9MB ) listed as System Reserve.

Sorry if I am sounding very noobish here, the physical tasks of building/replacing/adding components is the easy part for me, its the software settings/coding/programing that gets me lost. I just want to make sure I don't do something stupid and make a mistake that causes a loss of data/files. I really appreciate your responses. Thanks.

 
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SBMfromLA

SBMfromLA

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Your best bet is to to boot from your windows dvd... get to the screen where you install Windows and select advanced... Now you can wipe clean the old hard drive. To get rid of everything thing... I recommend just deleting the entire partition and creating a new one then formatting it... after that you can exit.
 
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