Setup super small SSD for basic system only

tH_Lurch

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Dec 31, 2015
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Hi,

my brother has a Win 7 Notebook with a super small SSD (18,64 GB) that was used to hold the system only. Worked fine until he decided to switch to Win 8. Now this SSD is full with Windows. The result is that it lags rather often. Probably because there is no space for temp files.

The main purpose of the laptop is to browse the internet, write some documents and presentations. So the SSD is only there to provide a fast boot.

Is there a way to set it up like it was before? Maybe divide the system so that programs are automatically installed on the HDD and stuff like the user files and downloads are on the HDD as well? And the SSD only holds the basic system for a fast boot?
Maybe even block the SSD for direct user input, so that only the system itself can use it?
 
Solution
yea 18GB is not enough for anything that is Vista and up. I mean if you did a clean install of windows, and there really was NOTHING but windows it COULD possible fit depending on drivers and updates but there would be any room or anything else and if it that SSD fills up then windows will become unstable.

you can install the OS on the HDD. It won't be as fast but it will still work just as fine. As far as lags during usage what do you mean? depending on the motherboard you COULD use the SSD as a Cashe for the hard drive speeding things up a bit. would need to know what kind of built it is exactly

There are dead and taxes, and a newer OS always take more space than the older OS.

If you must use Win8, the only practical thing to do is to get a bigger SSD, there is no such thing as telling Windows to put this and that somewhere else, at installation time.
 

tH_Lurch

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Dec 31, 2015
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He did a fresh install not an update. He would be willing to go back to Win7 as well. But I checked my Win7 installation and it takes up 26,5GB of space. Even that is way to much for this SSD.

Would it make sense to install the system on the HDD. That way it wouldn't boot as fast as before but the lags during usage should be gone, shouldn't they?
 
yea 18GB is not enough for anything that is Vista and up. I mean if you did a clean install of windows, and there really was NOTHING but windows it COULD possible fit depending on drivers and updates but there would be any room or anything else and if it that SSD fills up then windows will become unstable.

you can install the OS on the HDD. It won't be as fast but it will still work just as fine. As far as lags during usage what do you mean? depending on the motherboard you COULD use the SSD as a Cashe for the hard drive speeding things up a bit. would need to know what kind of built it is exactly
 
Solution