Help Manging SDD and HDD

[jonlewis]

Hello,

Noob here so please forgive my lack of knowledge – I’ve recently put together a fairly high-end gaming rig and I am loving every minute of it but I am definitely still learning my way around the PC as a whole. My latest addition is a 120gb OCZ Vertex 3 SSD that I had some help with installing last night. Between the 2 of us we were able to install a fresh copy ofWin7 ultimate and set it up as the primary boot drive… I reinstalled all of the drivers and everything appears to be working as it should (I went from 5.9 to 7.8 Windows Index) My original HDD still has a copy of Win7 Home addition on it and the majority of my files (mostly steam games). I guess I am looking for guidance on is this okay to leave as is or should I remove the Win 7 Home addition from the HDD? – Also I plan on moving some of my games to the SDD but if I click on the hard drive should I still be able to load the games that I have on there? As of right now I cannot and I find myself changing the priority back to boot off of the HDD in order to access games etc… So What is the best way to manage and access both drives?

My apologies if this is not enough info – Let me know what else I may need to post

Thanks

 

[sminlal]

It's okay to leave the Windows folders on the hard drive, although they'll waste a bit of space. You'll find that they're troublesome to delete because of all the security on Windows folders. The easiest way to delete them would be to back all of your files up, reformat the drive, and then restore your files.

You won't be able to run the games from the old hard drive under your new Windows installation. Almost all Windows programs need to be "installed" into Windows which not only places the files into a folder on your disk but also configures numerous keys in the Registry. Since you've got a fresh Windows system, the Registry settings don't exist for your old games. So you'll have to reinstall them on your new system to play them, even if you simply reinstall them into the same place on your hard drive again.

 

[jonlewis]

Hey Sminlal, Thanks for the reply and it definitely helps explain why i cant access them - So if i open up steam under my new system all of the games are in my library but i now have to reinstall everything. So is there a simple way to determine which drive i install them on (Original HDD which they were on or new SSD?) Once i reinstall them on the HDD will i then simply be able to access them off that drive or will i still need to boot off that drive first?

Thanks for the help

 

[sminlal]

As long as you've booted the SSD copy of Windows and installed your games under it, you'll be able to run the games from that copy of Windows no matter where you've installed them - even if you just install them right back onto the hard drive.

 

[jonlewis]

Hey Sminlal,

Sorry for the lame questions... So if i simply want to reinstall the majority of the games back to the HDD and access them from there, what is the best way to go about it?

 

[sminlal]

I've never used Steam so I haven't got a clue how it works, but basically you're going to have to do whatever you did when you installed them on your original system, and you're going to have to do it for each game or program you want to use.

For example if it was Microsoft Office, you'd stick the Office disk into the optical drive, run the install program, and tell it where you want the program to be installed to.

 

[jonlewis]

Best answer selected by jonlewis.