Changing Primary and Secondary Hard Drives

[Levi2008]

I recently upgraded my computer. I put in a 120 GB Kingston HyperX SSD and installed Windows 7 64 bit on that drive. I was told to use the SSD for the operating system and possibly any big programs I use on a daily basis.
Now I have my old 500 GB HDD hooked in too but both drives are registering as primary drives. I would like to change this. Also I would like my 500 GB HDD to be the drive where all my downloads automatically go, all programs would automatically select that drive for installation. I'm going to guess that would make my HDD the primary drive?

Additional information:

C: drive is SSD
D: drive is 500 GB HDD
Motherboard is a Z77 Sabertooth

Also I have been told to flip a switch on the drives but when I turn off the computer and unplug the drives there are no white switches on the back of the drives. I have also been told to change primary and secondary drives in the registry but I can't find the Windows 7 registry. All I see is Windows XP guides.

I really need a step by step guide(s) to help me. My only other option is to have a small time local guy come to my house and do it himself for $150 and he can't come for 2 weeks due to his busy schedule. So after talking to people on mumble they have directed me here. Please help.

 

[canadian69]

So if all drives are SATA drives which seems safe to assume then you just need to plug them into the appropriate SATA connectors on the mobo. Seems your motherboard has both 3Gb and 6Gb SATA ports. The 3Gb ports are black, use those.

Once installed boot and check the BIOS config, you should see all the drives present and be able to adjust the boot order to make your SSD the first.

Don't worry about partitions marked active, you can use any partition tool (Partition Magic) to make changes to the partitions and drive letter assignments from within windows disk management or off a bootable DVD utilities disk.

 

[Levi2008]

So if all drives are SATA drives which seems safe to assume then you just need to plug them into the appropriate SATA connectors on the mobo. Seems your motherboard has both 3Gb and 6Gb SATA ports. The 3Gb ports are black, use those.

Once installed boot and check the BIOS config, you should see all the drives present and be able to adjust the boot order to make your SSD the first.

Don't worry about partitions marked active, you can use any partition tool (Partition Magic) to make changes to the partitions and drive letter assignments from within windows disk management or off a bootable DVD utilities disk.

Okay I've done that but all my downloads still go onto my SSD and when I try to install them on my HDD and load them I get an error message telling me that the file does not exist.

 

[canadian69]

I really don't know what you mean with the downloads thing, isn't that a software issue?

 

[Levi2008]

I really don't know what you mean with the downloads thing, isn't that a software issue?

I'm told it's a hardware issue because both drives were primary. They are still downloading to the wrong drive.

 

[Daddiogrif]

go into "SETUP" and turm one of the HDD "OFF" or simply unplug power cord or data cable
I have XP on one and 7 on another real simple solution for me

change "C" to "D" lierally try flipping data canles MO is putting priiority to SDD maybe
Goodluck

 

[canadian69]

Yeah, that ain't gonna work. Whatever that is.
Just Google "changing the default program files folder", that should do it for you.

 

[Levi2008]

None of this is working. I'm just going to call the guy and have him come to my house and do it.