Question about having 2 SSD's

[John1988]

1st SSD= All games, music, photos, and videos.

2nd SSD= OS and a few programs

If I reformat Windows 7 on my 2nd SSD, will I be able to boot up the games on the 1st SSD (without reformatting 1st SSD), the next time I format Windows?

Pretty much I don't want to reinstall/download my games again, or transfer media files everytime I reformat my computer.

Does it work that way? Might be a dumb question but, will be the first time I ever have 2.

 

[John1988]

Damn TigerDirect just sold out of the Intel 330 240GB!!! Guess it might not happen anymore.

 

[cgner]

No, your freshly installed OS will not be connected to the previously installed games because of registry errors. Yes, you can manually fix that, but it is not a very reliable or time efficient way of launching games. It is easier to just reinstall them. Other files you can access directly of course.

 

[kingnoobe]

There are plenty of games now days that you don't have to worry about registry errors.

So some yes some games you may have to. But I find that to be pretty rare these days were I have to go through much of a hassle after a fresh install of windows. Most of the time it's a simple having to redo shortcuts and things like that.

 

[Swolern]

If they are the same just put them in raid 0. You will have much faster speeds and they will both be your primary C drive.

 

[cgner]

^faster sequential reading speeds maybe, smaller files will take longer to load because system can't keep up with synchronizing SSD's like it can with HDDs.

 

[AdioKIP]

For your media (music, photos, videos) keep them on a secndary hard drive (SSD or regular). These type of files arent effected by reinstalling an OS. Games on the other hand add registry entries etc. so it would be best to reinstall them after reinstalling the OS. I once tried doing things without reinstalling my games since I had kept my steam folder on a secondary drive (not enough space on my original SSD). Things didnt go to well when I tried accessing the games after doing an OS reinstall.

 

[littleleo]

I had a O/S error and just added a new boot drive so I wouldn't have to reformat the drive. I just recreated the short cuts to my games and they ran fine.

 

[RetiredChief]

My setups:
Laptop - a 128 gig Crucial M4 SSD for OS + programs, 256 gig Crucial M4 for overflow (less used programs) and my fills that I want faster load times.

Desktop - a 128 gig Samsung 830 SSD for OS + programs, 256 gig Samsung 830 for overflow (less used programs) and my fills that I want faser load times.

Do yourself a favour - with a New SSD, either Migrate old SSD -> New SSD (no reload programs) or Clean Install and reload drivers/software.

 

[ocmusicjunkie]

I learned the hard way that it always makes more sense to just get a larger SSD. Having run Intel 520's in a RAID-0 array on my performance rig for a while, I can say that overall, there isn't anything to gain in terms of performance from my systems running a single large SSD. Even worse was attempting to do exactly what is being proposed here- I thought that organizing different types of files and applications on one drive and the rest on the second would be logical- it really is just one huge mess when you get into the micro-managing of making sure Windows doesn't take issue with where you try placing a given folder/app.

 

[RetiredChief]

^ Never had a problem. I prefer organization, MY WAY, not windows way. Do agree if all OS +Programs would not fit on a 128 gig then I'd use my 256 gig for OS + programs and the smaller 128 gig for my files.
Not a gamer so my OS and all my programs fit on a single drive (a 128 gig SSD) Then the 2nd SSD (my 256 gig ssd) houses all my files that I want fast access to. If I found I need more space for My OS then I would reverse the two SSDs.

My hard drive then is used for Backup of the two SSDs + a directory for Photos and Movies. External HDD backs up all internal drives.

I do agree that Raid0 is not advantageous for OS + Programs. It would be for a storage drive that Has Large Data file structures that take advantage of fast sequencial performance.

 

[ocmusicjunkie]

^ Never had a problem. I prefer organization, MY WAY, not windows way. Do agree if all OS +Programs would not fit on a 128 gig then I'd use my 256 gig for OS + programs and the smaller 128 gig for my files.
Not a gamer so my OS and all my programs fit on a single drive (a 128 gig SSD) Then the 2nd SSD (my 256 gig ssd) houses all my files that I want fast access to. If I found I need more space for My OS then I would reverse the two SSDs.

I think you and I are actually in agreement. The only reason I advise against the concept the OP proposed was because he planned on splitting the locations of the OS and some applications on SSD #1 and other applications such as games on SSD #2. Launching programs from a different disk than the OS seems like it is just asking for lost/misplaced data issues. On the other hand, I do actually have a dedicated second SSD on the machine I use for most of my video editing, for the exact same purpose as your second drive. I keep the files there until they are done being worked with, then in my case I relocate them for storage to the HDD.

I guess I should have been more specific in that I actually don't have an issue with the concept of multiple SSD's in a single system. Rather, I find the idea of separating the OS from any apps/system files to be a concerning thought, regardless of the drive type.

 

[RetiredChief]

^ Agreed, best to to keep all programs on the OS + Program drive.
Been on vacation for last week, converted about 30 DVDs/Blu-rays to smaller size to fit on a 64 Gig SD card for watchingwhen away from home on My tablet.
Found that the SSD did not help alot, seems the program is CPU bound. Converting one 30 Gig Blue-ray -> 3 gig 1080P file size took about 4 hours on an i5-2410M. Typical conversion size (to 720P) takes little over an hour -> 2 hours. Need to find a faster progam than avs4you.

 

[John1988]

Best answer selected by john1988.