SSD/HDD Combo Ease of Use?

[Rufalisk]

I was planning on getting a WD Caviar Black 1 TB and some SSD (originally planned on a OCZ-VERTEX4 128gb, but now I'm hearing they're not that good?)
I wanted to boot with the SSD and use it for gaming while keeping the HDD on hand for storage.

My question is how easy is it to move things like installed programs between the two drives?
For example, if I'm done playing a game or running CAD software on the ssd for a while, can I store it away on the hdd to make room for other stuff?

Also can you run programs off both drives simultaneously (Have MS word open on the HDD in the background while I'm playing a game on the SSD)?

 

[larrym]

I have the vertex4 and love it. The samsung 840 is also very good. I would just install the OS and few games/cad software on the SSD. The ssd really doesnt improve game performance while you are playing the game, but it will load maps and the game itself faster. Install everything else on the HDD. You can move files around all you want, but I wouldn't. Yes, you can run as many as the pc will handle at the same time from different drives.

 

[alvine]

My question is how easy is it to move things like installed programs between the two drives?

when installing programs you will have to pick which drive you want to install your stuff to. so frequent/favorite stuff on C: ssd and other programs on your physical drive D:

 

[RetiredChief]

1) The recommended method when going from a HDD->SSD is a clean Install, Which means re-installing all Drivers and programs.
2) Once programs are installed you can not simply "move" over to the HDD. However, For programs/ games that are not used as often as others - Just direct them to install their files to the HDD (Done during program install).
.. REMEMBER and SSD ONLY speeds up Loading/writing files to the SSD, They DO NOT increase performance of runing programs, Internet, downloads, email, FPS in games.
3) For Clean install:
.. Don't forget to DISCONNECT ALL HDD and only have the SSD installed, and
.. Verify/set Bios to AHCI for HDDs.
4) My recommendations for Crucial M4 (NO to M5), Samsung 830/840 (840 Pro is ideal but much more expensive), and Plextpor M3/M5.
... Do Not feel impressed by benchmark performance. Often shows considerable diff between the better SSDs; HOWEVER, in real life ther is NOT a big performance diff betweeen the better SSDs.

 

[ss202sl]

It's easy. I use steam mover which was designed specifically for Steam games, but can work for anything. It creates junction points, and copies the data, and later you can move it back and remove the junction. It's easy and provides a GUI. It's not the best looking, but its functional and easy to use.

The computer doesn't care where the program files are(hdd or sdd). You can have applications open from both at the same time.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The larger your SSD, the less of a problem this is. If you have always used partitions on your HD, instead of one giant C:\ Drive, you generally will be used to the issues that the small SSD presents. Back on my old Palm Treo we had a small Power Manager utility which would auto swap out programs and data to an SSD card. You would tell the utility to swap it out and it did, leaving a small link to it in the main memory. You launched the program, it would copy it off the SD card, load it into main memory and swap it back.....close it and it swapped it back. Why Windows or some other 3rd party outfit hasn't done the same by now with SSD's and HD's is beyond me.

I won't build a box with smaller than a 120 / 128 GB SSD. the ones I have built last XMas have owners calling me all asking me to clean up their C:\drives as they are full. Maintaining the SSD / HD dichotomy requires more than a basic knowledge of Windows. These are some of the things Windows wants to place on C:\

1. All program files. You can redirect tho some programs kinda insist and you need special procedures to change.

2. My documents ....pictures, documents, videos, music.

3. E-mails

4. Swap and Temp files.

5. "Common Files" .... Even though you put the program on the HD, many programs (I.e. Adobe, Autodesk, etc) still create a Common Files folder on your C:\ Drive.

6. Dump files which can be very large get stored there until you delete.

Despite addressing all the above, looking at my youngest son's box, I see he has his 120 GB SSD filled to about 91% .... I'll be doing some cleaning over the holidays.

 

[RetiredChief]

Jack is correct on size.
example of my 128 gig M4 (laptop) and Samsung 830 (desktop)
1) Max usable size for 128 gig drive is 101 Gigs:
...128-9 for difference between manuf counting and computer counting of Bytes, then 119 - 15% (Drive should not exceed 85% fill, this is so wear leveling, gabage collector, and trim can work there magic) so 119- 18).
2) You should always do these space saving tweaks - Based on having 8 Gigs of ram:
.. Disable Hibernation, saves about 8 gigs of SSD space.
.. Take control of vertual memrry (Page File). Set Min and Max both to 1024 mb. this saves 11 Gigs
.. Disable, or reduce the size that restore ponts can take. each Restore point takes 300 mb (10 restor Points = 3 Gigs).
... Move My doc folder to HDD.
... Save ALL downloads to HDD.
With the above tweaks my win 7 is around 30->35 gigs. ALL my programs are installed on SSD, No games as I'm not a gamer. But this would leave approx 65 gigs for Games.

 

[Rufalisk]

4) My recommendations for Crucial M4 (NO to M5), Samsung 830/840 (840 Pro is ideal but much more expensive), and Plextpor M3/M5.
... Do Not feel impressed by benchmark performance. Often shows considerable diff between the better SSDs; HOWEVER, in real life ther is NOT a big performance diff betweeen the better SSDs.

In that case I think I'll just go with one bigger ssd. This looks pretty good yeah?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7451102&SRCCODE=NEXTAG&cm_mmc_o=2mHCjCWw0fzTCjCVqHCjCdwwp&cpncode=35-6919248-2

 

[RetiredChief]

Myself, I'd pass on the 840.
1) They are to New, I've learned my lesson the hardway - wit till a NEW line has been out at least 3 -> 6 Months.
2) Both the 840 & 840 Pro (love the spec on 840 Pro and plan on buying one) are overpriced. The Crucial M4 and the Samsung 830 are slightly lower - and are often on sale for around $170. Performance wise in day-today usage you will NOT see a difference.

Get on newegg email for speacals - newegg often puts out a email flier with 24 and 48 hour time limits - Bought both My 256 gig M4 and 830 for about $170

 

[nukemaster]

Bigger SSD's are always a good idea

I have an M4 256 for Windows + some games, Another one for more games(and a small 64gigabyte Kingston for Windows 8 or other os testing) and a hard drive for documents/desktop/and some other constant write applications. Works great. This has worked very well for me so far.

Because I have steam installed, I use mklink to move some steam games over to the second SSD(they have a program called steam mover that can also do this for you.). This actually started(using mklink) when I had the hard drive for windows and the SSD for common programs and games that got better load times. Some games do not even get better load times from the SSD(most likely highly compressed and limited by the cpu).

 

[Rufalisk]

Best answer selected by Rufalisk.

 

[Rufalisk]

Ok I went M4 256. Thanks guys