Move desktop/Libraries etc. all to non- C:\ Drive?

[iixwh3l4nxii]

Well I have Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit installed onto a crappy IDE, I don't care about start up times but is there any way to have it soley just for OS storage? I'm sick of the slow response time when I save access pictures, use the desktop icons etc. just because it's all on the C:\ drive, I have another hard drive with all my games and stuff on it and it's a lot faster, the E:\ drive.

Is there any way to move the Desktop, Users: all the pictures/music etc. purely on the E:\ drive, so when I tab to the desktop I'm looking at icons saved on the non-os drive or when I press Start>Pictures it takes me to a Pictures folder on my E:\ drive instead, YES I have entered the config on pictures/music on the start menu and set the "Libraries" to go to E:\ drive folders but it accesses it from the C:\ drive and it's soooooo slow, it's much faster when I just go to computer>users>whelan>pictures it loads instantly.

Any ideas? I would install windows on my E:\ drive and ditch the IDE, but that means wiping the E:\ drive which I don't want to do, it has over 150GB's of important files and 1) it would take ages to move it onto the IDE drive but 2) the IDE drive only has 80GBs of storage...

Halp >

 

[CaedenV]

when you make the new library location, be sure to delete the old library location for fastest access. But the 'libraries' is a registry, which means that the libraries interface will always run on your system drive, and will be slow because of that no matter where the actuial folders reside.

Also, for documents, desktop, etc. you can get into windows explorer, rt. click on the folder, properties, location tab, and 'move' to a different location. I do this all the time for my desktop and documents in order to move them into my skydrive folder, which then automatically backs up those files to skydrive, and also updates those folders on all of my other computers (very handy trick). I also use to store all my documents, videos, pics, etc. on a 2nd drive to prevent data loss in the even of a system drive malfunction, or virus infection that would force me to format the system drive (also handy as I like to try out new OSs all the time, so I can wipe the computer without fear of loosing important stuff). But now I keep everything on the system drive, with a backup on my 2nd and 3rd larger drives.

They stopped making IDE drives some 5 years ago, and the average expected life span of a HDD (IDE or SATA) is 5-7 years. This means that you should start panicking and start looking for a replacement for your system drive anyways. $80 will get you a new 500GB-1TB HDD which will be a major improvement over your current drive. I would get one, move all your documents to it, and then use your current documents drive as your system drive, or else just use the single drive as storage and OS.

Also, remember that you need a minimum of 1GB of ram for win7 to run effectively, 2GB to run smoothly, and 3-4GB or ram to prevent the use of virtual memory (using your old slow system drive as ram). So adding memory to your system may be your best bet at speeding things up if you do not have at least 2GB of it.

 

[iixwh3l4nxii]

Thanks both these drives are wayyy over due, the IDE is at least 8 years old now, it's served me well but I hate dishing out on this stuff, I've been wanting to upgrade my GPU for ages but stuff like this keeps coming up, and yeah I know about the ram, don't worry I'm using 2.8GB's and it will be 4GB's when I re-install windows with the new drive with 64bit

Thanks for the help though but for now i'll just do that thing you said with the desktop and libraries.

 

[iixwh3l4nxii]

Best answer selected by iixwh3l4nxii.

 

[CaedenV]

glad I could help, and good luck!