Best way to set up an SSD.

Skeptic · 23 Dec 2011 at 14:09

Hi guys,

Getting a Crucial M4 for Xmas and want to set it up in the most optimal way. it's 120gb so easily enough space for lots of things!

I guess that the OS needs to be there as priority. How about games etc? I have a 'normal' HDD at the moment.

Cheers for your help - Merry Christmas!

Alex74 · 23 Dec 2011 at 14:15

Optimally? Well make sure you have AHCI enabled in the BIOS when you put the M4 in and install windows.

As for distribution, I have some programs like Visual Studio on my M4 and a couple games. But I keep more standard programs (which dont take years to load in general) on my HDD as well as my steam folder. I also keep my user folder, documents and music etc on the HDD.

olivier renault · 23 Dec 2011 at 14:36

you can use the command 'mklink.exe' to move stuff away from the SSD, and also the user folders 'My Documents', 'My Pictures') can be reassigned to another drive. That should tidy it up a bit.

That's how I got Skyrim, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Battlefield 3 and guild wars hooked up. Steam and most of my games are on my hard drive.

Gregfoster17 · 23 Dec 2011 at 14:42

I resently bought a SSD for running the OS off of, as well as the odd game. Other people told me I could move my old copy windows 7 (my initial installation on my new pc) over the SSD using a system image and then cp[ying it over to the different places I wanted them to go.

But to be honest that sounded a tad too difficult for me, and time consuming. So I decided I would go a clean install of windows, as the only things I had on my pc were games from steam and couple from DVDs and some monitoring software (speed fan, etc). So therefore I wasn't losing out on anything I could get back again easily.

Now windows is booted up in about 25-35 seconds from cold and I've got all my old games redownloaded from steam and PC runs brilliantly, all with out faffing about with system images and what not!

Narj · 23 Dec 2011 at 18:15

olivier renault said:
you can use the command 'mklink.exe' to move stuff away from the SSD, and also the user folders 'My Documents', 'My Pictures') can be reassigned to another drive. That should tidy it up a bit.

That's how I got Skyrim, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Battlefield 3 and guild wars hooked up. Steam and most of my games are on my hard drive.

Is there a more detailed guide on this as I'll be slapping another drive in just for downloads and stuff. I'm currently using an external USB drive to avoid cluttering the SSD.