Win7 O/S set up questions.

Phil6340 · 17 Mar 2012 at 10:44

Hi all,

Just bought a load of components to set up my own rig, thinking fast boot up, put the O/S on its own drive and fast games do the same. So in my infinate wisdom I have bought;

1 64gb M4 SSD - Planned to have O/S on here only.
1 128Gb SSD - Planned to have 3/4 games on here, possibly MS Office too.
1 1Tb F3 - To store everything else including non speed critical applications.

For those that know, you are probably already tutting at my lack of understanding. I am hoping though that with a little help from my Overclocker friends I am going to be able to work something out.

Having installed the O/S on the 64gb drive I then tried to install origin (Battlefield 3) this also defaulted to the C: drive. Then downloaded BF3 which defaulted to the C: drive. So now the C; drive is pretty much full.

Since then I have downloaded a few things and unless i missing something I dont always get the option to choose the destination of the folder.

So I am trying to gather some information of what I can do 'protect' the 64gb drive as the C: drive for the O/S only and get some defaults set up for the other two drives.

Hope thats as clear as mud and can anyone help?

wazza300 · 17 Mar 2012 at 11:37

do you have a z68 mb? thought about caching with the 60gb hdd?

this is the reason i use caching,too much faffing with the os on the ssd

Frosty81 · 17 Mar 2012 at 12:05

In the registry you can change the default location of your program files, this means that the programs that don't ask get placed here.

You can also create a "junction point" to have your whole program folder files located on another drive but still have the address c:\program files

shuzzbutt · 17 Mar 2012 at 12:17

Phil6340 said:
Hi all,

Just bought a load of components to set up my own rig, thinking fast boot up, put the O/S on its own drive and fast games do the same. So in my infinate wisdom I have bought;

1 64gb M4 SSD - Planned to have O/S on here only.
1 128Gb SSD - Planned to have 3/4 games on here, possibly MS Office too.
1 1Tb F3 - To store everything else including non speed critical applications.

For those that know, you are probably already tutting at my lack of understanding. I am hoping though that with a little help from my Overclocker friends I am going to be able to work something out.

Having installed the O/S on the 64gb drive I then tried to install origin (Battlefield 3) this also defaulted to the C: drive. Then downloaded BF3 which defaulted to the C: drive. So now the C; drive is pretty much full.

Since then I have downloaded a few things and unless i missing something I dont always get the option to choose the destination of the folder.

So I am trying to gather some information of what I can do 'protect' the 64gb drive as the C: drive for the O/S only and get some defaults set up for the other two drives.

Hope thats as clear as mud and can anyone help?

hi mate, you could leave orign installed on the c drive as its a small progrmme. If you go into its settings however, you can choose where the games are installed and even where the temporary game installers are cached

other than that, whenever you install a programme make sure you aways choose the custom method rather than the standard method. This will always ensure you get to choose which drive its nstalled on.

Phil6340 · 17 Mar 2012 at 16:27

thanks for the responses, and hi Shuzzbutt, you can see I started building.

I do have a Z68 board but I am not familiar with the caching appraoch you have mentioned.
How do I create a junction point? I am looking at the origin settings but cannot see where I can change the settings you mentioned Shuzzbutt.

Any step by step instructions

Phil6340 · 17 Mar 2012 at 16:30

Ok update that last post I have found the setting for origin to change where a game is installed...can I move the game retrospectively as I have downloaded it and it is in C: or do I need to delete and re-install?
I have also electronically downloaded office 2010 which is on the c: drive.

shuzzbutt · 17 Mar 2012 at 17:50

Phil6340 said:
Ok update that last post I have found the setting for origin to change where a game is installed...can I move the game retrospectively as I have downloaded it and it is in C: or do I need to delete and re-install?
I have also electronically downloaded office 2010 which is on the c: drive.

you should be able to move the game folder to the new destination folder- for simplicities sake i'd just delete and re-download.

The z68 caching feature was designed to allow you to use a small ssd in conjunction wth a large mechanical hard drive to give you a hybrid solutuon of havng large cheap storage with quick read/write times.

I'm not honestly sure how to use this as I just wanted the raw speed ssd provides and the m4 ssd you have is a sata 3 device which performs really well when connected to the sata 3 port on the motherboard

I'd leave office installed on the c drive as it won't harm as its not a massive programme. It's also worth downloading ccleaner from the net as its a great programme that will claw back space that gets taken up by temp internet files!

You can also save space by turning feaatures like hibernation/system restore off-there are quite a few guides that show how todo this online

Glad to see its all working well for you-

Phil6340 · 18 Mar 2012 at 09:46

I tried changing the default location in Origin for saving games which appeared to work but then it still d/loaded to the C: drive.

I am happy to do a completely fresh install as there are a few things I want to change in the case set up too. But. I just want to have a clear plan in mind for how I am going to do it.

Is there anywhere I can read up on this caching approach and would this mean I wouldn't need two SSD drives?

BTW it is Win7 Home Edition I am using.

Griff7520 · 18 Mar 2012 at 10:07

download a little prog called steam mover...it will move all your games and related files to where you want them.....I have used it on non steam games successfully ....give it a try anyway

shuzzbutt · 18 Mar 2012 at 15:20

Phil6340 said:
I tried changing the default location in Origin for saving games which appeared to work but then it still d/loaded to the C: drive.

I am happy to do a completely fresh install as there are a few things I want to change in the case set up too. But. I just want to have a clear plan in mind for how I am going to do it.

Is there anywhere I can read up on this caching approach and would this mean I wouldn't need two SSD drives?

BTW it is Win7 Home Edition I am using.

yeah i think you have to install the actual origin programme on the c drive but then you set it so that all the games are downloaded to another drive instead.

SSD caching would be a little bit of a waste as your other drive is a 128gb ssd right?

You could consider selling the 64gb drive and just run the 128gb ssd for OS and programmes then store all the origin/steam games on your 1tb mechanical hd??

I personally would'nt use an ssd to cache to another ssd- I don't think thats the idea of it, rather you are supposed to use a small ssd alongside a large mechanical hd. Heres a review that might explain it:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4329/intel-z68-chipset-smart-response-technology-ssd-caching-review