Ssd

Hi, I want to install an ssd drive on my desktop. I am running windows 8.1 pro and want to know how to install only windows 8 on my ssd and store all my media, music, pictures, videos, and documents on a separate internal hard drive. Any info on how I should do this would be helpful.

 

You would do it, just like if you were replacing the old hard drive in the unit, then installing the OS, the same as you would do, if it was a platter drive.

 

But I want windows only on the ssd drive and all my other media to be saved on a different drive.

 

What's the make and model of the computer? Do you have the installatione DVD? Is it 8 or 8.1?

 

Here's a straightforward explanation with pics:
http://researchaholic.com/2012/08/16/windows-8-how-to-move-user-folders-personal-folder/

You will need to direct some programs to save data in the new location, however, or they will recreate the folder on your system drive.

 

Its a ZT systems computer, I have a windows 8 pro disc. I have 3 hdd , and I want to put an ssd drive on it with windows 8 pro only on the c drive. I want all media music, pictures, videos and documents to be stored on a separate d drive. I would have to have windows media player point to the d drive to access the d drive to play music. I also want all media including pictures etc.. to be stored on the d drive, not the c drive.

 

Again, you would do it the same way, regardless of the hardware. Only thing is, if it is a Notebook, tablet, etc., those devices only have space for one drive device.

You can though re-partiotion the drive, after installing the OS, through Comped Mgmt. In Administrative tools.

I will tell you to not reassign the foldwrsmto am network drive or partition, unless you specifically reserve those drive letters, for those locations? Call it a short coming of Microsoft, that their software team never fixed after twenty p!us years.

 

Ditto!

You install your OS (and I recommend drivers too) on your SSD. Then when you install your programs and other applications, you MUST ensure you select the "custom installation" option (assuming the programmers were not lazy and provided that) to select where you want to install the program. EVERYONE should ALWAYS choose the custom install - but more on that in a minute.

With the custom install option, you will be provided a prompt to select the install location. This is where you select the drive letter for your HD and/or alternate partition. You can also select a current or create a new folder.

That said, if your SSD is large enough, I would recommend you install all our programs on the SSD too, and store your backups and data files on the HD. Note 256Gb SSD is more than enough to hold Windows, MS Office and all your programs. It is data files, tunes, videos and photos that takes up most the space.

EVERYONE should ALWAYS choose the custom install option when installing ANY program. Otherwise, you WILL (most likely) get a bunch of fluff, and maybe unwanted toolbars, add-ons, and auto-updaters installed too. You may get your default home page and search engines changed too! This is especially true with free program - even respected legitimate free programs. When you choose the custom install option, you will (or should) get the option to opt-out of all that resource hogging crud. If not provided the option to opt-out of unwanted extras, my advice is to cancel the install and choose a competing product.

 

Digerati, I have just gotten to the point, of only installing the OS and other programs on the drive. Everything else, such as pictures, documents, music all go on a NAS, with duplicates on a cloud drive.

 

Sure, if the SSD is large enough, that would work great. But sadly, many are still buying 64Gb or even 32Gb SSDs and while that may be fine in the beginning, drives tend to fill up with updates, backup files, and programs over time. So I think 128 to 256 SSD is best.

And a NAS for your data and music files has the advantage that other computers on your network can access it.

 

Yup, 120-256GB is the recommended SSD size, both for capacity and speed; try to keep ~25% free space for long-term performance.

 

All I installed on the Netbook, that I gave my daughter was a 64gb Crucial M4. Gave her the 250gb out of my Toshiba Satellite C850d, when I installed the Crucial M500 240gb in that.

Really for the most, all you need is 32 or 64gb, if you are always connected to the Internet, and use Cloud storage for documents.

 

Well, Internet access is not always a given. And frankly, I don't trust the cloud for all my personal stuff, or my tax and business documents. I don't trust they will never be hacked and compromised, and I don't trust they will never be lost. I still use the cloud for some stuff, primarily stuff I don't mind sharing (photos and the like) but not my personal, tax or my business data.

 

I have never had any of those issues, with the private cloud our family has, nor with box.com or Google docs.

Fear is more of a mindset, then something real. As long as you are not making the info public, or shared to others, along with using sites that are very secure, the worries are not there.

 

And that's great, but...

Nope - sorry but not buying that for a second. No offense but that is naïve statement. Sure, fear is a mindset, or emotion, but it is a legitimate defense mechanism there to make us alert, sharpen our senses and keep us on our toes.

There is a big difference between fear and paranoia. When it comes to computer, network, and data security, fear is good. Paranoia is not. Nether is apathy.

I've had a long career providing support at the highest levels of secure networks for corporations and US government departments. A complacent attitude like that will surely get your data compromised.

If what you said were true and there were no worries over security and no reports of Dropbox compromised, compromised credit cards or cloud storage hacked. And we already know that hackers (often backed by foreign governments) are ganging up and attacking cloud services en masse - either to gain access and compromise data, or to block access (DDoS).

I recommend you readup on cyberwarfare and cloud security.

FTR, I am NOT saying cloud storage is unsafe. I am just saying you are looking through rose colored glasses if you believe your data cannot be compromised or simply lost (or accidently deleted) if you use cloud storage. For sure, you still need to have local backups of your data.

And again, if you are in a location where you cannot access the Internet, you will not have access to your data.

And BTW, it should be noted that files stored on (in?) many of the more popular cloud storage sites, for example, Microsoft Skydrive and Google Drive are NOT encrypted while they are stored on Microsoft or Google servers! This is so it is easier for you to view your files from any computer, to share them with friends or so co-workers at different locations can do collaborative online editing.

 

I am very aware of these problems you mentioned, along with the issues with the listed sites. I only as explained before, use box.com, not drop box, and we have a family cloud server, using owncloud as the software to run it.

Believe me, our personal cloud, my NAS, and box.com are very secure, no intrusions ever with either. You can preach to the choir, but I probably know a little more about Compsec,mthan you realize.

 

First, I don't think you are a "normal" user - and that's a good thing. But the sad fact is, to remain secure users need to almost be experts in security to keep their systems, networks, and data safe and secure.

But my point is, the badguys are very smart too. It would be foolish to assume we are smarter than them when major banks, universities, and government networks have well funded security programs staffed by highly educated, highly trained security experts, plus outside security experts hired to check, hack and test that security - and yet those organizations are still being compromised.

You may very well know a lot about computer security, and you can follow the link in my profile to decide if I might know something about it too. But open forum discussions are not two-way discussions. Not every one reading is a security expert.

That said, this discussion is supposed to be about using an SSD in a desktop. Probably best if we get back on topic.