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Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

Kilroy

MVM

[WIN8] Windows 8 on a SSD

I ordered a SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB to replace my Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB. Nothing wrong with the Intel drive, just not large enough, even off loading known space hogs. I have applications that store databases and thumbnails in the user App Data folder, to the tune of over 12GB.

The drive should be in today. I'm looking to put Windows 8.1 Pro on. My machine originally had Windows 8 installed, but went back to Windows 7 as drivers were not mature on release causing the loss of over 4TB of data due to issues with RAID drivers. The plan is to prep for this install this week and perform the upgrade this weekend.

Main software used: Thunderbird - e-mail, Firefox - browser, World of Warcraft - gaming, iTunes, PowerDVD - DVD player, AnyDVD HD - DVD/Bluray ripper, CloneDVD mobile - convert DVDs to portable format, and DVD Profiler.

DVD Profiler, iTunes, and PowerDVD are the programs that were the major contributors to my space issues.

I'm looking for advice and articles to off load as much as possible from the SSD drive to a mechanical drive. I have over 30TB of mechanical drive space available, so the only real concern is moving as much as possible off of C:. World of Warcraft will be installed on C: to provide the best in game experience. I have had issues in the past where updates for World of Warcraft were downloaded to C:, then had to be extracted to C:, resulting in not having enough space for the install.

There is no pressure for this upgrade as the drive is new I will be able to simply reconnect the existing drive to have a working machine.

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

I created a folder on the D:\ called "Data", and as soon as I installed the OS on my 180 GB SSD C:\ drive, I changed some of the big paths to folders under D:\Data, BEFORE I restored my backup.

You can do this by right-clicking on e.g. Documents, go to Properties, and change the Location of the folder to another drive. My Documents, Pictures, Downloads all reside on the D:\Data drive, and the links in the system are automatically updated to go to that folder.

Many programs will create a folder somewhere under the Documents folder, but use the system variable to do so, not the physical path, so you should be safe. E.g. I used to play Lord of the Rings Online, and it created all data under Documents, which is on the D: drive.

Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

Kilroy

MVM

I've currently got this set up on P: drive. I've got a Program Files, Program Files (x86), Users, and a few others. The problem I have now is programs that store massive amounts of data to the logged in user's AppData directory. Thunderbird does it by default, but you can move it. Since I have well over a decade of stored e-mail this was quite a bit of space.

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR
·Ziply Fiber

darcilicious

Premium Member

I know of one data intensive app (Plex Server) that stores everything in the AppData folder and one way around that is to use symlinks, described here: »www.tested.com/tech/wind ··· -profit/

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

1 recommendation

maartena to Kilroy

Premium Member

to Kilroy
Yes, you may have to configure individual apps to your favorite folders. I find that with a 180 GB SSD, I only need to move HUNGRY apps. I have set Firefox to a cache limit of 250 MB, so it is quite happy on the C:\ drive in the Appdata\Roaming folder.

My iTunes music library exists elsewhere. I would imagine you can configure your DVD apps to do the ripping/converting in other folders.

Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

Kilroy

MVM

Yes, all digital media is stored on my other drives. The problem is my problem programs store catalogs and thumbnails in AppData. I guess is it too much to ask that software store its data where I installed the program. When you're talking 30TB of digital media it really adds up. Amazon Music and ACDSee were two more adding fuel to the fire.

gjrhine
join:2001-12-12
Pawleys Island, SC

gjrhine to Kilroy

Member

to Kilroy
Cancel the order and get a hybrid drive - these things are nice! It has firmware right on the drive with algorithms that continuously figure out the optimum use of SSD/disk drive space - I do exactly nothing in this optimization process. I now boot in under a minute instead of 15.

Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

Kilroy

MVM

said by gjrhine:

Cancel the order and get a hybrid drive

Too late, it was delivered today. I don't need a hybrid drive, I use a SSD as my boot and have another 30+TB for data storage. I did think about going with the 512GB version of the drive, but didn't figure I'd need the space any time soon and will pick one up when Windows 9 drops.

My SSD used to be blazing fast, but it has been about two years since it was installed and I was thinking about a reload any way. Getting drive space errors just prompted the purchase of the larger drive.

gjrhine
join:2001-12-12
Pawleys Island, SC

gjrhine

Member

said by Kilroy:

My SSD used to be blazing fast, but it has been about two years since it was installed and I was thinking about a reload any way. Getting drive space errors

Yep the algorithms do it better.

Kramer
Mod
join:2000-08-03
Richmond, VA

Kramer to Kilroy

Mod

to Kilroy
I've got the exact same SSD on my notebook and desktop. I think it is the best you can get for the money. I'm running Windows 7 on the notebook (Intel I3) and it boots from scratch in about 11 seconds. Windows 8 is another story, but it still boots in just over 30 seconds. Problem is my USB support takes so long to load that I can't type in my PIN for another 15-20 seconds. Its an old I7 motherboard. Still well worth the upgrade. I have plenty of room for all my apps, but I play no games. All user data is on the mechanical drives. I have 2 versions of Photshop including a good part of the Creative Cloud and dozens of other major applications. Two versions of MS Office as well.
I just reset the location for "Music", Pictures, Documents, etc. to the mechanical drives which are mirrored using "Storage Spaces".

Samsung will set your virtual memory down to close to nothing. This may work well if you have 32GB of RAM but for my 4GB notebook and 12GB Desktop I had to expand it greatly. The heck with it. I have abused the desktop SSD and written about 1TB a month to it (laptop not even .1TB/month). It should live a decade or more beyond where I replace it.

The way I set mine up was less than ideal which may explain the slow boot times. I just whittled my existing install which included user data down from 600GB down to 120GB. Then I just used the Samsung software to clone the drive. I'm doing everything I can to avoid a re-install which I would like to save for my next computer which I am sure will have a 512GB SSD. On the laptop I did exactly the same thing and the performance is outstanding. I've used laptops with the hybrid drives. They don't even come close to performing as well as the SSD in my experience.
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium Member
join:2000-01-13

BlitzenZeus to Kilroy

Premium Member

to Kilroy
Keep at least 60 GB free on the new drive for wow to patch, the general rule is 2x the size of the install plus the patch since they basically double the installation size with the patched files, then when it's completed they finally delete the old files. Wow is also portable, on some installations I never installed wow at all, and just ran it from my data drive, one nice thing about that program, it doesn't care where it's located or even officially installed.

sivran
Vive Vivaldi
Premium Member
join:2003-09-15
Irving, TX

1 recommendation

sivran to gjrhine

Premium Member

to gjrhine
said by gjrhine:

I now boot in under a minute instead of 15.

Holy Exaggerations Batman, I'd have to actively try to achieve boot times of 15 minutes. Maybe installing Windows XP on a 386 would do it. Even my ancient proto-netbook, running Win2k off a <5k rpm drive and 128MB RAM doesn't boot that slow, and Windows 8 boots in 2-3 on my desktop with only 7200rpm drives. XP took 3-4 on the same machine.
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium Member
join:2000-01-13

BlitzenZeus

Premium Member

No kidding, I have a mechanical hdd, and I have boot times that are compared to an ssd. Win 8.1 with a 7200 rpm hdd, and including the time I have to hit enter, type my password, then hit enter again I'm on the desktop in 10 seconds with fast startup enabled. It's around 25 seconds with fast startup disabled. Aside from that they won't make your cpu, or memory go any faster.

gjrhine
join:2001-12-12
Pawleys Island, SC

gjrhine to sivran

Member

to sivran
It depends more on what you are booting then what you are booting on. You are not just not dong much on your start up. I am talking all the way until the cursor is still. 15 mins Robin.

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

1 edit

1 recommendation

norwegian to Kilroy

Premium Member

to Kilroy
said by Kilroy:

The problem is my problem programs store catalogs and thumbnails in AppData.

This might help then?

»www.petri.co.il/configur ··· -8-1.htm
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium Member
join:2000-01-13

BlitzenZeus to gjrhine

Premium Member

to gjrhine
Then apparently you needed to do some housecleaning in the first place, 15 minutes is not normal, and I even suspect hardware/software problems/conflicts if it wasn't just you allowing every piece of software on your system to add yet another useless startup program.

gjrhine
join:2001-12-12
Pawleys Island, SC

gjrhine

Member

Number 1 there is noting in there I do not use. Number 2 (if you following along) problem was solved with a hybrid drive.

Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

Kilroy to norwegian

MVM

to norwegian
Thanks norwegian See Profile, that's exactly the type of stuff I was looking for with this posting. My data has been moved to my P: drive, but the AppData folder is my issue. I'll have to check the size of the profile on C: when I get home. I originally had an 80GB drive and went up to the 120GB when I was having space issues.

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

darcilicious

Premium Member

That is an excellent pointer -- worth reading the one comment as well in case there are issues with upgrading to 8.1 (or whatever is next in your update path).

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

norwegian

Premium Member


I had a similar scenario here when building this rig.
Moving data folders, IE Music, Docs etc was easier than a profile and hence I bought a slightly bigger SSD.

I felt the registry settings created by various software/updates would cause concerns down the road, so I played it safe.

However I believe Kilroy is a little more knowledgeable than the average user and be able to work with the registry and file structure.

Backup, backup.