OS, few programs on C:, most programs on E:, data on F: - how?

demonikal

demonikal

New Member
I asked John in a PM what to do regarding doing a clean install of Win 7 on C: and programs on another drive. He said I should put OS + a few key important programs on C: and then I can put all the other programs and data on another drive.

Then I remembered that I had an mSATA SSD, 128GB, and I thought that would be perfect for Windows and whatever programs I put on there. Then I'll have a 256GB SSD for all the other programs. Then I'll have a 1TB SSHD for all my libraries (docs, music, pics, vids) and other data. I'll have a 1TB external HDD for imaging/backing up.

Here's what I saw the most from Google searches regarding how to do this with no real step-by-step. If what I want to do with 3 separate drives is in a Sticky, if someone can direct me there, that'd be awesome too:

1. You do a clean install of Windows 7 on C: - then you got to make some registry edits, just so you can have most of your programs on another drive. I just have no clue which ones that should be. And of course I couldn't find any step-by-step thing on how to do this.

2. You do a clean install of Windows 7 on C:, then you add folders to your other drive like, E:\Programs, E:\Programs (x86), E:\Documents, E:\Pictures, E:\Music, E:\Videos, and so on. And then when you download all the programs you normally have installed on your C: drive, you choose which drive to install them to and choose your E: drive before installing. But I just don't recall ever getting the choice which drive to install a program to:( It seems it always knew automatically that it had to install it to the C: drive.

And what key important programs should go on my C: drive with Windows:confused: Will it confuse Windows, having some programs on C: and other programs on E::confused:

Here's a list of the programs I'll be adding once again as soon as I get responses and do a clean install:

Adobe AIR
Adobe Flash
Adobe Reader
Adobe Shockwave
Belarc
Box.net
CCleaner
Dropbox
Evernote
Google Chrome
iTunes
Java
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft OneDrive
Microsoft Security Essentials OR Avast (I liked how Avast had the choice to schedule a boot scan, which MSE does not have)
Microsoft Silverlight
MiniTool
NVIDIA driver (for my graphics card)
paint.net
Spotify
Torguard
VLC

Deciding to do a clean install instead of trying to fix any malware issues. I get "smarter" every time I do a clean install anyway, considering it's quite a long ordeal for me, since I never have a backup of the original image of Windows immediately after activating the product key and adding just the programs I normally have. That's something I'll definitely be doing this time.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
None of that crap for applications is large at all, any reason you can't just install them all to the OS SSD?

If you wanted to auto install to another drive follow John's link above.
 
demonikal

demonikal

New Member
Unfortunately, every time I do a clean install, I have to do a clean install using Windows XP Pro. This is because I only have the upgrade version of Win 7 Pro.

Will I still be able to do all this having to do an install of XP first and then upgrading to Win 7:confused:

Or maybe I should just play around with Linux until Win 10 comes out? Whatever your personal opinion is. I just don't want to have to deal with my computer how it is now. Eventually, this summer I plan on building another PC anyway. My hardware is getting pretty outdated.
 
demonikal

demonikal

New Member
Thanks beers. I read the whole thing. I think I'm going to try the one method where I format the hard drive and then simply try to do a clean install using the upgrade media. I bookmarked the page. If I can't access the internet cuz of Windows b.s., then I can always use my laptop and follow everything step-by-step and then even try one of the other methods if I have to :)
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Sounds good. If you run into any activation issues the link's workarounds should take care of it.
 
Agent Smith

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
Is this what you're looking for? http://www.funduc.com/app_mover.htm

Flash is most likely on C:\. NVIDIA driver is most likely on C:\.

I would use the light weight Bitdefender Free. MSE is just a base line scanner and won't protect you.

Do you need shockwave? I have never came across a site that used it, only Flash.

Libre Office is a great alternative to Office.
 
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demonikal

demonikal

New Member
I'll try the BitDefender Free. And I'll not install Adobe Flash until my nVidia drivers are installed. I still haven't reinstalled anything and I haven't done any Windows Updates yet. All I've done now is the clean install and installed Google Chrome as my default browser.

I decided not to go ahead and put program files on a separate drive. My other ssd is slower than the larger one I have. And as beers said, they really aren't big enough to warrant putting them on another drive. At least I know how to do it now if I had to.

Right now, I'm just going to wait to find out how to put certain C:\Users\ folders on my other drive. Someone in sevenforums.com when I did a random search on Chrome said to simply cut the folders that the OP wanted to move to another drive and paste them to the other drive. But I'm worried that will create system instability. It seems "too simple" to make everything work, even though the post was made by an MS Contributor in Oct 2014.
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Nevermind. I just read on several other forums that moving the entire Users folder on another drive will cause mad issues and errors. So I'm just going to use the properties already built into moving the locations of specific folders to the other drive that Windows doesn't have a problem with. According to several techies, that doesn't cause system instability because it's a Windows option.
 
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johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Yep, just change the drive the folders are stored on. Right click on folder and click on properties, click on the location tab and change the drive location.
 
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