Official PC thread.

[omgitswes]

Originally Posted by SneakerReaper

Originally Posted by zk1MPLS

^Doing the same... but the old-fashioned way: I'm formatting my primary drive tonight and finally switching to the Crucial M4 SSD as my boot drive. Such a pain in the @#$ but I hope it's worth it in the end.

Are you doing a fresh install of Windows 7? If you are, you can set it up so that the Users folder is on your slave drive.  This allows you to conserve space on the SSD by saving your pictures, documents, music, etc on your slave drive.  I'm not sure if I am explaining this clearly so here is a pic of what I am talking about.  My SSD is the C drive with all the standard Windows folders.  My hard drive is the X drive with 3 folders: Users, Program Files, and Program Files (x86).  On my hard drive I have games, music, pics, and other stuff that I don't need to put on the SSD.

Yeah that's what I did too. followed this guide
http://www.overclock.net/t/664738/how-to-setup-ssd-boot-drive-with-secondary-hard-disc-optimization

 

[sneakerreaper]

Originally Posted by omgitswes

Originally Posted by SneakerReaper

Originally Posted by zk1MPLS

^Doing the same... but the old-fashioned way: I'm formatting my primary drive tonight and finally switching to the Crucial M4 SSD as my boot drive. Such a pain in the @#$ but I hope it's worth it in the end.

Are you doing a fresh install of Windows 7? If you are, you can set it up so that the Users folder is on your slave drive.  This allows you to conserve space on the SSD by saving your pictures, documents, music, etc on your slave drive.  I'm not sure if I am explaining this clearly so here is a pic of what I am talking about.  My SSD is the C drive with all the standard Windows folders.  My hard drive is the X drive with 3 folders: Users, Program Files, and Program Files (x86).  On my hard drive I have games, music, pics, and other stuff that I don't need to put on the SSD.

Yeah that's what I did too. followed this guide
http://www.overclock.net/t/664738/how-to-setup-ssd-boot-drive-with-secondary-hard-disc-optimization

I did not use that guide.  I set mine up through Audit Mode.  All you have to do is enter Audit Mode during the Windows installation and create folders on your slave drive then set the paths for the folders that you put on the hard drive.  Pretty simple.  If that guide worked though then it got the job done.

 

[sneakerreaper]

Originally Posted by omgitswes

Originally Posted by SneakerReaper

Originally Posted by zk1MPLS

^Doing the same... but the old-fashioned way: I'm formatting my primary drive tonight and finally switching to the Crucial M4 SSD as my boot drive. Such a pain in the @#$ but I hope it's worth it in the end.

Are you doing a fresh install of Windows 7? If you are, you can set it up so that the Users folder is on your slave drive.  This allows you to conserve space on the SSD by saving your pictures, documents, music, etc on your slave drive.  I'm not sure if I am explaining this clearly so here is a pic of what I am talking about.  My SSD is the C drive with all the standard Windows folders.  My hard drive is the X drive with 3 folders: Users, Program Files, and Program Files (x86).  On my hard drive I have games, music, pics, and other stuff that I don't need to put on the SSD.

Yeah that's what I did too. followed this guide
http://www.overclock.net/t/664738/how-to-setup-ssd-boot-drive-with-secondary-hard-disc-optimization

I did not use that guide.  I set mine up through Audit Mode.  All you have to do is enter Audit Mode during the Windows installation and create folders on your slave drive then set the paths for the folders that you put on the hard drive.  Pretty simple.  If that guide worked though then it got the job done.

 

[zk1mpls]

Just realized I installed Windows 7 on my SSD in IDE mode. *facepalm* Now I'm gonna have to do everything all over again...

Oh well.

Will try out that link and check out "Audit Mode" as well.

 

[zk1mpls]

Just realized I installed Windows 7 on my SSD in IDE mode. *facepalm* Now I'm gonna have to do everything all over again...

Oh well.

Will try out that link and check out "Audit Mode" as well.

 

[zk1mpls]

Hmm... on second thought, I wouldn't really use AHCI's features (e.g., my case's hot-swap bays

). Might not reinstall everything all over again. But yeah, it would be nice to be able to access User data directly from the HDD slave drive.

So my question is, when you click on "Documents" or "Music" on the Start Menu for example, would it take you directly to the D:\> drive (assuming the SSD boot drive is C:\> drive if I do change this?

 

[zk1mpls]

Hmm... on second thought, I wouldn't really use AHCI's features (e.g., my case's hot-swap bays

). Might not reinstall everything all over again. But yeah, it would be nice to be able to access User data directly from the HDD slave drive.

So my question is, when you click on "Documents" or "Music" on the Start Menu for example, would it take you directly to the D:\> drive (assuming the SSD boot drive is C:\> drive if I do change this?

 

[omgitswes]

That's exactly what it does.

 

[omgitswes]

That's exactly what it does.

 

[zk1mpls]

Ok then. Just going to try that overclockers.net link later, then. Thanks.

 

[zk1mpls]

Ok then. Just going to try that overclockers.net link later, then. Thanks.

 

[zk1mpls]

So, browsing through the OCN thread omgitswes posted, I came across what SneakerReaper was talking about. Seems much more simple to do than what the OT was about.

Guess I'll be doing another fresh install again.

Using the way I've outlined, the guide would go like this:
1. When installing Windows 7 and you get to the point in the installation asking for a user name and pc name, don't type in your user name or create a user. Instead, login using Ctrl+Shift+F3 to enter "Audit Mode". Just close the GUI popup mentioning "Out of Box Experience" (OOBE).

2. Now change the folder options to "show all hidden files and folders".

3. Create primary partition on your secondary hard disc in disc manager (drive X).

4. On the secondary HDD create 3 new folders named "Users", "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)". The users folder will be replacing the old one on the C: drive. The program file folders will make it easy when installing game and apps by simply changing the drive letter during software installation in the future.

5. Open C:\Users\ and move the "Default" folder and "Public" folder to X:\Users\ folder that you made in step 4.

6. Enter regedit and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Look for "Default", "ProfilesDirectory" and "Public" on the right. Change these entries to use Drive X (i.e. where you see "%SystemDrive%", replace with "X:" without quotes)

7. Reboot computer...choose OOBE in the GUI (don't tick generalise) and reboot. This will resume your Win7 setup, prompting you to now create your user account by entering your user name.

8. After finishing setup you can delete the "C:\Users" folder if you want to with no problems. If you want to search the registry at this point you can check everything has changed to the secondary HDD and the Audit Mode admin account has been deleted...do a search for "C:\users" and it may find some entries. If you find entries change the "C" to "X" or whatever you let your drive letter be. You can also try search "Users/Administrator" and it should find nothing.

 

[zk1mpls]

So, browsing through the OCN thread omgitswes posted, I came across what SneakerReaper was talking about. Seems much more simple to do than what the OT was about.

Guess I'll be doing another fresh install again.

Using the way I've outlined, the guide would go like this:
1. When installing Windows 7 and you get to the point in the installation asking for a user name and pc name, don't type in your user name or create a user. Instead, login using Ctrl+Shift+F3 to enter "Audit Mode". Just close the GUI popup mentioning "Out of Box Experience" (OOBE).

2. Now change the folder options to "show all hidden files and folders".

3. Create primary partition on your secondary hard disc in disc manager (drive X).

4. On the secondary HDD create 3 new folders named "Users", "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)". The users folder will be replacing the old one on the C: drive. The program file folders will make it easy when installing game and apps by simply changing the drive letter during software installation in the future.

5. Open C:\Users\ and move the "Default" folder and "Public" folder to X:\Users\ folder that you made in step 4.

6. Enter regedit and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Look for "Default", "ProfilesDirectory" and "Public" on the right. Change these entries to use Drive X (i.e. where you see "%SystemDrive%", replace with "X:" without quotes)

7. Reboot computer...choose OOBE in the GUI (don't tick generalise) and reboot. This will resume your Win7 setup, prompting you to now create your user account by entering your user name.

8. After finishing setup you can delete the "C:\Users" folder if you want to with no problems. If you want to search the registry at this point you can check everything has changed to the secondary HDD and the Audit Mode admin account has been deleted...do a search for "C:\users" and it may find some entries. If you find entries change the "C" to "X" or whatever you let your drive letter be. You can also try search "Users/Administrator" and it should find nothing.

 

[zk1mpls]

Since I'm the only one that's going to use this PC, I found it more practical to just manually change what directories open when "Documents", "Libraries" and "Videos" are clicked. Works well for me. No need to re-install everything any more.

While I'm re-downloading all the Windows Updates... might as well re-install Battlefield 3 on my SSD -and a bunch of other programs that might benefit from the SSD boost.

 

[zk1mpls]

Since I'm the only one that's going to use this PC, I found it more practical to just manually change what directories open when "Documents", "Libraries" and "Videos" are clicked. Works well for me. No need to re-install everything any more.

While I'm re-downloading all the Windows Updates... might as well re-install Battlefield 3 on my SSD -and a bunch of other programs that might benefit from the SSD boost.

 

[zk1mpls]

Just did a benchmark on the drive, and it seems it's performing really well.

Still in the process of installing everything... this is gonna take a while.

 

[zk1mpls]

Just did a benchmark on the drive, and it seems it's performing really well.

Still in the process of installing everything... this is gonna take a while.

 

[omgitswes]

Originally Posted by zk1MPLS

So, browsing through the OCN thread omgitswes posted, I came across what SneakerReaper was talking about. Seems much more simple to do than what the OT was about.

Guess I'll be doing another fresh install again.

That's way easier.
I need to save this for next time

 

[sneakerreaper]

Originally Posted by omgitswes

Originally Posted by zk1MPLS

So, browsing through the OCN thread omgitswes posted, I came across what SneakerReaper was talking about. Seems much more simple to do than what the OT was about.

Guess I'll be doing another fresh install again.

That's way easier.
I need to save this for next time

That's what I did.  I also moved the Program Data folder over to the X drive.  The first time I used that guide I couldn't get past the log on screen.  After I reinstalled and moved the Program Data folder over and changed the path to the X drive everything worked fine.  Not sure if that did the trick or I missed a step the first time but that's what happened.

 

[sneakerreaper]

Originally Posted by omgitswes

Originally Posted by zk1MPLS

So, browsing through the OCN thread omgitswes posted, I came across what SneakerReaper was talking about. Seems much more simple to do than what the OT was about.

Guess I'll be doing another fresh install again.

That's way easier.
I need to save this for next time

That's what I did.  I also moved the Program Data folder over to the X drive.  The first time I used that guide I couldn't get past the log on screen.  After I reinstalled and moved the Program Data folder over and changed the path to the X drive everything worked fine.  Not sure if that did the trick or I missed a step the first time but that's what happened.

 

[whyhellothere]

meh, metro is still poo.
never leaving windows 7

 

[whyhellothere]

meh, metro is still poo.
never leaving windows 7

 

[al audi]

Originally Posted by whyhellothere

Slightly more interested in Windows 8 Consumer Preview coming this week. Hope there are more changes than just metro.

when is windows 8 suppose to be dropping?

 

[al audi]

Originally Posted by whyhellothere

Slightly more interested in Windows 8 Consumer Preview coming this week. Hope there are more changes than just metro.

when is windows 8 suppose to be dropping?

 

[whyhellothere]

Originally Posted by Al Audi

Originally Posted by whyhellothere

Slightly more interested in Windows 8 Consumer Preview coming this week. Hope there are more changes than just metro.

when is windows 8 suppose to be dropping?

Mid to late 2012
The Consumer Preview was released today if you want to try it out (install on a spare machine or virtualbox)