SSD drives - a dumb question

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geekIT

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#185240 15-Nov-2015 17:07

But I'm gonna ask it anyway.

Coupla three years back, when I last built PCs for customers, SSD drives were only just in, so were still teensy. But I always added a hefty-sized regular HDD so there was plenty of storage.

However, more than a few customers complained that their new machine had run out of space.

And then I twigged: when these people were installing software, the apps were defaulting to install on 'C' drive, which was, of course, the SSD and pretty small.

It's occurred to me since that an option would be to re-letter the boot\OS SSD drive to D or X or Z or whatever, and label the regular HDD to 'C'.

And before anyone says, 'Why wouldn't the customer just direct the software to install on the big regular hard drive?', I'll say that 99% of average users wouldn't be able to make that call. They wouldn't even see the install location option box.

Comments?

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#1428395 15-Nov-2015 17:36

These days you can get a 256GB or 512GB SSD for a good price. Changing the boot drive letter will cause much distress...

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gzt

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#1428401 15-Nov-2015 17:57

Change the default program files directory drive letter in the registry. Installers will pick this up by default and install to that location. Microsoft does warn - this is unsupported. But corporate IT has been doing this for years and years and I doubt it will change the practice.

Btw windows 10 originally had a GUI to change this locaton. Maybe check.

hyperman

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#1428414 15-Nov-2015 18:49

gzt: Change the default program files directory drive letter in the registry. Installers will pick this up by default and install to that location. Microsoft does warn - this is unsupported. But corporate IT has been doing this for years and years and I doubt it will change the practice.

Btw windows 10 originally had a GUI to change this locaton. Maybe check.

Still there .... search for default save locations
unfortunately (on my system anyway) you cant change the drive apps go to :(

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timmmay

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#1428470 15-Nov-2015 21:06

Just put in a bigger SSD. I think you can specify "my documents" (pictures, videos, etc) can go onto another hard drive.

Jase2985

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#1428472 15-Nov-2015 21:09

timmmay: I think you can specify "my documents" (pictures, videos, etc) can go onto another hard drive.

yep you can

geekIT

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#1428567 16-Nov-2015 06:58

Wow, put in a bigger SSD drive. Why didn't I think of that?

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andrewNZ

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#1428574 16-Nov-2015 07:50

If you have a SSD, programs need to be installed on it IMO. If they're not you end up with a system that boots fast and does all the important stuff slow.

geekIT

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#1428598 16-Nov-2015 08:25

Well...not sure about that.

3-4 years back I built an SSD\Sata HDD rig at the direction of a very tech-savvy customer.

He had no problems understanding that he needed to install his programs to the 2TB HDD and leave the 120GB SSD as uncluttered as possible.

I didn't notice any speed issues with his apps and he certainly didn't report any, even though most of his work involved video rendering.

But even if there was a slight lessening of performance with applications installed on say, D drive, wouldn't that only be initial?

I mean, like a lot of us, he never switched his computer off, so once the app had started up, would any subsequent operations be significantly delayed?

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richrdh18

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#1428601 16-Nov-2015 08:29

Generally people are just stupid and claim ignorance of anything IT. Same thing used to happen in the day when we used to partition the hard drives in two partitions, c and d. Used to redirect My Docs etc to the D drive but people still filled up the C partition with misc crap. Unless you are IT savvy, the just leave the drive as one completed whole drive.

geekIT

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#1428636 16-Nov-2015 09:26

Yep, I was about to mention that option of several partitions. When I first started building PCs I always partitioned new drives into one small partition for Windows and the rest for storage or apps. I seem to recall that the logic at the time was to make for easier repairs or re-installs of Windows if there was a crash.

But to come back to my original question, I'm beginning to wonder if there's any point in using a small SSD, say 120GB, because of the possible limitation of software location.

Actually, from what I recall of the systems I built with SSDs, the main speed advantage seemed to be during startup and shutdown. So if one tends to leave the computer running, is there any significant advantage to an SSD drive? Sure, an SSD of terabyte size would be great, but at $1000 or so?

No, I'm beginning to think that I'll stick to regular hard drives for the two systems I'm about to build, and spend the money on extra ram.

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rb99

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#1428646 16-Nov-2015 09:41

Personally I have a 120GB SSD in the main pc, along with 3 2TB HDDs. I just put the operating system and main programs (Office, photo editing, media server and regularly used stuff) on the SSD (C: drive) and the more obscure, occasionally used stuff on the F: drive. Most programs have a 'save to' dialog in the installation process and its no problem to change a C: to an F:. Some of them probably put stuff on the C: drive anyway, but it still saves quite a bit of space.

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timmmay

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#1428647 16-Nov-2015 09:44

geekIT: He had no problems understanding that he needed to install his programs to the 2TB HDD and leave the 120GB SSD as uncluttered as possible.

I didn't notice any speed issues with his apps and he certainly didn't report any, even though most of his work involved video rendering.

But even if there was a slight lessening of performance with applications installed on say, D drive, wouldn't that only be initial?

I mean, like a lot of us, he never switched his computer off, so once the app had started up, would any subsequent operations be significantly delayed?

I always install programs to the SSD drive. Unless you have something rediculous it causes no problems. Windows 10, Office, Photoshop, and some development tools comes to around 40GB.

geekIT

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#1428661 16-Nov-2015 09:55

rb99, do you think any of the apps on the regular hard drives are slower to start than those on the SSD?

You say 'photo editing' is one of those programs on the SSD. Is that Photoshop? I've noticed that this app is slow to start on my current non-SSD system. I've read that Adobe suggest installing the 'scratch drive' on another drive to get better loading and operating speed.

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timmmay

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#1428665 16-Nov-2015 10:00

Photoshop is slower than most programs to start. I have it installed on an 850 pro SSD, it takes maybe 3-5 seconds to start. I have the scratch disk set to this SSD and another SSD, but that's not used during boot.

1101

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#1428716 16-Nov-2015 10:42

richrdh18: Generally people are just stupid and claim ignorance of anything IT. Same thing used to happen in the day when we used to partition the hard drives in two partitions, c and d. Used to redirect My Docs etc to the D drive but people still filled up the C partition with misc crap. Unless you are IT savvy, the just leave the drive as one completed whole drive.

This, so true :-)
Some laptops used to have HD's split in 2 partions as std factory setup.
Uses couldnt cope with the 2nd partion so never used it & the 1st partition would allways fill up.

Even some ultraportable NB's weve sold, with smallish SSD's , we gave the cust implicit warnings NOT to fill it up with photos , movies & crap
Guess what would often happen .....

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