Windows 7 Installing programs question..

[kskwerl]

Ok, so I got a new mobo/cpu/ram/psu and I'm going to be doing a clean install this upcoming week. My question is.. can I install programs I'm going to be running in windows 7 on a different hard drive? Such as video games/web browsers/audio programs etc etc.

If so, is it better to have them on a seperate drive? Also, are there any programs that have to be installed on the C: drive? I have three 500gb WD cavier blacks.

 

[kskwerl]

Also, thanks in advance because I'm leaving to go out right now. All the help is much appreciated

 

[Nibiru2012]

Ok, so I got a new mobo/cpu/ram/psu and I'm going to be doing a clean install this upcoming week. My question is.. can I install programs I'm going to be running in windows 7 on a different hard drive? Such as video games/web browsers/audio programs etc etc.

If so, is it better to have them on a seperate drive? Also, are there any programs that have to be installed on the C: drive? I have three 500gb WD cavier blacks.

There are a lot of opinions regarding this type of install. I have always put all my software and programs on the C drive. I know some gamers like to install games to another hard drive.

I believe that all programs write files and such to the Windows folder on C drive.

Here's some info I found at Tom's Hardware website:

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (Link Removed due to 404 Error)

No problem at all, when you run an installation program, it
will create a registry entry for installed programs, it
doesn't matter whether the program path is C:\Programs or
F:\programs. There will always be a little of the program
on your C:\ drive in the Windows registry, but the bilk of
the program file can be anywhere. The same goes for other
files types, Windows puts My Documents in the Windows
folders on C: by default, but if you have a second drive (or
partition) Windows XP makes it easy to move the My Documents
folder elsewhere with just a few clicks. Prior versions of
Windows needed TweakUI to do this.

Just remember, that if your OS crashes and you have to do a
clean install to fix the problem, you will still need to
reinstall the programs because the registry won't exist to
point to the programs on the other drive, which are now
orphaned.

I set my computer up to have programs and operating system
on C: and all other data and files on other partitions. If
I have some program that I want to experiment with, I will
install that on some partition other than C: so I can remove
it without too much conflict with space.

I hope this helps you out.

 

[kskwerl]

There are a lot of opinions regarding this type of install. I have always put all my software and programs on the C drive. I know some gamers like to install games to another hard drive.

I believe that all programs write files and such to the Windows folder on C drive.

Here's some info I found at Tom's Hardware website:



I hope this helps you out.

Thank you very much it's much appreciated! The main reason I ask this is because I'm considering buying a SSD and the larger the drive the way way more expensive it is. But another question I have is this..if I do chose to install the programs on a different say..SATA drive..are there certain programs that need to be installed on the C: drive?

 

[Nibiru2012]

To be honest with you, if you get a 60 GB SSD, one of the most common affordable size available, you should be able to put the operating system and all programs you use without much problem.

What I have found is to put all downloads, photos, music files, documents, videos, etc. on a separate hard drive. Those are the items that chew up the most space.

On my C drive I have about 40 programs installed including Office 2010 and in addition to the Windows 7 Professional x64 operating system. Right now I'm only using about 18.5 GB of space on my 64 GB partition on my 500 GB Samsung SATA II drive.

ImgBurn has it's temp file on my C drive, but stores the files on my E drive. Same for Office 2010, downloads, DVDneXtCopy working file, uTorrent, etc.

 

[kskwerl]

That's most likely what I'm going to do, I'm big into the movie torrent scene and as long as I can run games and other programs off a different drive then my OS thats definitely what I'm going to do. Thanks again