hard drive - What directories in a Windows 7 SSD install would you link/junction to an HDD?

26
2013-08
  • Tracker1

    I'm planning on installing an SSD/HDD combination with the SSD as my boot (Windows 7 x64) drive, and a spinning HDD as a storage drive.

    • Are there any log files in particular best suited to a mklink to the SSD?
    • Is it worthwhile to move/link the main user profile to the SSD?
    • How much space should I try to leave open on the SSD for best wear leveling?
    • What other directories/files would you consider mapping to the HDD?

    I know that temporary directories, even the main profile may be good options here, I'm just wanting to know any obvious choices for space, or many-write situations.

    • Answers
  • sblair

    In addition to Wil's answer, I put all BitTorrent downloads and most games onto an HDD, rather than an SSD. Although there is the potential for better performance with games on an SSD (such as reduced loading times), they tend to take up a lot of space. Also, if you don't need to use hibernation, you may wish to disable it to save space on the SSD.

    Note that keeping some free space on the SSD is more to help the drive maintain performance over time, rather than to directly assist the wear levelling.

  • Chris Cothrun

    I use an SSD alongside a HDD and install quite a bit more software than the SSD has space for. I'm answering anecdotally as I've been unable to find authoritative information for managing an ever growing Windows installation split between an SSD and a HHD

    I manually manage a great deal of my installation and data. Every program that prompts for an installation path gets assigned to D:\Program Files or D:\Program Files (x86). Note that simply installing here without taking extra steps may create a security risk by bypassing the restrictions that Microsoft places on the C:\Program Files folders. I have not fully researched the implications of simply changing the installation path. I've also created a D:\Users\Chris\ folder and I take advantage of the Windows 7 Libraries feature to make manually setting save paths easier.

    I use WinDirStat to find large files and folders on the SSD for selective junction creation to the HDD. Anything related to the Windows installation I research online, as I've seen suggestions that wholesale linking folders such as the Program Files directory or the \Windows\winsxs to a HDD will cause problems and instability.

    Some of my junctioned folders are:

    • Large chunks of data in the \ProgramData\ folder
    • Adobe files (Common Files?)
    • \Windows\Installer\ files

    Windows seems to manage log files well and I haven't seen any that balloon up into significant sizes.

    I strongly suggest making backups before moving and linking folders.

  • William Hilsum

    It really depends on your usage.

    If you do not have a lot of stuff, I would simply use the SSD and only the SSD.

    I personally would not move your entire profile or junction it as there are settings that are written all the time, user registry and various items that you would want to keep on the SSD.

    I would just create a few folders on your hard drive and keep movies, videos, archive, backup and music files on there. When you are using a hard drive just for data storage and nothing else, they are quite fast.

    As for leaving space, Just never let it get full - I personally would want to keep at least 5GB free at any point (but that is just me)

    As for log files, they will be created (usually) within the Windows directory so they will be on the SSD.

  • Valamas

    On my data HDD, i created a directory called JUNCTIONS. Here are the folders i junctioned.

    Windows\Installer
Windows\SoftwareDistribution 
  (Add Everyone full access or similar permission for windows updates to work)
Windows\Temp
Users
ProgramData

    I used this tool that made creating destination Junctions easy. Hard Link Shell Extension

    If you are junction-ing users, do not create the destination users folder, just "create junction" from within the JUNCTIONS folder.

    I also left Windows Indexing turned on as it writes to ProgramData


    • Related Question

    hard drive - Does Windows 7 see my SSD as HDD?
  • maloo

    i installed Win7 on an SSD (intel X25-M G2) and i guess it does not recognize it as an SSD since some services are still running that should be disabled automatically (like superfetch). I enabled AHCI-Mode in the Bios. Does someone know how to check if it uses the drive as an SSD?

    Thanks.


    • Related Answers
  • Rich Bradshaw

    The windows team have said this:

    Will Superfetch be disabled on SSDs?

    Yes, for most systems with SSDs.

    If the system disk is an SSD, and the SSD performs adequately on random reads and doesn’t have glaring performance issues with random writes or flushes, then Superfetch, boot prefetching, application launch prefetching, ReadyBoost and ReadDrive will all be disabled.

    Initially, we had configured all of these features to be off on all SSDs, but we encountered sizable performance regressions on some systems. In root causing those regressions, we found that some first generation SSDs had severe enough random write and flush problems that ultimately lead to disk reads being blocked for long periods of time. With Superfetch and other prefetching re-enabled, performance on key scenarios was markedly improved.

    Source: Engineering Windows 7

    So it seems that disabling Superfetch isn't a guaranteed way to check things. I'd guess that it's working fine, as long as the correct drivers are being used.