Testing & Software

It's become more common these days to have a "Boot Drive" that is a Solid State Drive for the performance boost they provide and use a second regular hard drive that is large to keep all your data. But it's a little difficult to figure out how to make that happen.  Here is an overview of how I do it with more detailed info on how to make Windows 10 use your data drive for all your data by default.

Assuming you have a computer with maybe a 1 or 2 Terabyte hard drive and you just purchased a hot new 250GB SSD.  I start by getting the SSD mounted up in the computer.  Next, I would use something like Clonezilla, or Windows Mini Tools, or Macrium Reflect Home to move the partitions from the hard drive onto the SSD. 

You will first need to shrink (resize) the main partition on the hard drive to be in the neighborhood of 200GB.  Whatever it needs to be so that all the partitions on the hard drive total less than 250GB so they will all fit on the new SSD drive.  If you have a lot of stored pictures or videos such that you can't shrink the partition small enough, you will need to move those data files off to an external drive or memory stick temporarily. Be aware also that even though the SSD drive says it's 250GB in size, the available space on it will be something less in most cases.  Maybe only 246GB.  So plan accordingly.  After the move, you can always resize the partition on the SSD to fill all available space.  My tool of choice for resizing is Windows Mini Tools and my choice for moving is either Windows Mini Tools or Clonezilla.  I like Macruim Reflect more for making image files of a drive that can be mounted as an additional hard drive to access the files within.

So now that you have things shrunk down you can select the option to move it all to the SSD drive.  In Windows Mini Tools they have a choice for this, in Clonezilla, you are simply copying all partitions from one drive to the other.  DO NOT DELETE the partitions from the original hard drive until after you are certain your computer will boot and work on the new copy of files on the SSD.  So after the copy process, I shut down and disconnect the data cable from the original hard drive. Then boot from the new SSD to be certain it all works as it should.  Sometimes it takes some finessing to get the SSD to work as your new boot device.  For whatever reason, the cloning software may not have marked the new boot partition as active or some issue like that. I think this was a problem in the past and most of these cloning programs have realized that when you clone or copy a boot partition you most likely are going to want it to continue booting.

Now that you are sure the new SSD is working as your new main boot and OS drive you can shut down and reconnect the original hard drive.  Use whatever tool you prefer to remove the partitions from the original hard drive and create a single new large partition for your data storage.

Now you should have a drive C: which is your SSD and a Drive D: which is your new data storage drive. At this point, we are ready to tell Windows to use your data storage drive as the place where you want your Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music, and Video folders to live.

It's a two-step process but fairly painless.  Start by going to your Cortona Search box and type in "Default Save Locations" and you should see a System Settings choice appear at the top of the open menu box. Select that to open the System Settings window for the default locations.  They are all set to your C: Drive currently.  Change that to be your D: drive for the appropriate items. 

After that, have a look at your D: drive and notice the folder structure that was created on your D: drive.  It's slightly different than what's on your C: drive for these folders.  On mine, it went from C:\Users\Username\Documents to being D:\Username\Documents.  It left out the "Users" folder.  Important to know for this next step.

Now in your Windows Explorer program where you see your folders and the "Quick Access" folders we need to change the locations these are pointing to. So for each one that you changed from C: to D: in the system settings for Default App Locations you need to Right Click and select Properties.  To be clear, in the left column under the "Quick Access" section you will right click on Documents and select Properties from the menu that appears.  Then find the Location tab and change where it says C:\Users\Username\Documents to be correct for the new location.  In my case, I changed it to be D:\Username\Documents.  After making that change I click the apply button and windows asks me if I'd like to move the contents from the old location to the new.  Yes, I would.  It then proceeds to move everything over for me.

I would suggest that you NOT move your Desktop folder, but if you had created any other folders under your user account (most people don't ever do this, but some geek types might) then now would be a good time to move them over as well.  And if you earlier had to free up space by copying files off to an external drive or memory stick now you can move them back to your computer.

And that should be it.  You now have a machine that will boot and load programs way faster than before and a bunch more storage space for your precious data files.

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As an I.T. support person I find myself frequently expounding on the need for care when constructing a file name.  And invariably I get the all familiar "Deer in headlights" facial stare back.  Either that or I get total disbelief.  And once in a while I get the excuse that "If we aren't supposed to do that then the computer shouldn't let me do it!".  Usually, I don't have the time or the care to explain why I'm saying what I'm saying.  After all, I'm the computer professional here. So, allow me to vent a little and while doing so, explain why you should adopt some good practices while naming new files.