Windows 7 Users Folder?

[1Wolf]

Just a question with regards to Windows 7 setup on an SSD....

I've never had an SSD before so I'm used to, after installing windows on a regular HD, sticking the page file on another drive and then remapping my Users folder (My Documents, My Pictures, Etc.) to another drive.

I realize now with an SSD I will no longer need to stick my page file on another drive, but I'm not sure what the best plan is for the Users folder.

If you've got a 256GB SSD for your OS & Programs, and a 7200 RPM HD for large storage....what is the general consensus on where to place your Users folder (My Documents, My Pictures, My Videos, etc. etc.)?

Do you guys prefer to leave it on the SSD in the default location with your OS and Programs? I suppose the upside would be that documents and files you need would access very quickly and the downside would be that you'd need to make sure you don't stuff anything "Large" in your Users Folder that might eat up all the space.

Or...

Do you guys prefer to remap the Users Folder to the 7200 RPM Hard Drive? For that, I suppose the upside would be that it leaves your SSD for the OS, paging, and Programs and the downside would be that your documents and files would load at 7200 RPM HD speed instead of SSD speed.

 

[drescherjm]

what is the general consensus on where to place your Users folder (My Documents, My Pictures, My Videos, etc. etc.)?

I leave this on the SSD. However I have no videos in the My Videos folder.

 

[DejaWiz]

I keep my user folders/files on the SSD, but I, too, don't have video files in there. I disable the page file for the SSD and enable it as system managed size on my spindle drive.

 

[aphasia]

I keep my user folders/files on the SSD, but I, too, don't have video files in there. I disable the page file for the SSD and enable it as system managed size on my spindle drive.

this is what i usually do as well.

current config..
-SSD: boot, most programs (minus most of my steam folder, that's just a huge storage sponge), documents, temp files, etc
-Magnetic HDD: (7,200rpm): program backup, document backup, current media files (music & vids)
-Magnetic HDD: (10,000rpm): pagefile partition, storage for most of my steam games (tho swapped between SSD & HD with 'steam tool')
-NAS (RAID): more backups + bulk of media library.

you could optimise your boot drive even more by creating a RAM drive to dump all your temp files/browser cache etc (or any shit you don't care about between reboots). this would give a nice speedup plus you're not wasting SSD space or P/E cycles.

 

[balance101]

i put my user files on my hdd

use this guide to setup ssd

 

[aphasia]

i put my user files on my hdd

use this guide to setup ssd

nice guide, even found a couple of things i haven't tried.
don't agree with reducing the pagefile below 1GB tho. nice how he presents directions & arguments on various ways to do some things.
OCN have some of the best tweaking guides.

 

[1Wolf]

Thanks everyone.

So I noticed a couple of you set your page file to your magnetic HD...how come? What does that do for you over leaving it on the SSD where page access will be as fast as possible?

you could optimise your boot drive even more by creating a RAM drive to dump all your temp files/browser cache etc (or any shit you don't care about between reboots). this would give a nice speedup plus you're not wasting SSD space or P/E cycles.

Thats a neat idea...I might have to try that once I get my system built just to see what kind of difference I see. I didn't know anything about RAM Disks until the other day when I watched a video over at Newegg. Sounds nifty.

i put my user files on my hdd

use this guide to setup ssd

Thanks! I stumbled across a bunch of guides by that fella the other day....great guides! Was sitting at work munching my lunch and before I knew it...WAY too much time had passed sponging up info from those...lol

 

[aphasia]

Thanks everyone.

So I noticed a couple of you set your page file to your magnetic HD...how come? What does that do for you over leaving it on the SSD where page access will be as fast as possible?


Thats a neat idea...I might have to try that once I get my system built just to see what kind of difference I see. I didn't know anything about RAM Disks until the other day when I watched a video over at Newegg. Sounds nifty.


Thanks! I stumbled across a bunch of guides by that fella the other day....great guides! Was sitting at work munching my lunch and before I knew it...WAY too much time had passed sponging up info from those...lol

I can't speak for the others but the reason i setup my 'pagefile' on a platter HD is to;
-save space on the SSD
-which also reduces P/E cycles
-if you have a decent amount of RAM (8-16GB+), the performance hit is negligible. with all the DIMM slot populated, not sure how much stuff is copied back out of the pagefile anyway. you could turn off the pagefile all together (as some H members do) & never have a problem period. i leave mine on in any case if only to prevent the odd exotic application from chucking a hissy fit.
-also my pagefile rarely gets bigger than a 1GB or 2GBs + a 10K drive makes any write-backs relative painless.

another small reason i do it, force of habit. a throwback to the days when RAM wasn't cheap or plentiful, hard disks were slow and windows threw everything thing but the kitchen sink into the pagefile (circa Win2K/XP) and it just made sense to use dump it onto a separate physical disk. a poor man’s RAID. if i remember correctly the pagefile (in those days) was stored at the beginning or outside platter of the disk. moving it allowed other system files/programs to populate the faster bits of the HD while the page was still allowed fast access in its own partition on the 2nd HD. helped keep fragmentation down too.

i'm pretty tried so i could be pulling some of this shit out of my arse. and i'm old, and senile people do irrational things...

 

[bigsnyder]

Is there a handy guide for how to assign things to the Ram disk?

Found this one on the OCZ forum. Any other recommendations?