Dual Drive Installation help Vista Ultimate 32

[Gamerdad76]

Hello Im new to your forums and seem to be having trouble getting my questions answered elsewhere so I figured I would try here. I just upgraded to Vista Ultimate 32bit and Im wondering how i could use 2 hdds with this. One for OS and one for everything else. I want to put Vista on a 40g sata and my programs and such ona 250. Now How would i go about doing all this? Do I just have to change the installation path? Or do I need to set it up another way like maybe loading raid drivers before Vista? I know in XP it was easy copy paste rename blah blah blah..But here I can't do that like my music file stays in C: and so does programs..and seems to be a mess when I got to look for something. htanks for letting me post this and hope someone can help.

[jazz836062]

For your personal folders; find the one on your c: drive and right click the individual folders ie music. Click properties and select the location tab. You can just click move and select the new location for your personal stuff. For programs just change the install path and it works fine. No RAID drivers necessary. I have almost the exact same setup so if you still have questions let us know.

Welcome to Cyber Tech Help.

[Gamerdad76]

Thanks Jazz..So all I have to do is on a fresh install before I install my programs is move all my personals to the other drive with the move feature correct? Then once that is done I can start installing programs and games and such and change the install...so would it be somehting like this D:\Program Files\ ect.ect.? OR does the root program files in C: stay there..I think thats what I most confused about..becasue if I install programs on D: then will in conflict with the C: programs files..thanks again for your help.

[jazz836062]

Windows programs will stay on the C drive but if you install other programs ie games, during the install just change the install path the D:\Program Files or something like that and it will work fine, no conflicts with the c drive at all.

During the install, just to make it easy, I would only change the drive letter, for example:
Default: C:\Program Files\EA\The Sims 3
changed to: D:\Program Files\EA\The Sims 3

Is that clear? Sometimes my words in my head don't match what shows up on the keyboard.

[Gamerdad76]

HAHAHA I have the same problem there. But yes I think I understand it now. So basically C: program files will be empty except for microsoft stuff and all my other stuff will be on D very nice...I hope this trick works for Windows 7 to cause ima hit that on my secondary system with similar setup...THanks again for all your help.

[jazz836062]

Yes, it should work almost exactly the same in Windows 7

[Gamerdad76]

I going to try everything later this afternoon and see what happens...I will post back again to let ya know if I Blew it up. Thanks again for the help.

[usaf_gunner]

Just to piggyback on this post, would this be possible without reformatting? Could I move the majority of my program files over to another drive and leave one drive for mostly windows? Would it matter if manufacturer drivers were installed on a different disk?

[jazz836062]

I had the same question, I think. If you are asking if you can just copy and paste all of your program files and the like to a different drive, I am not sure that will work because the program is referenced to the C: drive. If you have your programs on a seperate HDD than windows already you can use Acronis and Clone the old drive to the new drive. Again, since your programs are already referenced to the C: drive I don't think that you would be able to just copy and paste directly to the new drive.

[usaf_gunner]

Well I didnt want to just copy and paste them over...errr well I did but I know that the programs would need to be remapped just didnt know if it would be simple or if it would require registry editing etc...dont really want to screw with the registry.

[jazz836062]

Not very simple at all. I am not sure if you could go through the registry and change everything. That would take more time than uninstalling the program and reinstalling it. That is an option, just uninstall the program and reinstall to the new drive. Be sure to keep all serial numbers and the like.

[usaf_gunner]

LOL that and I would screw things up doing it. I guess I could restore back to factory get rid of all the bloat and install everything on the other drive. Good thinkin jazz

[jazz836062]

That would definately work, but it seems a bit drastic. Be sure to back up your personal files.