I was reinstalling this OS, and thought I would be a little fancy by installing my OS on an SSD, My programs on a seperate HDD, and my user files on a seperate drive.

I did all the necessary work arounds for the users just fine which is probably something you should always do anyway as keeping data files seperate from program and system files is useful.

However, the way Windows handles programs makes seperating programs from system files a hassle.  For this I also did all the necessary work arounds and put in my junctions.  Every 3rd party program installs just fine onto the seperate HDD.  Its microsoft's software that seems to hate this concept of soft linking.  IE9 hard linked, Live hard linked.  Worst of all, after install I cannot make a junction from Program Files on the C to Program Files on the P drive.  Don't have proper permissions to delete folders that are not even in use.  The thing I could do is rename the folders and make a junction from within.  Can't delete the renamed folders.

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Originally posted by Cleffy
I was reinstalling this OS, and thought I would be a little fancy by installing my OS on an SSD, My programs on a seperate HDD, and my user files on a seperate drive.

I did all the necessary work arounds for the users just fine which is probably something you should always do anyway as keeping data files seperate from program and system files is useful.

However, the way Windows handles programs makes seperating programs from system files a hassle.  For this I also did all the necessary work arounds and put in my junctions.  Every 3rd party program installs just fine onto the seperate HDD.  Its microsoft's software that seems to hate this concept of soft linking.  IE9 hard linked, Live hard linked.  Worst of all, after install I cannot make a junction from Program Files on the C to Program Files on the P drive.  Don't have proper permissions to delete folders that are not even in use.  The thing I could do is rename the folders and make a junction from within.  Can't delete the renamed folders.

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Adjust the necessary registry entries to reflect where you wish everything to be?

If you only put your operating system on the SSD then you are losing the advantage of using an SSD.  

Sure your operating system can read/write data to the SSD for the operating system, but when you run a program its still having to read/write the program data to your slow drive.  In order to get efficent use out of your SSD both the OS and the Program you are using have to be on the SSD.

Videos, Music, Personal files can be on a slow drive becuase you are not constantly reading/writing to them.  Even small programs that fully load into the computer memory without having to keep accessing the hard drive shoudl still be on the slower drive.

You realy need your Operating System, Utilities, and your top 1-3 games on your SSD.  If you decide to stop playing one of the games...move it to your slower drive making room for a new game.   That way if you ever want to play it agian you transfer it back to the SSD without having to reinstall.

Most of that stuff is so tightly integrated into windows that, as you discovered, it's nigh impossible to split it out.

That was a major complaint of the EU against Microsoft in their anti-trust case. They have been sued time and time again for tightly integrating programs (suspiciously, usually those with lots of competition) into the OS - notably browsers, media players, and proprietary communications protocols and APIs. (As a humorous and ironic side note, it's a lot of stuff that Apple is blatantly doing today, and getting away with with blessings from the patent courts, all because they are doing it with both hardware and software and calling it an "Ecosystem", whereas Microsoft just focused on software, so it was called "unfair leverage" when they encouraged hardware OEMs to bundle their software)

Most of that stuff isn't terribly large in the first place - Live is an optional download (and you can just select the parts that you expect to use, or uninstall the parts you don't use). IE unfortunately is more or less required even if you don't use it. I usually just budget for the size of all that and leave it on the SSD in the first place - it's a large pain, a lot of hassle, and causes lots of unexpected problems when you try to move or remove it.

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Originally posted by Cleffy

I did all the necessary work arounds

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I found your problem.

yea when you have to use the word "Work Around" It probably won't be successful.

I made the initial registry tweaks to Program Files, Its installing new Microsoft applications that is proving problematic since its not letting me make a junction between Program Files on the C and Program Files on another drive.  The problem is alot of Microsoft software is hard linking instead of soft linking.  So it installs to my program files location on P:\, but stashes all the data on C:\ because a Microsoft program developer likes hard links.

The reason for it is because I want to clear out my SSD of almost everything so I can fit more games in there.  Windows 7 and the optional downloads consume alot of space and quickly fill up the drive with temporary files.  Before I wiped my SSD was filled to 83 GB out of 90 GB of just the Windows OS and Microsoft software, Microsoft Live, Visual Basic Studio, and Office.

I would have the OS and profile on the SSD as thats where you will get the most benefit.. plus as you mentioned putting my documents and other stuff to other drives in vista and windows 7 is now a pain in the arse..

So i keep the OS and the profile on the main SSD and also apps... I just use a 1TB druive for my games and stuff.. tho ill be picking up another larger SSD just for games pretty soon as they are really cheap now.

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Originally posted by Cleffy
yea when you have to use the word "Work Around" It probably won't be successful.

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You clearly did not get the message.