Setting Up 1TB HDD as storage drive

[Hadowken]

So I recently did a clean install of windows 10. I'm fairly new to basically everything in it because our last PC was on XP. I just used windows 7 at the office and I didn't get to fiddle with the settings on that as well.

I did some research and followed some tips like you should disconnect the HDD and just leave the SSD on to install windows 10 to avoid having a boot file(?) in the HDD as well. So I did just that and I was successful. I just connected my hard drive and I do not know how to partition it. Let alone use it as a storage drive. I plan on dumping everything I download in it.

 

I'm currently downloading the latest NVidia driver for my gtx 960. My gut tells me that it's perfectly fine to install it on the ssd. hehe. Will it automatically install in the SSD? I mean, my hdd isn't even partitioned yet, so yeah. Probably.

 

Running 250GB 850 EVO and 1TB WD Caviar Blue.

 

If someone could just walk me through the process for this, it would greatly be appreciated.

[Senzelian]

To partition your HDD you simply need to go to the "Disk-Manager" in Windows.
Right click on your Windows start button and open the disk manager. There you should be able to see your HDD.
Right click on that and set a new volume. Everything else is explained by Windows.

[Hadowken]

It lets me choose between two options. I believe one option said that it is not recognized by other version of windows. Something like that. 

[Senzelian]

1 minute ago, Hadowken said:

It lets me choose between two options. I believe one option said that it is not recognized by other version of windows. Something like that. 

That's weird.
Usually it should just let you determine the size, name and file system of the volume you want to create.

Just in case my explenation was a bit rough:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-format-hard-disk-partition#create-format-hard-disk-partition=windows-7

If you did everything right, then what are the two options you can choose from?

[Naeaes]

You did exactly right. Having the MBR on the HDD is the stupidest thing to do if your OS is on an SSD and you can't pick where the MBR ends up. The installation automatically throws it onto the fisrt drive it finds so usually having the SSD in sata0 port does the same thing. But better safe than sorry.  The HDD would have to be spun up to get the list of all the operating systems, even if there's just the one and that pretty much negates the benefit of having the OS on the SSD when it comes to bootup speed. Also if you have the MBR on the HDD and it breaks, it's nearly impossible to get the OS to boot any more even if it's intact. So kudos!

 

Once you have all your drivers installed and Windows is up to date, it should prompt you to format it (popup just like the ones for USB sticks) but it it won't or you want to speed it up, search for 'disk management' and use it to create and format the partition. That's where you can also change the drive letters.

 

Once it's formatted, open file explorer and find your downloads in the left flank. Right click on it and pick properties. On the 'Location' tab you can set the library to point to a folder on the HDD. Do the same for pictures, Documents and so on. That'll save you on writes onto the SSD in the long run. 

Those libraries are the default locations. Basically just windows's way to say "Please save downloads here" The individual programs then may or might not respect that wish. So you might want to double check that the Downloads folder is correct in Firefox, Chrome, Utorrent and so on. Once you get that far in the process. 

 

The default program install folder is still going to be on the C: drive. That's to ensure compatibility and there still is no fool-proof way to change it. I'd personally keep it on the SSD and use manual/custom install to put programs onto the HDD as needed. But the same old registry edit still works if you're interested.