OS installed to 32GB mSATA: SUCCESS!

I have been kicking this around for a bit. I didn't even know I was getting one of those mSATA SSD thingies with my m14xR2, but it showed up with one. I read up on it, and tried to use it as a caching device, but that was kind of lame, or at least I couldn't tell the difference. It was a waste of space: too small to install stuff to, and I couldn't tell if the caching did anything or not. So I looked in to installing Win7 to the small disk, but everyone said it's too small.

THE PROBLEM:
32GB is plenty for Windows. But not much else. 8GB wiggle room just ain't what it used to be. So no installing programs to that drive, and no storing my downloads there, either. c:\Users, c:\Program Files, and c:\Program Files (x86) all have to be moved.

THE SOLUTION:
I backed up my data.

I undid the RAID stuff.

The OS still booted. (This surprised me, as I thought I would have to reformat both drives.)

It turns out that it would probably have been less of a hassle if I HAD just reformatted. More on that later.

I installed the OS to the 32GB mSATA SSD.

I installed the drivers. (I saved time by having Windows look at my old system drive and install them automatically. I hope this doesn't come back to bite me.)

Next, I rebooted from the Win7 DVD and got in to the command prompt. I then followed these directions, which I found here:

You have to be super careful about the drive letters. When I did this, the Windoes Recovery command prompt said my SSD mSATA was d: and my 500GB target drive was e:. HOWEVER when I did the mklink command I had to call it d: because that's what Windows calls it. So the robocopy command went d: --> e: but the mklink command went d: --> d:. So the double D: in the mklink command confused me but it seems to be working.

So now, I have Users, Program Files, and Program Files (x86) mapped to my 500GB D: drive in Windows.

Here's the big problem with not wiping the 500GB target drive: I wasn't sure what robocopy would overwrite, so I just renamed the old files to stuff like OLDusers, OLDProgramfiles (x86), etc. But then there was all sorts of crazy command-line-fu that I had to do to get permission to delete the old ones after I got all my data out of them. I kinda wished I had just wiped and used my backup. I messed up enough that I had to copy a bunch of old programs over anyways. If you attempt this, I recommend having a good backup and then wiping the mSATA and the big drive.

I am totally glad I did this. It has been running for just a little while, but so far so good. It was fun, it was educational, I seem to have everything saved where I want it, and my boot time is now amazing. If you have any questions, just ask.

If my write-up reads as though it were pieced together in chunks by someone in between diaper changes and putting kids to bed and assisting in toilet training, that's because it was. I'll be glad to clarify.

 

Wow good work there. My R2 comes with 32gb cache drive too but I was too afraid to install to OS into the ssd since it has only 32gb. How much space left on the SSD out of 32gb after all the installation?

 

Good work!

If you disable hibernation and delete hiberfil.sys you will free yourself a bit of space. Also you could disable system restore (because who uses this anyways?) and that will also give you some space. Also depending on how much ram you have you cam lower your page file size to a very small amount and that also saves you a bunch of space.

 

Okay so some Windows Updates (but not all of them) like the whole Junction thing. But it was a quick fix.
Vilkku.org · How to fix Windows Update error 80070011

Also, I have about 6 GB left after updates. I have to remind the computer to install to D: for installs that don't use Program Files (like LoL and Dell drivers). Still worth it after 6 hours. Mostly because I am not using my computer for work so much and i have my m11xR1 to fall back on anyway.

 

A very good job haha. I'm glad you got that all sorted out. Thanks for sharing. +1Rep.

 

I took ehancock's advice and fiddled with the pagefile and turned off hibernate. Plus I moved the index to the data drive for fun. I figure this SSD boots fast enough I'm not gonna need hibernate that bad.

I was a little worried about Windows Updates, because when I first ran it (like 100+ updates) it took up almost all my extra space on the SSD. When I did the Hibernate trick and that other stuff, it was back up to 12 GB free.

 

You can move your swap file to another drive, mine sits on my platter-drive. No reason not to move it.

Also, you'll get REAL sick of a 32gb OS drive soon. I tried this years ago when SSD's first hit the market. 2 months later, I was tired of it.