How do you prevent programs from downloading to the SSD (vs the regular HD)?

[idata]

Hello!

I have Windows 7 on my new SSD. It is the C: drive. New programs I install often do not give an option to install on a different drive and automatically install to the SSD.

This is filling up my SSD and eventually I won't be able to download any more programs. How can I re-direct these programs to down load & run on my standard hard drive?

Thanks! GAry

[idata]

There seem to be two issues here - downloading and installing.

The path used by IE, Firefox etc (unless you change it in Preferences) is C:\Users\%Username%\Downloads - this is not advisable if you're downloading large files often, so change the options to "Ask every time" rather than use the default path. Also avoid dumping files/folders to the Desktop, as this is part of the User Profile stored on C:\. This can be changed, but it's easier to save big files to your HDD and use shortcuts on the Desktop if needed.

As for installs, some programs must be installed to your boot drive - anything to do with Windows (updates, service packs etc) and any system drivers (motherboard/chipset drivers, AMD/Nvidia graphics drivers etc). If there's no option to avoid installing on C:\, that's probably why. Make sure you avoid "Simple/Quick/Auto" install options, choose "Custom" and look for the default install path (usually "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)") and click "Browse" to change it to the HDD.

I'd also advise disabling System Restore, Pagefile and Hibernation as these use LARGE amounts of SSD space and are re-written frequently. They can be moved to the HDD, but this will reduce performance, so I'd disable them (unless you have <=4GB RAM) and rely on a good backup/clone of C:\. (Defrag should be disabled by default.)

You could even move Temp/TMP folders etc, but you get to the point that you're not using the SSD at all (apart from a few seconds saved at boot/reset), so it's a question of balance and trial/error to get the performance you want without filling the SSD with garbage and causing unnecessary SSD writes/erases. After 6 weeks of use I've written ~500GB to my SSD, and more than half of that was initial benchmarking/testing, so it's less than 10GB/day typically.

[idata]

Hello!

Thanks for the great response. I will use your advice regarding downloads.

My biggest problem is where programs install to after download. Two examples that come to mind are the Adobe reader and the map program for my Garmin GPS. Both programs installed to the C: drive with no option to do otherwise. For the Garmin program I moved it to the HDD with Windows Explorer and it worked fine. This did not work for the Adobe program so I installed the Nitro reader.

There have been a few other programs I had to leave on the SSD (these were not any of the system programs you mentioned). I'm concerned I'm eventually going to fill up my 60 GB SSD.

Thanks again! Gary