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I started with my HDD and have windows and a few programs on it, and bought a new Samsung SSD the 840 Pro.

Initially as usual I had my C:/ drive, Windows everything was there. The Data Migration CD they included with the SDSD now gave me a F:/ (system reserved) and a E:/ drive which is a mirror of the C drive before, but I can run all programs from both locations.

I figure the F:/ drive is my SSD and the C: is still the HDD. From the properties menu and the device manager I can tell which is which. How can I find the drive mapping info?

What is the new F:/ drive for?

I assume, and understand I only want Windows + programs on the SSD for speed and as much data as I can on the HDD? Or only windows from the SSD.

How do I ensure I do not destroy the SSD by over-usage as I hear is prevalent to ruining them quickly?

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  • Disk Management (Start / Run / diskmgmt.mmc) will tell you which partitions reside on which physical disk.
    – Karan
    Apr 20, 2013 at 12:56

2 Answers 2

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I am not a Windows user, but as this question has not gotten any love, and as I have a couple of similar SSD's, maybe I can provide limited help.

You should be able to tell which drive the SSD by looking at the size of the drive. If the size of the drive matches the size of the SSD rather then the HDD, that would tell you. Also, if you copy something large (for example from a USB disk), you will probably find the SSD copy completes much faster then the SSD copy.

You might also be able to temporarily disconnect one drive, turn on the PC, create a test file, turn off and add back drive and then search for the test file.

Practically, I would not worry about over-usage on the SSD. If you look at guys who know what they are talking about ( or read the specs of the drives and sit down and work out what they mean), unless you are running a database, SSD's are not likely to fail from too many writes for a long time - particularly because of something called wear leveling. [ But be aware that they still fail about as often as hard drives, but when they do there is normally no warning and no easy way to recover data, so back data up often ].

Refs: http://ef.gy/statistics:ssd-write-endurance http://maxschireson.com/2011/04/21/debunking-ssd-lifespan-and-random-write-performance-concerns/ http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/02/19/1326239/taking-a-hard-look-at-ssd-write-endurance

The idea behind putting some stuff on SSD and some on HDD is that SSD is expensive per gig - and a lot of things - like videos and audio tracks won't benefit substantially from the extra speed, so they can be stored on a slower, but 1/10th price spinning disk, thus giving you a balance of bulk storage and fast speed for the things that need it. (If you restart your PC often, having the OS on the SSD will speed up the boot time, and accessing DLL's and programs will be faster). If your SSD is big enough for all your computing needs, I'd be inclined to put everything on it, and back up to the HDD on a frequent basis.

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  • Yeah after some research I figured out and made sure which drive was which.
    – KDecker
    Apr 22, 2013 at 13:05
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The F:/ drive is the bootloader of windows, it should be probably a few hundread MB. It is normally hidden from view. Do not delete this drive or you wont be able to boot from the SSD.

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