Solid State Drives, commonly known as SSDs, are a vast improvement over regular hard drives. They read and write data at a much faster rate and are much less prone to failure, unlike their Hard Drive counterparts. However, they tend to be far more expensive than regular HDs and generally have less memory space. This makes installing your operating system on the SSD advantageous, as there is less chance of a major system crash due to hard drive failure, and general usage speeds tend to be faster. Non-critical files that are not accessed as often usually go on the regular hard drive in the computer. Therefore, people often wonder how to install their OS on the SSD, but the process is actually simpler than you would think.
How to Install OS on SSD
1. Make sure that no other HDs and storage devices are connected to the computer other than your SSD.
2. Double-check that the SSD is your primary drive and that the OS isn’t installing onto some other partition.
3. Install the OS as per usual, following the instructions on the screen.
4. After finishing the installation, connect any other hard drives you would want to use to store your non-critical files. If you want to install your programs only on the secondary drive, it might be a good idea to set the default program installation directory as well.
Setting the Default Installation Directory
1. Type “regedit” in the Vista Start menu search box or in the Run dialog box (XP, Windows 7) and hit enter to continue.
2. Navigate to the following registry key in the Registry Editor:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
3. Locate the value named “ProgramFilesDir,” and change the default value “C:\Program Files” to your new directory path (address).
4. Reboot your computer for the changes to take place.
Need More Help?
If something went wrong during the installation, or if you would rather have a professional do this for you, use TalkLocal to find a qualified computer technician to solve your SSD issues right now. We will connect you with qualified professionals in your area in just minutes.
