# Installing SSD right now, could use some advice.



## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

( Done now, need no advice)

I have been given some very good information so far about these things I think.
I'm not messing with any of the things that are supposed to increase longevity or anything.
I am enabling AHCI mode in bios.. But enable it in UEFI? Idk that one.. XD

I'll also disable scheduled defrag from inside windows I guess, from inside defrag I assume. 

I see a bunch of places I can enable AHCI in bios though.. I enabled it only on the sata 3 port my ssd is attached to.
is that right?

What I did though so far is a standard install of the OS to the SSD.
My 1 TB still has the OS on it as well.. I wonder if I can access both, if both are plugged in..
Likely have to boot individually from both storage units I guess.

Glad my g/f believes in laptops..lol.. That's what I'm on right now..
Thanks yas.  

I enabled the option for sata mode in bios on the x58 gigabyte mobo, the top option.. I got this message.. bios not up to date?
I didn't get this message when I just had AHCI enabled on the sata port my SSD is attached to..
Should I be changing ICH SATA control mode to AHCI from IDE? If I do, I get that error message..


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

Ok, I'm about to reinstall everything I guess.. I can't seem to find t he answer for this..


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## INSTG8R (Sep 8, 2012)

Not taken this plunge yet myself. But I can offer a few things. I still have my old OS drive in my PC as my "storage" and I keep the old OS so I can get at anything I want on the new OS and never have to go "Oh Sh1T" I forgot to save copy/that. Now unless you have it plugged in when you install the OS you will not be able to boot from it(Which is exactly what you want) After the OS is installed you can plug it back in and it will just be a "regular" disk.

As for the AHCI issues. Yes you should be enabling it on the ICH(Intel ports) Did you make this switch AFTER you installed the OS? If so that would make sense as to why it's throwing that error. The OS has to be installed in AHCI mode. 

Of course obvious "tidy ups" Latest BIOS installed on the MoBo? I have a "Tool Box" USB drive I keep for installs with the latest Intel Chipset drivers(First thing in after OS install) I also have the "Floppy F6" Drivers for SATA/RAID as well. Win7 makes it pretty easy giving you the option to load drivers at the screen where you pick the disk to install on. Might as well get it using the right drivers from the beginning. Any other drivers you will need "right away"(My Intel NIC in my case)


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

ahh ffs.. im starting over.. ty.. ^^


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## INSTG8R (Sep 8, 2012)

NP had a few "looped" installs last round messing with RAID, oh and forgetting to unplug the old OS drive(Dual Boot)
Hey at least A:Win7 is pretty quick to install B: Your doing it on an SSD so it's even quicker


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

Been reviewing SSDs for awhile.


first AHCI EVERYTHING EVERY CONTROLLER EVERYTHING

for best performance make sure it is on the highest speed chennel. like P0 SATA/3GB/s or something.

Nest format the entire drive in windows. it will make a 100mb or so partition. this is fine. this holds SSD alignment info as well as some other filesystem stuff.

then install windows. NEVER ever run a SSD in IDE mode.


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

lol think I just managed to make like 20gb of space magically disappear off the SSD.. Maybe it's something system related but I could of sworn it had more then 236 gb on it.. 256 me thinks..lol.. Man, I'm dangerous..

lol nvm.. 238 is what it has after format..


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> lol think I just managed to make like 20gb of space magically disappear off the SSD.. Maybe it's something system related but I could of sworn it had more then 236 gb on it.. 256 me thinks..lol.. Man, I'm dangerous..



is it a 256gb ssd? because that sounds about right. i lose like 70gb when i format my 1tb drive.


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## INSTG8R (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris17 said:


> Been reviewing SSDs for awhile.
> 
> 
> first AHCI EVERYTHING EVERY CONTROLLER EVERYTHING
> ...



Good advice. Not having touched one yet I can only go with what I know


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris17 said:


> Been reviewing SSDs for awhile.
> 
> 
> first AHCI EVERYTHING EVERY CONTROLLER EVERYTHING
> ...



Will do, glad u mentioned that.. I was considering to leave ide mode on the ESATA. AHCI for everything then? Even where like the dvd drive is connected?


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> Will do, glad u mentioned that.. I was considering to leave ide mode on the ESATA. AHCI for everything then? Even where like the dvd drive is connected?



yup ahci everything. windows cant do 2 diffirent modes. so if you have a drive connected to channel 2 and the os drive on channel 1 its going to cause some problems. AHCI performs better and doesnt effect optical devices at all. just prevent headaches in the long run.


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

Thanks a bunch for that timing.. I was right on the installation screen, getting ready to install.. I'd of had some f'd up stuff..


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## INSTG8R (Sep 8, 2012)

I disable the "extra" Controllers anyway.Marvell, Jmicron, Firewire. Not gonna use them might as well disable them. Yours even has a Floppy controller. KILL IT! Less junk crowding up the IRQ's IMO.


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

INSTG8R said:


> I disable the "extra" Controllers anyway.Marvell, Jmicron, Firewire. Not gonna use them might as well disable them. Yours even has a Floppy controller. KILL IT! Less junk crowding up the IRQ's IMO.



press any key to boot from jmicron network boot controller

10
9
8
7
6 (omfg hurry up)
5
4(i want to play skyrim YESTERDAY)
3
2
1(fucking finally!)

4 hours later 

network boot rom: Disabled


hahahahaha i win!!!!

F10> Y> enter


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

lol thanks..

I stopped getting that error after I reinstalled, having AHCI enabled "everywhere" 1st..
Yep.. TY.. XD

I wonder if I could install steam to the HD and games to the SSD.. Idc about steam friends list and steam load time.. I care about the game load time..
I also don't like how active steam is and I don't like the idea of it being so active on the SSD if that is the case.


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> lol thanks..
> 
> I stopped getting that error after I reinstalled, having AHCI enabled "everywhere" 1st..
> Yep.. TY.. XD
> ...



yes you can.

install 1 game and then you create a shortcut to the game folder but move them to another drive. its called a symbolic link i think.

EDIT i guess ill look in my computer and show you how.


STEP 1: Go to your computer






STEP 2: Go to your C: drive and to the Steam folder, look for the folder "steamapps"






STEP 3: Now cut and paste to the drive you want the games installed on. Now go back to the "Steam" folder on the C: drive. I used my SD card since im running my laptop with my SSD on it ATM, but follow these steps of creating a shorcut INSIDE your steam folder. Create a shortcut.






STEP 4: Navigate to "steamapps" folder on your game drive. select the folder but NOT any of the folders or files IN IT.






STEP 5: Look and make sure the path is correct and click next






STEP 6: MAKE SURE the name of the shortcut is EXACTLY the same as the ORIGINAL steamapps folder even the case. Then click finish.






STEP 7: We will pretend my SD card is the inside of my steam folder. You should now have a shartcut called steamapps it should NOT say "shortcut to" before it and when you mouse over it it should be the PATH to the other drive the ACTUAL folder is located at.







your done. MAKE SURE STEAM IS OFF BEFORE YOU DO THIS.


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## hat (Sep 8, 2012)

I had to enable the Marvell controller on my board, as those ports were the only SATA 6Gb/s ports. I made sure they were set to run as AHCI (but the SSD still says IDE everywhere in the bios ). I have my OS and programs loaded on it. I'm reusing my system drive, a 500GB Black, which previously had the OS, programs, and games on it. Now it has just games. It's silly how long it takes Steam to load now while the rest of my system is ready to go.


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris17 said:


> yes you can.
> 
> install 1 game and then you create a shortcut to the game folder but move them to another drive. its called a symbolic link i think.



Yea, a nice link here to do that. ^^

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2181335


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> Yea, a nice link here to do that. ^^
> 
> http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2181335



damn beat me to it.


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

hat said:


> I had to enable the Marvell controller on my board, as those ports were the only SATA 6Gb/s ports. I made sure they were set to run as AHCI (but the SSD still says IDE everywhere in the bios ). I have my OS and programs loaded on it. I'm reusing my system drive, a 500GB Black, which previously had the OS, programs, and games on it. Now it has just games. It's silly how long it takes Steam to load now while the rest of my system is ready to go.


 

Yea I just had my first "Oh shit" moment.. This thing is fast!
Load time? where?.. Jebuss, I blink and my desktop is fully loaded and ready to go!  



Solaris17 said:


> damn beat me to it.


Who needs a Valve guide when you have a Sol guide.. With pictures!!

Sol, thank you again Man. I am going to follow that guide you just posted, step by step. Right this minute actually.  You guys are life savers.. Thank u all.


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## silkstone (Sep 8, 2012)

I posted this in your other thread, but i'm gonna put this here again. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

This is the easiest way to make symbolic links (for files) and junctions (for folders) and is not limited to moving only steam games. You can use it to move cache folders, temp directories or anything else that you like.

Personally, i keep steam on my SSD and then move the games i play the least onto my HDD. I use junctions for the folders and then symbolic links for the files from my HDD into my steam directory.

Edit - SOL, the difference between a symbolic link and a junction for a folder only really matters when using networked computer, right?


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

silkstone said:


> I posted this in your other thread, but i'm gonna put this here again. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/
> 
> This is the easiest way to make symbolic links (for files) and junctions (for folders) and is not limited to moving only steam games. You can use it to move cache folders, temp directories or anything else that you like.
> 
> Personally, i keep steam on my SSD and then move the games i play the least onto my HDD. I use junctions for the folders and then symbolic links for the files from my HDD into my steam directory.



OOh, that is a very nifty app for making links there.. thank you. ^^


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

silkstone said:


> I posted this in your other thread, but i'm gonna put this here again. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/
> 
> This is the easiest way to make symbolic links (for files) and junctions (for folders) and is not limited to moving only steam games. You can use it to move cache folders, temp directories or anything else that you like.
> 
> ...



Correct


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## silkstone (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> OOh, that is a very nifty app for making links there.. thank you. ^^



To move your my documents, my pictures, etc. Remember you can do this through the right click menu. 

Right click > properties > Location > Move


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

silkstone said:


> To move your my documents, my pictures, etc. Remember you can do this through the right click menu.
> 
> Right click > properties > Location > Move



thats what i did on my desktop. my entire user folder was on another drive i just changed the location in the folder properties. you cant do it with the user folder itself iirc but you can do it with all "library" folders my music my movies my documents downloads etc.


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## silkstone (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris17 said:


> thats what i did on my desktop. my entire user folder was on another drive i just changed the location in the folder properties. you cant do it with the user folder itself iirc but you can do it with all "library" folders my music my movies my documents downloads etc.



Yea, to move your whole user folder, you can create a junction. However, it can get a little complicated as you need to take ownership first and then the whole users directory is in use if you log in to windows. It's fairly simple to move a specific user's folder tho.


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## INSTG8R (Sep 8, 2012)

Oh yeah I just thought about it I guess it wouldn't hurt to install the Intel RST's either would it?


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

INSTG8R said:


> Oh yeah I just thought about it I guess it wouldn't hurt to install the Intel RST's either would it?



it only really matters if he is running RAID. which he might be. i was skimming.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 8, 2012)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface#Operating_system_support


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## INSTG8R (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris17 said:


> it only really matters if he is running RAID. which he might be. i was skimming.



I have always run my Intel ICH in RAID anyway regardlless if I was actually using it was the "full features" setup(As per eidairaman1's link) Now I actually AM running RAID. But wouldn't RST give him direct access to TRIM for example?


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

INSTG8R said:


> I have always run my Intel ICH in RAID anyway regardlless if I was actually using it was the "full features" setup(As per eidairaman1's link) Now I actually AM running RAID. But wouldn't RST give him direct access to TRIM for example?



trims built into the firmware on the drive now. no need for drivers anymore. its all handled on the hardware level even if the SSDs are in raid, that is to say TRIM is not yet widely availible for RAID SSDs as in you need to run them out of AHCI mode. Which is fine for RAID but you lose trim. Thats all going to change soon  though. As it stands its always a good idea to get your NB drivers etc. but with hardware RAID being intigrated into everything I dont really see a reason to have the software other then to control the array from windows. You would know more about the newer version though. I ran 3x 120GB 15k cheetahs awhile back but I was using a RAID card damn that was fast. anyway i didnt use the software but iv used it on some prebuilt raid machines.


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## INSTG8R (Sep 8, 2012)

Well it has been said that the latest RST 11.x Have added TRIM for RAID. But then I think the catch is you need your OROM updated as well so that comes down to a new BIOS from the Manufacturer or some clever folks have been hacking it in.

The only thing the RST software offer me as far as options is being able to turn on/off Write Back Caching so not alot. I don't know how it deals with SSD's


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

INSTG8R said:


> Well it has been said that the latest RST 11.x Have added TRIM for RAID. But then I think the catch is you need your OROM updated as well so that comes down to a new BIOS from the Manufacturer or some clever folks have been hacking it in.
> 
> The only thing the RST software offer me as far as options is being able to turn on/off Write Back Caching so not alot. I don't know how it deals with SSD's



I was under the impression only the intel SSDs were doing it on the hardware level in RAID. I focus on individual drive performance though RAID SSDs are something I study to talk about lightly I dont have enough hands on experience to give you a good opinion honestly.


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## INSTG8R (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris17 said:


> I was under the impression only the intel SSDs were doing it on the hardware level in RAID. I focus on individual drive performance though RAID SSDs are something I study to talk about lightly I dont have enough hands on experience to give you a good opinion honestly.



You could very well be right. Heck I just FINALLY decided to play with RAID just for kicks. I bought 2 Caviar Blacks for this build and just said WTH I wonder how fast they can be. Now I have a 2TB RAID 0 ArrayI did it in the BIOS so don't even know if I even need the RST's either. Just have them there for safety's sake. Not hurting my Machine being there.

I will try to do some digging to find the info and testing some folks were doing with the 11.x RST's


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

Ugh.. this linking thing is makin me a bit crazy..lol.. I have my eve, batman and l4d2 folders cut and pasted.. I kept getting some invalid switch error.. 
All I know is the games I cut and pasted say they point to the C drive "which is my SSD" and they are executing from there.. If they do that, I'm ok I'd think..lol.. hell if I know.. XD

Don't think I can use the linkshell tool anymore because I have already cut and pasted the folders, so there is nothing to link from.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 8, 2012)

i just put that link up to help out people, they say you can change windows to AHCI without having to reinstall it via Registry adjustments. AHCI to me is as configurable as ACPI.

Course reading what yall are talking about is confusing me at the moment lol


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> Ugh.. this linking thing is makin me a bit crazy..lol.. I have my eve, batman and l4d2 folders cut and pasted.. I kept getting some invalid switch error..
> All I know is the games I cut and pasted say they point to the C drive "which is my SSD" and they are executing from there.. If they do that, I'm ok I'd think..lol.. hell if I know.. XD
> 
> Don't think I can use the linkshell tool anymore because I have already cut and pasted the folders, so there is nothing to link from.



wait why are you cutting them individually? hmm maybe its registry related. try using my guide and make sure its all kosher. then redownload steam and run the installer. see if that fixes it. (install over old steam.)

alternatively you can run steam after you move the games right click on them and verify the integrity.


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris17 said:


> wait why are you cutting them individually? hmm maybe its registry related. try using my guide and make sure its all kosher. then redownload steam and run the installer. see if that fixes it. (install over old steam.)
> 
> alternatively you can run steam after you move the games right click on them and verify the integrity.



cutting individually because I want to link only the individual games, not the entire common folder.
The games launch so far.. Checking it out..
 Meh, this can't be right..lol...


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> cutting individually because I want to link only the individual games, not the entire common folder.
> The games launch so far.. Checking it out..
> Meh, this can't be right..lol...









is the invalid switch comming from dirt?

you have to link the entire folder because its going to follow a path you cant have random shortcuts in the middle of a dir tree

steamapps fake
||
chickensinHD real---------L4D2 fake

EDIT::your in FL im in tampa. were the same time zone. im going out for a butt installing a few more apps (fresh format) and sleeping. if you dont have it figured out by the time i wake up ill run a few errands and with your permission i will remote in to your PC and fix it for you.


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

lol it's coming from me messin shit up apparently.. Idk.. I need to take a step back for a sec.. getting brain fried..lol

the invalid switch is coming up when i try the mklink command in command prompt.
Was trying the other method.  

This is what I want to do..
Have steam installed on HDD.. "F" drive..
Put selected games onto SSD "C" drive
I want to put batman2 and left 4 dead 2 and maybe Skyrim on the "C" drive.
I installed Eve directly to the C drive so that's set already.

I am cutting and pasting the games back into their original directories,
 to get everything back to how it was before I started messin with shit..
I'll start again from there...lol


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## INSTG8R (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris I found the info. It's a pretty lengthy read with lots of testing etc. But TL;DR Yes it works with some catches(mainly being 7 series and "up") I have thought about updating my OROM just to see if I can eek a little more performance out mine. Just not brave enough yet.

 I know that another user here on TPU had a huge jump on his HDD just by updating to the 11.x RST's(On them too just haven't tested to see if it made any difference)

Anyways not to bombard D007's thread with info "above his pay grade" (Tho I am still curious what options if any he would see installing the RST's)

HERE is the thread


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> lol it's coming from me messin shit up apparently.. Idk.. I need to take a step back for a sec.. getting brain fried..lol
> 
> the invalid switch is coming up when i try the mklink command in command prompt.
> Was trying the other method.



are you just doing mklink?

because by switch it needs to be /D (symlink iirc) or /J junction at the end of the command if your hell bent at doing it that way. also remember it is formatted like so

"C:/example/lolz/cats/steam/" "X:\lols\links\gamesetc"space /J or /D


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris17 said:


> are you just doing mklink?
> 
> because by switch it needs to be /D (symlink iirc) or /J junction at the end of the command if your hell bent at doing it that way.



I'm just hell bent on doing it.. however I can get it to work..lol..


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> I'm just hell bent on doing it.. however I can get it to work..lol..



*chops D007 on back of neck Knocking him out and takes over the task and provides a better solution*


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> *chops D007 on back of neck Knocking him out and takes over the task and provides a better solution*



I'd go for that right about now.. I think I'm just getting confused with how Sol said to do it because he said to go to my steam directory in C... My steam directory is in the F drive which is on my HDD, not my C drive which is my SSD..

The differences in the file structure are making me brain fart.. not to mention this being totally new to me.. I am trying.. XD 



Solaris17 said:


> are you just doing mklink?
> 
> because by switch it needs to be /D (symlink iirc) or /J junction at the end of the command if your hell bent at doing it that way. also remember it is formatted like so
> 
> "C:/example/lolz/cats/steam/" "X:\lols\links\gamesetc"space /J or /D


 ahh so this would take something from the c and link it to x?


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> I'd go for that right about now.. I think I'm just getting confused with how Sol said to do it because he said to go to my steam directory in C... My steam directory is in the F drive which is on my HDD, not my C drive which is my SSD..
> 
> The differences in the file structure are making me brain fart.. not to mention this being totally new to me.. I am trying.. XD



I was trying to show you what needed to be done because I thought you were moving the games FROM the C drive. isnt that what you were doing?


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

Solaris17 said:


> I was trying to show you what needed to be done because I thought you were moving the games FROM the C drive. isnt that what you were doing?



Nope, all of the games are on the "F" drive.. All on the 1tb HD..
Trying to move a select few to the SSD, the "C" drive ^^.


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> I'd go for that right about now.. I think I'm just getting confused with how Sol said to do it because he said to go to my steam directory in C... My steam directory is in the F drive which is on my HDD, not my C drive which is my SSD..
> 
> The differences in the file structure are making me brain fart.. not to mention this being totally new to me.. I am trying.. XD
> 
> ...



YES thats the proper command structure if you do it via CMD remember run it as ADMIN but reverse your current changes dont make links of links!

as for my guide just pretend the C: is your F drive!

move steam apps to the SSD and link it by right clicking in the steam folder on the F drive! if the games dont fit then go INTO the steam apps folder move the games of your choice and creat a link of them inside the STEAMAPPS folder.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 id suggest just stopping for now and going to bed. 

Now if i recall correctly whenever installing programs in windows it always puts stuff in the registry. Since your 1TB was your prev OS drive (OS Drive Alpha) it put stuff in that drives OS registry. Wouldn't you technically have to put those same registry entries into the SSD (New OS Drive) for it to work 100%?


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> D007 id suggest just stopping for now and going to bed.
> 
> Now if i recall correctly whenever installing programs in windows it always puts stuff in the registry. Since your 1TB was your prev OS drive (OS Drive Alpha) it put stuff in that drives OS registry. Wouldn't you technically have to put those same registry entries into the SSD (New OS Drive) for it to work 100%?



he still has a windows install on the 1TB? I dont think it wold matter because the SSD now controls what gets written to the 1TB. but incase he copied his appdata folder steam may have old paths saved. which why i reccomended installing steam over his current install to give the registry something to look at.


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

Ok.. I recreated the folder structure steamapps/common and put left for dead2 and batman 2's full game folders inside them.. that should accomplish the same thing as cutting and pasting my entire 200gb folder of steam apps..lol..

It's like this now  C/steamapps/common... In that are the cut and pasted left for dead2 and batman 2 folders, from the main "F" install directory.. cut and pasted.. 

Now I just have to link them I think.. I won't sleep until this is done..
roll:


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> I have been given some very good information so far about these things I think.
> I'm not messing with any of the things that are supposed to increase longevity or anything.
> I am enabling AHCI mode in bios.. But enable it in UEFI? Idk that one.. XD
> 
> ...





Solaris17 said:


> he still has a windows install on the 1TB? I dont think it wold matter because the SSD now controls what gets written to the 1TB. but incase he copied his appdata folder steam may have old paths saved. which why i reccomended installing steam over his current install to give the registry something to look at.



Why Yes he does.

Some Programs make me wonder if they put files elsewhere, like the registry and other uncommon user accessed folders


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> Why Yes he does.
> 
> Some Programs make me wonder if they put files elsewhere, like the registry and other uncommon user accessed folders



Yes I do have it installed on both.. I wanted to keep them both structured for redundancy purposes, in case the SSD pooped out on me.. I have autocad work that needs to be done and can't afford down time. I can boot to either HD atm. I default boot to the ssd though.. They have totally independent structures.. Should I not  of done that?


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## Solaris17 (Sep 8, 2012)

D007 said:


> Yes I do have it installed on both.. I wanted to keep them both structured for redundancy purposes, in case the SSD pooped out on me.. I have autocad work that needs to be done and can't afford down time. I can boot to either HD atm. I default boot to the ssd though.. They have totally independent structures.. Should I not  of done that?



no you shouldnt but it would have been worse to image the drive on that install. just know that the games arent going to be pleased when you try and boot them if you boot off of F.'



anyway. yes now that they are copied to C if the trees look the same (as in they werent in the common folder but next to it) then you link to them now from the F drive.

So go to F steam/steamapps and creat a link pointing to the 2 games (obviously one at a time)

but its time for me to go to bed.


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## D007 (Sep 8, 2012)

*(done)*



Solaris17 said:


> no you shouldnt but it would have been worse to image the drive on that install. just know that the games arent going to be pleased when you try and boot them if you boot off of F.'
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Thank you for your time Sol.. Very much..  goodnight.. ^^
 didn't see what u said about remoting in or I'd of agreed..lol.. Idk why it doesn't make sense to me..
I need things to make sense ..lol.. I mean how does it run from the F but reside in the C? lol.. If I could just manage to visualize this path better in my head, it would click..
Lesson earned is a lesson learned.. I'm learning this lesson..

EDIT: Think I just wrapped my head around it..lol
The way I have it, I think I'd want to make a shortcut to the left for dead 2 folder, inside the common folder, from inside the "F" drive, which is the HD.

I would then have the left for dead 2 folder, cut from the original directory, placed in the C/steamapps/common directory, which is the SSD.
That would be where the shortcut in the "F" drive common directory points to..
That shortcut would be named left for dead 2..
So looking in the original directory, I would see a shortcut to left for dead 2, in place of where the original left for dead 2 folder was.

That makes sense to me.. Unfortunately it's not working.. idk.. I'm letting steam reinstall the game and seeing what happens.
I think maybe each game has to be reinstalled because the registry keys need to be made on the SSD to run it or something.. idk.. Steam didn't see them..

ARERRGGG!!! I reinstalled it and remade the shortcut... It's still not working.. It says steam is launching l4d then it says the game is not available.. Screw this, im going to install steam to the SSD ..
My structure looks like the pic below.. The left window is my SSD "C" the right is my HD "F".
This should work from how I'm understanding it.. Apparently I don't understand it at all..
I'm pointing the shortcut to the l4d2 folder on the SSD, not the steam, or common folder..
Not trying to do the link method, trying to do what you posted on page 1.
Seems much simpler.


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