Microsoft > Windows Vista and 7

How do I proceed wanting Windows 7 on SSD and Program Files on HDD?

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conceptualclarity:
I'm setting up a new computer that will have a 250 GB Samsung EVO 850 SSD and two 1 TB Seagate Barracuda hard drives. I want the SSD to be the boot drive and have the Windows folder with the operating system (Windows 7 Professional 64 bit). I also want to have a few programs on the SSD: browsers, email, and VLC Player. I prefer to have a lot of software programs. (That's just me. I have my reasons; don't waste your time trying to talk me out of it.) I don't want to overcrowd the SSD. I want to keep the great majority of programs and of the application data folders on one of the Seagate drives. I guess you could say I basically want a big Program Files folder on a Seagate drive and a mini-Program Files folder on the SSD.

What's the proper way to proceed? Install the whole system drive package, with Program Files and user profiles/accounts as well as the actual OS (which I assume is synonymous with or subsumed in the Windows folder) on one of the HDDs, and then migrate just the Windows folder to the heretofore blank SSD and set the SSD as boot drive in the BIOS?

Or should I install Windows 7 to the SSD and then create parallel Program Files and application data folders on the Seagate hard drive? Or maybe move Program Files to the Seagate if possible, and just have my small number of programs on the SSD in their own folders there?

DaveLembke:
I'm thinking you would need to install clean to the SSD and then copy the contents of program files to the hard drive and then create a symbolic link to the folder on the HDD to act as if its on the C: drive for program files for the path to remain the same.

Only problem I can think of that you can run into with this is if any files are in use in the program files folder, it might not allow copying stating file in use.

I used a symbolic link once to make my SSD act bigger capacity than it is, as it was a 90GB SSD in a laptop and I wanted to install World of Warcraft and so I added a 64GB Thumb drive to the system and created a symbolic link and this way i was able to install the game to C: drive even though the path was really onto my E: drive thumb drive. This was a few years ago when WoW would still fit within 64GB. I think its exceeded 64GB now, but a 128GB thumb drive would work. *Note the load time of the game was slower than SSD speed but it was able to play the game through a USB stick once loaded.

Personally I wouldn't bother relocating the default program files content after installing OS clean to SSD. But when installing software that you want onto the HDD vs SSD you should be able to give it an alternate path to install to so that its installed onto the HDD instead of the SSD.

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