New SSD - Need help with accessing programs on another hard drive.

[Mettrone]

Hello friends,

So I recently bought my first SSD the 120GB Kingston V+200. I am using it as a boot drive for windows 7 while my 1Tb HDD will be used for pretty much all the files for everything.

An example would be having Itunes on my SSD but all the music on the HDD or having steam on my SSD but all the games on the HDD. I do not like the idea of having to install every program I wish to use again onto my SSD (as they are already on my HDD).

Small things such as Google Chrome, it (and all the user files) are already on my HDD so how would I go about being able to access my HDD Google Chrome and all the bookmarks, passwords, user etc on it?

I bought the SSD thinking that I could be able to access all programs already on the HDD while booting from my SSD, (i.e going into start menu typing 'VLC' and it coming up with the VLC media player) is there a way to do this? as like I have stated earlier I do not wish to reinstall all my programs.

Also the predicment with team games, how would I go about making it so they are playable off the HDD (where they are already installed and downloaded) while booting from the SSD?

Any help what so ever would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Alex

[12voltsdc]

I think it would take you longer to get everything from the HDD, Than it will to just reinstall. You should make physical backups of your Steam games so you can get them back anyway. And as for Chrome, There are usually options in most decent browsers for exporting Passwords, Bookmarks Etc.

[editline]25th July 2012[/editline]

(Wrong Section OP)

[Mettrone]

[QUOTE=12voltsdc;36928349]
(Wrong Section OP)[/QUOTE]

Yes I just noticed this I will go to the correct section, thank you.

[cdlink14]

Firstly, you're best doing a fresh install of your apps. Most of them are dependant upon specific registry keys, and there's no way you're going to be able to recreate all the keys without giving yourself a huge headache.

For steam you want to delete everything in the steam folder EXCEPT " Steam.exe " and " steamapps "

Move the steam.exe to the directory that you want steam on your SSD.

Now you need to create a symbolic link to the steamapps folder on the HDD. Symbolic links basically redirect to the linked directory. Ever had one of those days where you've strolled into school, walked up to your class room and seen a notice on the door "Class has been moved to floor 2, room 23"? That's basically what a symbolic link does. It says "Hey, the files you're looking for aren't here, but I can't point you to where they are!".

Download and install this: [URL]http://code.google.com/p/symlinker/[/URL]

Once you've ran it you'll be presented with this interface:
[IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3901038/FP/H%26S/symlink/1.PNG[/IMG]

In the top box explore to the folder on your SSD that steam.exe is located in, and in the name box underneath enter " steamapp " (without spaces or quotes).
[IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3901038/FP/H%26S/symlink/2.PNG[/IMG]

In the bottom box, select the actual steamapps folder on your HDD:
[IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3901038/FP/H%26S/symlink/3.PNG[/IMG]

That's basically it, launch the steam.exe, it'll update and ask you to login. Upon logging in it will probably show most of your games as updating, just allow them, it's not downloading anything huge, it's just checking what files already exist.

Don't forget to create a shortcut to steam.exe on your desktop or windows 7 taskbar.

[editline]25th July 2012[/editline]

As for Chrome, I'd probably recommend setting up google sync (assuming you have a google account) so that all your bookmarks, extensions, etc are stored in the google cloud.

You can do that by opening a new tab and clicking the sign-in option in the upper right.