Best setup for system with both Solid State Disk (SSD) and HDD

I hope shortly to receive a "pre-owned" Dell M6800 laptop with a 128GB Solid State Disk (SSD) and a 750GB HDD.

It comes with 8.1 installed (shudder) and I will upgrade to 10 immediately as I couldn't tolerate 8 or 8.1. Once I've done that, I'll need to transfer all my applications and data (which will be tedious I know unless there's some trick or clever tool/application to do it - any suggestions are most welcome here).

Aapart from the OS what should go on the SSD, and what on the HDD. Looking at my current system, the Windows directory plus Program Files, Program Files (x86) and Program Data run awfully close to 128GB, so this isn't quite as simple as Windows & Apps on SSD, with everything else on the HDD and use junctions if necessary to point to data on the HDD.

I can't afford to replace the SSD with a bigger one as all available funds went into buying the new lappie.

Thanks lots
Dave

A 128GB SSD is a pretty good size. As a rule of thumb, everything belonging to the OS (including apps) should go on the SSD and all data should go on the HDD. If you have too many apps, move the less frequently used ones to the HDD.

Ztruker said:

Also move the pagefile/swapfile to the HDD.

So you want the file that Windows is going to use the most on the slower drive? That doesn't really make any sense.

I support the above. You could also use your HDD for system backups of the OS of the SSD. I would also install large programs (e.g. games) on the HDD and use the HDD for downloaded programs and ISO images etc.

You might be able to do it by creating a BCD on the hard drive that boots the USB. The bios would actually boot the hard drive - the BCD would point to the USB drive - Windows install would then add Windows to the BCD on the hard drive and the reboot during install should then launch Windows on the hard drive.

NavyLCDR said:

So you want the file that Windows is going to use the most on the slower drive? That doesn't really make any sense.

On most systems with 4GB or more of RAM, the pagefile is hardly ever used (if at all). So it can be on the slowest device.