Windows7 install onto SSD

Hello, I'm new!!!

Anyway. I have bought a copy of Win7 and will receive it on the release date. I managed to get a pre-order for £45! What I want to do before I get a copy is to figure out the optimum install.

My idea is to format my HDD to remove XP from C drive and programs from D drive so I have a blank 750GB drive for games, office and other programs.

Q1) My hard drive is partitioned at the moment, if I format it will it remove the partition and what is the best software to do this?

I also want to buy a good SSD to install Windows7 onto. This drive will only have the OS on so I will only need 64GB.

Q2) I was looking at Intel Extrem edition solid state drive, are these recommended?

Q3) If I have my OS on one drive, SSD, can I attach my now formatted 'D' drive and install all other programs to this and if so do I need to set up a RAID config? Or is it a case of, like an external USB drive, just plug and play.

What I don't want is to set up a RAID 0 with my SSD and HDD as I think that this would slow the SSD down, I think.

Is anyone here going to put Windows7 on an SSD and have a HDD for other programs, if so what is your plan of attack!

Thanks for reading, hope you can help!!!!

Formating does not remove partitions. You will only have the option to format each drive separately. If you are looking to merge your drives then you will need to repartition the drives by first removing both partitions.

I cannot answer this question. Perhaps someone else can.

Yes you can install you programs to a different drive other than the OS drive. You need to understand that if you run a program installed to a non-SSD drive. You OS which is installed to an SSD will see a performance loss. If I was in your position, I would install OS and all programs to the SSD and use the non-SSD as a Data drive only.

PS - Setting a SSD and a non-SSD in a raid config will only handicap the SSD drive. The raid array will only transfer at the speed of the slowest drive. You should only configure a SSD drive with another SSD in a raid array.

Q1) Say you have a garden broken into four segments by walls. Patch A, B, C & D. Reformatting is like wiping out the contents of one of the patches. The partitions in your garden will remain unless you destroy (delete) them.

Q2) They are nice drives, but their write speeds are horribly slow. I prefer an SSD from OCZ, like the Vertex Turbo.

Q3) With the OS installed to the SSD on C:, you can then put the formatted HDD into your system. There is no need to configure RAID or anything. Plug it in, turn the PC on, it'll show up in Windows Explorer.

I would recommend them, yes. They offer some of the best random write performance, especially in <1MB file sizes, and the 2nd generation models only improve upon it.

The entire reason for an SSD is to increase your application's performance, so you will be wanting to install your programs onto the SSD itself to take advantage of it.

Hi guys, thanks for your answers.
From the responses I guess I will use the SSD as the OS carrier and all other software ie games, office etc. Everything else, photo's media etc can go onto the HDD drive.
If I do not RAID the drives they will be treated as separate entities. I think that this is right.

The only drawback I that I will need at least 128GB SSD drive, and at the moment these are quite expensive, hopfully by October this year prices will have dropped!

Any other advise is welcome!

128GB WOW - I have all my programs installed on a 30GB partition with a 400GB Data partition

He's going to be installing games and whatnot on that partition as well.