After 2 ½ years the time has come for a reformat and I needsome advice on a number of miscellaneous issues and confirmation that theplanned procedure is OK.
I have a windows 7 64bit system with an SSD and three HDs,one for apps, the others for downloadsand data storage docs, music, transferred scanned photos and digital images, media and whatever. Ive backed up/copied/pruned everything and listed the apps I both want tokeep and those I never want to see again!
Ive downloaded the latest drivers for the MB and graphicscard and peripherals (in the case of Gigabyte and Canon an unnecessarily timeconsuming hike around their respective sites. This stuff isnt rocket science but those two succeed in making lifeunnecessarily complicated).
The excellent Newegg tutorials have been watched and Imnearly ready to go.
Now,
1 Would it me sensible to do a full reformat of the SSDrather than a quick reformat and is it OK to do this during initial processwhen Im booting from the Windows 7 dvd?
2 Once the OS is installed and I start loading drivers forthe MB, are there any from the downloaded groups that I can ignore ie the RAID drivers from the Gigayte site if Imnot using a raid array? Chipset, Lan, audio, USB and later the graphics I knoware must haves but what about the others? The original Gigabyte disc isnt helpful as none of the names aresimilar
3 The Gainward Nvidia Geforce manual recommends removing the windows 7 built in basic drivers for graphics which the OS installs butdoesnt explain how to do this. How doyou remove these basic drivers, where are they and what are they called?
4 Some programs will install on C no matter what. In thepast Ive tried to use the SSD only for the OS its only 120gb but someapps dont give you the chance to go elsewhere. Is there a way around this? I should mention that the ssd, my C drive,stil has lots of folders in both the program folders even the the relatedprograms are on another HD.
I have alreadyformatted one of the other HDs to be the main drive where programs areinstalled. Should I keep the others,those containing just data, unconnected at this stage?
5 As well as apps/programs being installed eleswhere, Idalso like, permanently, to make thelibraries disappear and automatically have music files, image files, docs etcsent to their designated folders on the relevant data drive. Is there away to do this?
6 Can I let windows take care of drive lettering or do Ineed to make sure that this is locked down before tackling the procedures mentioned in 4 and above?
7 Finally I would like to make an image back up when Ivefinished. Ive never done thisbefore. I can grasp doing it wheretheres a single hard drive in place but not in the configuration I propose. Is it possible? Even if there was only one HD involvedfor OS, programs and data, does arestore effectively overwrite the existing contents of the drive?
Any advice, help or indeed alternative suggestions on any ofthe above issues would be warmly welcomed.