Need help completing mSATA SSD install

I have installed an mSATA SSD on my new Lenovo Thinkpad T420 with Windows 7 Pro with the steps I detailed below and have the following 2 questions/issues:

1) How do I set up the system so the SSD is the working boot and programs drive only while the HDD handles all my data, temp files, temp internet files, etc., etc. Boot priority already shows the SSD before HDD. My user files (and everything under Windows 7), however, are currently on both drives. I know at some point I should delete the user folders from the SSD, but I want to make sure exactly which specific folders to delete AND how to ensure the system then knows to automatically use these folders from the HDD. I’ve read comments about mapping or pointing or using mLink or Libraries but without any details. Can anyone describe the safest, most efficient, best way to do this and all the various steps involved?

2) How do I ensure the computer is actually using the SSD as the boot and programs drive and that it is safely optimized for speed? The SSD is listed before the HDD under Boot Priority List, and I’ve done the tweaks listed below. I don’t currently have any programs installed other than what Lenovo provided with the factory install (which is very basic, ie no office, etc.), BUT my boot time does not seem to have changed much. It currently takes about 30 seconds from power on until it asks me for a password (which may mean closer to 45-60 seconds total until everything is loaded after I install other programs. Although this may not be super slow, it is not the blazing speed everyone seems to talk about.

This computer is fairly new so I don’t have any real data on it yet and haven’t used it much outside of creating a user account and using IE. It also has 8gb RAM. Please note that I am a newbie at this stuff so specific steps would really help.

What I have done so far:

1. Created Rescue & Recovery Disks.
2. Removed Hard Drive.
3. Installed Intel 310 80gb mSata SSD.
4. Loaded Factory Windows System via Rescue and Recovery Disks.
5. Rebooted and updated system several times (via automatic Windows updates).
6. Checked Boot Priority that SSD is before HDD.
7. Checked that Serial ATA (SATA) is in AHCI mode in the BIOS.
8. Put back Hard Drive.
9. Unchecked Scheduled Defrag for SSD drive.
10. Disabled Superfetch in Control panel, Admin tools, Services.
11. Disabled Prefetch in registry.
12. Shrank page file on SSD Drive to 2gb to get back space and increased page file on HDD to 8gb to be conservative.
13. Checked that Trim was working using a command prompt (“Fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify” resulted in “= 0”).
14. Disabled System Restore by ensuring system protection was turned off for all drives (I have an external drive I can use as a backup).
15. Left Drive Indexing alone after reading many various opinions on this.
16. Hibernate is already disabled under power options and the search function can’t find the file folder.
17. Checked WEI score for “Primary hard disk” and it was rated 7.7 for Disk data transfer rate.
18. Deleted the Q drive (Rescue & Recovery) on the SSD and changed the name of the F drive (R&R) on the HDD to Q drive using Disk Management.
19. Changed the drive name of the System_Drv on the HDD from D to S and then changed the drive name of the Windows7_OS on the HDD from E to D using Disk Management.
20. Installed Intel SSD Toolbox, ensured latest firmware was updated, ran diagnostic scan which showed no issues, and ran system tune which further tweaked/disabled superfetch/prefetch.
21. Rebooted again several times.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!!

 

I would verify that the alignment on the SSD is correct
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/Checking_SSD_Alignment
If the alignment is correct, Try removing the Hdd & see if boot time changes with only the SSD installed

AFA question 1 see line 63 in this post http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/629640-windows-fact-day-thread-7.html
to open shell.... see attached, this is where I got stuck. From there on the expanation by Mats is spot on. Technically you are not deleting from the SSD just redirecting to another location, in your case drive D (HDD).

 

Josea, thanks very much for the guidance and good ideas.

I checked the SSD partition alignment using the method on your link and all seems to be good – both Partition Starting Offset numbers were divisible by 4096. I also tried booting after removing the HDD, and it booted fine but not noticeably faster. I should correct the above figure, though, because after the Intel SSD Toolbox tuned Superfetch/prefetch, boot time did reduce to about 24 seconds from power on to the password prompt. This still seems slow to me from what I have heard about SSDs, bearing in mind that this is only to the password prompt, and once I add programs it will likely be much longer. Any other ideas?

I also very much need help with my first question. I have searched on the web and this board and have not been able to find any clear steps. Perhaps this is because it is obvious to most doing this installation, but I am a newbie and could really use some help here!