How to store files on a seperate hard drive

Tibbz2

Tibbz2

Tibbz2

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Me again,

Basically i was wondering how to set up all of my documents and program files folders on a seperate hard drive to the one windows is installed on?

I have tried before but it was a bit dodgely done and caused a few problems, so if anyone could point me in the direction of a proper procedure then id be grateful :)
 
You can move the location of your user folders (Documents, Music etc) by going to your user folder, going to the properties of each folder, then the Location tab, then selecting Move.

Moving your Program Files folders probably isn't a great idea, there's no benefit to be had from it because most applications won't work after a Windows reinstall anyway. Games are a different story however.
 
TheVoice said:
You can move the location of your user folders (Documents, Music etc) by going to your user folder, going to the properties of each folder, then the Location tab, then selecting Move.

Moving your Program Files folders probably isn't a great idea, there's no benefit to be had from it because most applications won't work after a Windows reinstall anyway. Games are a different story however.
Click to expand...

Oh right, thanks.

I have no programs installed as this is a clean install completely. Is there not any way to redirect the program files? There is literally no spare space on my ssd :(
 
Tibbz2 said:
Oh right, thanks.

I have no programs installed as this is a clean install completely. Is there not any way to redirect the program files? There is literally no spare space on my ssd :(
Click to expand...

Reduce your pagefile size, disable hibernation etc, run Windows Cleanup to delete any temporary update files.
 
wouldnt move the OS off the SSD.. Surely you want that to be as snappy as possible

as mentioned. you can install the second hard drive and just move your document folders to it
 
How big is your SSD?

A 30GB can be a bit of a squeeze. Anything bigger should be easy to manage, especially on a fresh install.

Disable system restore
Run CCleaner

Install Treesize Free, it will tell you where your large folders are.

https://www.jam-software.de/customers/downloadTrial.php?article_no=80&language=EN&

Nvidia drivers leave a few hundred mb that can safely be deleted..
Something like..

c:\nvidia
c:\program files\nvidia\installer2
c:\windows\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository\~nvidia

Set the following folders to be on your data drive.

Documents
Music
Videos
Pictures
Downloads
 
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I had this same issue and created a batch file to move certain folders onto a second drive by using symbolic links. It copies the folders over with the same permissions to not screw up Windows.

When I boot into Windows it all works fine and I've been using it for 2+ (almost 3) years now and never had any issues.

It only has Windows files on the C:\ drive and everything else user related (C:\Users\ folder and therefore Desktop, My Music, My Pictures and My Documents) are all on another drive. Which makes backing up really quick and easy to do.
 
You can set more folders to have directs on them, I don't like doing it to Userprofile or programfiles folders as it means your machine relies on two hard drives to function.
 
bledd. said:
You can set more folders to have directs on them, I don't like doing it to Userprofile or programfiles folders as it means your machine relies on two hard drives to function.
Click to expand...

True, but it's been rock solid for me. I just backup both drives in the event of any drive breaking.

I guess moving the folders manually in Windows might be safer in that sense, but I've never tried moving the folders to another drive and then removing access to see what happens. I guess you just lose access to your files.
 
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