moving windows-created directories?

[TBSN]

I'm planning on getting an SSD but I'm not sure how people manage to get windows to move default directories like My Documents and Program Files to another drive.

If I get an SSD I'd rather application data is not stored on it, but I've never seen an option for moving it somewhere else. As for Program Files, can I just delete the original after install and create a new one?

Any help?

 

[abaez]

Right click My Documents and move its location.

Program Files? When you install a program just pick something other than the SSD drive to install to.

 

[Nothinman]

I'm planning on getting an SSD but I'm not sure how people manage to get windows to move default directories like My Documents and Program Files to another drive.

If I get an SSD I'd rather application data is not stored on it, but I've never seen an option for moving it somewhere else. As for Program Files, can I just delete the original after install and create a new one?

Any help?

Why would you not want your apps on it? Isn't the whole point to speed up usage of your apps?

 

[mc866]

Why would you not want your apps on it? Isn't the whole point to speed up usage of your apps?

Possibly only big enough for OS? I know I keep most of my installed games/steam folders on a different drive just because of size.

 

[Nothinman]

Possibly only big enough for OS? I know I keep most of my installed games/steam folders on a different drive just because of size.

And how hard is it to install those exceptionally large things to a secondary drive without trying to do something like deleting and moving Program Files?

 

[mc866]

It's simple and easy to do when installing with the SSD and secondary drive in place. I think OP's question is if he's adding SSD afterward. Still not to difficult. I was just pointing out I know some affordable SSD's are fairly small.

 

[Nothinman]

It's simple and easy to do when installing with the SSD and secondary drive in place. I think OP's question is if he's adding SSD afterward. Still not to difficult. I was just pointing out I know some affordable SSD's are fairly small.

So if the app requires a reinstall to move it's directory, there's your answer. And I understand that some SSDs are really small and think it's very funny when people buy a 64G SSD and then cry left and right about how bloated Windows is because it filled up the whole thing. You knew how big Windows and your apps were before you bought the SSD, it's your fault for buying hardware that doesn't fit what you need.

 

[TBSN]

I realize I can't fit windows and apps on a 64GB SSD. I just know that the user files, such as app data, can tend to get pretty big when you have a lot of games installed. I know I can move program files but I'm afraid that the games will still dump app data in the users directory. With a full library of steam games installed that can get pretty big.

 

[Nothinman]

I realize I can't fit windows and apps on a 64GB SSD. I just know that the user files, such as app data, can tend to get pretty big when you have a lot of games installed. I know I can move program files but I'm afraid that the games will still dump app data in the users directory. With a full library of steam games installed that can get pretty big.

You can move your profile (or the whole Users) directory, but not Program Files, and even that's not simple. It's really sad because it could be so simple if MS would let you edit mount points in the installer like any Linux distro does.

 

[FishAk]

For User folders, you can have Windows make a symbolic link automatically, like abaez says, with the Location tab. For other folders, you can make a link manually. Some programs won't work through a symbolic link, so testing is in order. Folders with lots of small files, that are read non-sequentially, shouldn't be moved from the SSD to improve performance. I still move my Google earth cache, (2GB) It's mostly small files, but the HDD is still much faster than my download speed for instance.

Simply copy the folder to a new directory, and copy the path of the original folder- then delete it. (if it turns out the program can't handle running through the link, just copy the folder back to it's original location.)

With the location of the original folder in the clipboard, open a blank Notepad page, and type: mklink /J "the path of the original location" "the path of the new location"

Copy the text to the clipboard, open an elevated command prompt, paste the text, and hit enter. A folder will show up in the original location that appears to hold the original contents, but will just be an empty link to the new location, and the actual contents. Looking at the directory with GetFolderSize, or such, will show that the (moved) folder takes no space.

 

[mc866]

What I did was move my documents and pictures to my larger drive. In Win 7 you can go start -> right click pictures/documents -> properties -> point it to the folder on your larger drive where you want to store said data.

I think I had to do a steam reinstall or move to get that data off the SSD

 

[Nothinman]

For User folders, you can have Windows make a symbolic link automatically, like abaez says, with the Location tab.

I meant for the entire Users hierarchy, not just each user's Documents, etc directories. Sure you can change them after installation, but that doesn't cover everything.