Relocating Files

KHAN91 · 09 Aug 2011

So i recently bought a new PC, my C: Drive is a 60gb SSD and my D: Drive is a 1TB HD.

The SSD was just meant to be for windows only and HD would contain everything else. Now when you install windows there are program's already installed in the "Program Files". Is there a way i can relocate this over to my HD as im conservative on how mcuh space is on my SSD. What i've done atm is just create a "Program Files" on the D: Drive to install all the new program's.

If someone know's a way to do this without fking everything up, it would be great to know.

I've done this with saved games and also files such as "My Documents", "Desktop", "My Downloads", where i just relocate them to the D: Drive.
How to Relocate Your Saved Games Folder in Windows 7 - a tutorial article by Royan PS at Haokah.com

So is there a way to move C: Program Files to D: Program Files?

Maguscreed · 09 Aug 2011

Not anything solid, if you were starting from scratch I know a couple of methods, but since you are already set up and trying to move stuff.
My best suggestion is just to leave it be.
Or move what few apps you can by uninstalling/reinstalling to new location.
There's too many unknowns regarding what you may have there and what registry settings relate to it and blah blah blah.

KHAN91 · 09 Aug 2011

Maguscreed said:

Not anything solid, if you were starting from scratch I know a couple of methods, but since you are already set up and trying to move stuff.
My best suggestion is just to leave it be.
Or move what few apps you can by uninstalling/reinstalling to new location.
There's too many unknowns regarding what you may have there and what registry settings relate to it and blah blah blah.

Could you tell me the methods which can be used if i had a fresh installation just for future incase i need it. Thanks

Maguscreed · 09 Aug 2011

well there's actually several tutorials around for the primary method

Windows 7 Move the Users and Program Files Directories To A Different Partition | Tuts4Tech

The other method is for if you want to move the winsxs folder too, which is something I highly recommend against.

I mean you could still try this method now, but I couldn't account for how any additional applications that have their own registry values are going to react to being moved that way.
This method does assume you have a fresh install.

You've probably been told this as well but just in case, you should also be moving the pagefile if you are concerned about the amount of read/write going on, on your ssd. While it will generally work better on the ssd, it does account for a massive number of tiny read/writes