How to Move Installed Programs to Another Disk 💾➡️💽

Hello everybody! In this video, I’m going to show you how to move a program from one disk to another in a Windows operating system. Although modern computers come equipped with disks offering at least half a terabyte of free space, all that space is not always available for use, in practice. Laptop manufacturers tend to divide the physical hard disk into several logical partitions, and usually, the one meant to be the system drive C: gets too little space, while the non-system partition D: gets the rest of the generous offer. Anyone buying that computer ends up in a strange situation: the disk seems big enough, but there’s too little room left to install all their programs and games. Another recent trend is to have two physical disks in one computer: A larger HDD to store all the stuff and a smaller SSD for the operating system and software.

00:58 - This way, the operating system running from the SSD starts a dozen times faster if compared with a conventional hard disk. However, there’s a downside too, as disk C: tends to run out of space over time, and one day you may consider moving some stuff to the larger HDD – for example, programs that take up too much space or the ones that you use very rarely. If you think that you can pull a job by copying a folder with a program, pasting it to the other disk and use that program just as before – well, I’ve got bad news for you: things just don’t work that way. When you start the program after you have relocated it to another disk, you are going to see an error message instead. It happens because any program you install actually strikes its roots far beyond the limits of the folder which you were trying to copy.

01:49 - During the installation, various data is written to the registry and other system folders – which are sometimes invisible to an ordinary user because they are hidden. In this video, we will find out how to move a program or game to another disk and make sure they work without errors, no matter what their new location might be. So, let’s begin. Reinstall the program The first and the easiest method to move a program is to reinstall it to the other disk. To make sure your system disk doesn’t get littered with third-party apps which you may use once a year, never choose the system disk as the destination to install them. Anytime you need to move a program from the system disk to any other disk, just visit the program’s homepage, download the latest version and reinstall it to another directory.

03:11 - Reinstallation may reset the program’s settings and remove certain data, so be attentive: when a program is uninstalled, there’s usually a message saying that user settings are going to be removed. During the installation, don’t hurry so that you don’t overlook the stage when you need to decide on the disk where you want this program installed. In one of the windows, you’ll be suggested to configure the installation process. Just select the disk or partition where you want to install this specific program. If there is an option to specify where user data will be saved, change this setting according to your preferences.

03:50 - When all paths are given, click the button to proceed with the installation. When the process is over, check the directories where the program files, user profiles and user data are located. This is how you can move a program to another disk without any special skills or third-party apps. The program in question will work as it should and without errors. Unfortunately, there are programs that only work properly when installed to disk C: and to a certain, predefined directory.

04:27 - For example, Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Premiere will almost always misbehave when you install them to any disk other than the system drive. That is why just installing them elsewhere can’t solve the problem. Move the program with a symbolic link Another method to move a program to another disk involves using a symbolic link. There are special utilities for this purpose, but I will show you how to do it using only built-in system tools. For starters, launch the Command Prompt. Type “cmd” in the search field and select “Run as Administrator.

” 05:03 - Use the Command Prompt to open the folder containing the program you want to move. To simplify this part, open this folder in the File Explorer and copy the path. In the Command Prompt, type “cd”, space, and paste the path you have copied before (you can do the paste operation by right-clicking and selecting “Paste” from the list, or by pressing the key shortcut Ctrl + V), and then hit Enter. If you did everything right, the path should change into the one you have pasted. Now open the folder in the File Explorer, right-click on the folder and select “Cut.

” 05:43 - Now open the disk where you want to move the program and click “Paste.” Return to the Command Prompt window which is still open. There’s a command to type; in brackets, I gave my folder, and you should change the name into the name of the folder you want to move. mklink /j “Hetman Software” “d:\Hetman Software” Press Enter, and if the command was entered correctly, you will see this line (Junction created for). Now you can open the original folder of the program to find a shortcut which will take you to the new directory where this program is.

06:24 - In the end, the program’s location has changed but Windows believes the program is still in its old directory – which means that a program moved this way should be working properly – just as before. Move the program with a third-party app If you don’t feel like struggling through Command Prompt sequences, there are third-party tools to make your life easier. One of them is SymMover. Essentially, it does the same things as the Command Prompt, but in a way that’s simpler for an ordinary user. SymMover will help you move a folder from one disk to another, and retain its location for Windows Explorer. The operating system will think that the folder is still in its original directory - though it’s not true.

07:03 - The tool does the trick by moving the folder firs and then creating a symbolic link to connect the source and the destination. After moving them to another disk, programs and games will keep on working just as before. Start the app. Click on the plus button to select a program to be moved. By default, there is a standard path, but you can modify it by clicking on the gearwheel and specifying your own path, then select it from this list. Below, click “Add Folder.” In the tool’s window, you will see how much space will be freed on one disk and how much space will be occupied on the other disk after the operation.

08:11 - If you open the tab “Folders on your computer”, you’ll be able to select an entire folder to be moved, instead of a single program. Click on the gearwheel to configure the settings. Add another disk, select other actions and so on. To start moving the folder, click on the green arrow. When the process is over, programs will be displayed in the column on the right. Follow the new path to see the folder where the program has been moved. How to bring everything back If you want to move the program to its original directory, select it and click on the yellow arrow. When the process is complete, you will find the folder just where it was before everything started. Talking of practical advice, you can easily keep your system drive clean from junk software if you pay more attention during the installation: choose wisely the drive and the folder where you want to install another program. However, as I said before, there are products that only work properly when installed to a certain directory of your system drive, and if you try to change the default settings to install them to a different drive, they can freeze and glitch.

09:23 - That is why just installing them elsewhere can’t solve the problem. In addition to all that you heard today, you can try modifying the size of your logical disks – by reducing the capacity of one disk and using this portion of space to increase the capacity for another disk. Visit our channel for a detailed video tutorial about it – find the link in the description below. And if you have some money to spend, you can just replace the system drive with a new one offering more space. Everything depends on your budget, after all.

09:54 - That is all for now! Hopefully, this video was useful. Remember to click the Like button and subscribe to our channel. Hit the bell button to receive notifications and never miss new videos. Leave comments to ask questions. Thank you for watching. Good luck. .