Can I Store Files on D Drive?

Can I store files on D drive to separate OS and data?

First, the answer is “Yes, of course”. What’s the reason why your computer has more than one drive.

Some users may ask “Should I store files in a C drive or D drive?” when there are two or more drives on their disks. It seems like all drives are the same, so they can store all same things on them. But it’s not like that.

We all know that the C drive is the system drive that stores all OS settings and OS files. If the free space on the C drive is not enough, then your computer might confront many problems like being frequently frozen and sluggish. So, usually, we don’t advise users to store too many programs or data files on the C drive.

▶ what is the D Drive used for?

The D drive is often a partition used to store data files, but in general, the C partition has greater space than the D partition.

Compared with the C drive, The D drive serves as the system recovery component, storing the system restoration files. Some PC companies keep system restore data on the D drive. As a computer recovery storage drive, it will assist you in recovering your data if something goes wrong on your machine. Additionally, the D drive provides extra storage for data, documents, games, program files, and much more.

Thus, if you use your computer for working, learning and recreation, we sincerely suggest you only leave crucial data files and programs on the C drive and store others on the D drive or other drives.

Can I move files to D drive?

If you don’t change the save path when you start downloading, all you downloaded from the web and other platforms will be stored on the C drive because the C drive is the default storage location.

However, if you’ve already saved many things on the C drive, don’t worry, many files can be moved to the D drive, except for OS files and folders.

How to move files from C drive to D drive?

Of course, the first choice is “Copy” and “Paste”. But it’s not enough. Some programs can’t run successfully, after users move their data files and folders, to ensure the moved data files and folders won’t cause any problems, we’ll show you two ways to move files and folders to the D drive by changing the storage path. After the change, your data and files will be stored on the D drive by default.

Method 1. Move folders via Windows Registry Editor

The first way is to use Windows Registry Editor to move your folder manually.

Step 1. Press "Windows + R" at the same time to open the Run box.

Step 2. Input "regedit" or "regedit.exe" and click "OK" to run the Registry Editor window.

Step 3. Follow the path and you will see all the User folders are listed:

• For Windows 7/8/8.1: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion

• For Windows 10: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Wow6432Node \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion

Step 4. Find the data or string named "%USERPROFILE%\Documents", right-click it, and then choose "Modify".

Step 5. Now, under "Value data", type the new location or path as you like (e.g. "D:\Documents") and click "OK". (You need to set the new folders in advance.)

Now you can close the Registry Editor and reboot your PC to complete the change.

Method 2. Move folders from C drive to D drive via a folder move tool

If you don’t want to follow those cumbersome steps or you’re not familiar with Registry Editor, well, you can turn to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to do a quick move. It’s a Windows PC disk and partition management program supporting Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP. With this tool, you can finish the move in a few clicks.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant. Click “Free up” on in the top toolbar, and choose “App Mover”.

Step 2. In the new window, click "Move Folders".

Step 3. Select the Documents folder. Choose a new location with enough free space for the folders, and click "Move". Please make sure the target drive has sufficient free space to store selected folders

Step 4. You will see a pop-up message to confirm forcibly closing running applications when moving starts. Click "OK" to begin the process.

Step 5. Wait for a while, and click "Finish" to complement the movement.

Then, your files stored in the selected folders will be moved and you don’t need to reboot your PC to finish the task.

Further knowledge: How to move programs from C drive to D drive?

If you only wish to move some installed games or some other programs, we suggest you directly move them to the target drive. AOMEI Partition Assistant can make this task easy for all users.

Step 1. Launch Partition Assistant, click “All Tools” in the left menu, then select the “App Mover” feature.

Step 2. In the new window, choose “App Mover”

Step 3. In the new window, you will see all partitions, and the number and size of installed programs on every partition will also be displayed. Select one partition that you want to move applications from and click "Next".

Step 4. Choose applications you want to move and select the target location, then click "Move".

Step 5. In the pop-up window, you need to confirm forcibly closing running applications when moving starts. Click "OK" to begin the process.

To ensure the apps run properly during the moving, please don't move or delete files by yourself in the source and target directory. When the work is finished, you can try an app to check if it can run as usual. After the move, you can try to delete large files to release more space on your PC.

Summary

“Can I store files on D drive?” Of course, you can. What’s more, you can move files, folders even installed programs to a D drive. AOMEI Partition Assistant also has many other helpful functions like converting to GPT/MBR without data loss, migrating OS to another disk, disk cloning, etc. And it also has the Server Edition and the Unlimited Edition for different users to manage their computers.