How to Make Downloads Go to Another Drive in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7? [3 Methods]

Why make Downloads folder to another drive in Windows 10?

When you download some file, installer or other content from Internet, they will be automatically saved into the Downloads folder. By default, this special folder locates in the system partition, usually the C drive where the operating system is installed as well. The Downloads folder allows you to easily find and manage all downloaded items.

However, that can also trigger some issues. For example, when the downloaded files or content pile up in the Download folder over time and starts to eat up lots of space on the system C drive, the operating system will undoubtedly be adversely affected and run slower day by day. This will be worse if you don’t have the habit of cleaning up the Downloads folder regularly.

So, to prevent the Download folder from occupying too much precious space on C drive and affecting Windows performance, it is a good idea to move the Download folder from the C drive to another drive, like the D drive.

How to move Downloads folder to another drive in Windows PC?

Now, we will show you simple ways to make Downloads folder go to another drive in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7. All demonstration is finished in Windows 10 computer, but same method will work on other Windows environment.

Method 1. Use the Windows File Explorer

First of all, you can make use of the Windows File Explorer to move the Downloads folder to another drive in Windows computer. Just take the following steps:

Step 1. Double click "This PC" icon to open Windows Explorer.

Step 2. Open the destination drive to which you want to move the Downloads folder such as the D drive. In the root directory of the drive, right click blank area and select "New"-> "Folder" to create a new Downloads folder.

Step 3. Right-click the Downloads folder in the source partition (C drive) and choose "Properties".

Step 4. After the "Downloads Properties" dialog opens, go to the "Location" tab and click "Move".

Step 5. When the "Select a Destination" dialog opens, navigate to the destination drive, select the Downloads folder you created in the Step 2, and then click "Select Folder".

Step 6. When you return to the "Downloads Properties" dialog, click "Apply". 

Step 7. A Move Folder dialog pops up asking if you want to move all of the files from the old location to the new location. Click "Yes" and the Downloads folder as well as all files in it will be moved to the destination drive immediately.

Method 2. Use Registry Editor

By changing the settings in Registry Editor, you can easily make Downloads go to another drive.

Step 1. Press Win+R at the same time to open the "Run" dialog box.Type "regedit.exe" and press enter to open "Registry Editor".

Step 2. The Registry Editor window will appear and then navigate the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

Step 3. Find the data on the right side with the name "%USERPROFILE%\Downloads" and double-click on it.

Step 4. Now, under the Value data change the default Downloads path or location, and click on the "OK" button.

Then, restart your computer and the default Downloads folder will be moved to another drive.

Method 3. Use third-party tool

Apart from using the Windows built-in tools, you can also make use of some third-party software like AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, a smart disk partition manager to assist all Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 users in managing their disk partitions and fully optimizing disk performance with many powerful features. One of them is called “App Mover”, which can move applications, or their related Cache, Download folder or some other (video, audio) folder to another location safely and completely, ensuring everything work fine in the new drive.

You can download the demo version and have a try to make Downloads go to another drive (i.e. from C drive to D drive).

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click "Free up" > "App Mover".

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

Step 3. Then add the Download folder you want to move to another drive.

Step 4. Select another drive as the destination path. At last, click on "Move" to start moving Downloads folder to D drive. You can choose an external drive if you want to move Downloads folder to external hard drive.

Compared with above two methods, this one is much easier to handle and you can restore it to the source location when necessary someday. In the Step 2, you can also choose to move installed applications from one drive to another one.

Summary

How to move Downloads folder to another drive in Windows 10? You might find the great methods in this article. If you just do this for getting more free space on the system partition, the AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional can do more than just moving some large folders. For example, it is able to merge unallocated space into C drive, clone C drive to a lager hard drive without reinstalling OS, clean large files, reallocate free space from other partition to C drive, and so on.