Whenever you save a new file in Windows 10, when you press the Save As key, the document or image folder that is located on disk C opens. If you are using a PC with two disks, where one is the one where Windows is installed and the other is an additional hard disk, you may prefer to keep your personal files on the latter, so as to separate them from the system installation files .
It is worth making this change especially if the secondary disk is more capacious and if the main one where Windows is installed, typically the C disk, is an SSD drive.
Another advantage of moving folders where personal files are saved on the other disk (or even another partition) is that, in case you want to reset or restore Windows, these files will remain intact and will not be deleted.
READ ALSO: Move the special folders of the Windows user profile
On any Windows PC it is quite easy easy to change the disk where the files of the main folders are saved, ie those of Documents, Music, Images, Videos and Downloads, and in Windows 10 it is even simpler.
In Windows 7 and Windows 8, the folders that can be moved easily on Windows 7 and 8 are all those listed under This PC or Computer (in Windows Explorer) and, precisely: Desktop, Documents, Images, Music, Videos, Downloads .
To change the location of these folders, open Windows Explorer, navigate to the secondary disk and create new folders with the same name.
Then go to This PC or Computer or open the folder C: \ Users \ username to find the folders to be moved.
To change the position of the Documents, click on it with the right mouse button, go to the Properties and select the Path tab in the window that opens.
From here you can see the current path of the Documents folder which can be moved by pressing the Move key.
Then select the new folder created previously, press the Select folder button and finally accept that all the files in the Documents are moved to this new location.
The same operation can be done for Videos, Music, Images and Downloads.
In Windows 10 you can choose whether to change only the default location where to save new files, without moving existing ones, or whether to completely move the user folders to the other disk .
The first option, that of changing the disk where to save the new files, is useful even if used with an external USB disk or stick.
You can make sure that when a USB flash drive or external hard disk is inserted in the computer, the new video image files or documents are saved in that and not on the computer disk.
When the stick is then detached, the files will be saved on the main disk.
Changing the default location for saving personal files creates a new user folder structure on the new drive and saves all new files in that location by default.
To change the disk where personal files are saved in Windows 10 you need to open the Start menu, go to Settings (or press Windows + I) and, in the System section, go to Storage .
On the right side of the screen you will notice options to change the saving locations of new apps, new documents, new music, new images, new videos.
For each one, you can choose to change discs to save new files.
If you choose a removable disk such as the USB stick and remove it, Windows will automatically set the storage of files to their original location on disk C, until you connect the removable drive again.
Changing the location where apps are saved affects those that are downloaded from the Microsoft Store.
Already installed apps will not move to the other disk, except if you remove them to reinstall them again.
If, on the other hand, you want to completely move the user folders to another disk, you have to go for a different operation.
It is necessary to open Windows Explorer on the folder This PC, right click and enter the Properties of each of the folders displayed, that is: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Images, Music, Videos .
For each folder, in the Properties, go to the Path tab, press Move and choose the other disk.
Before doing this move, it is a good idea to create folders on the other disk, one for each one you intend to move.
So for example, the new path for Videos will be F: \ Video while the desktop will be on F: \ Desktop .
Click on Apply and accept the move of all the files present.
Remember that you cannot simply cut and paste because you would lose the references of these which are special folders where files of a certain type are automatically saved.
We must therefore follow the correct procedure as seen above.
READ ALSO: Optimize the loading of user folders (images, documents, music etc.)
