WIndows 10 At the risk of sounding stupid, here comes a file explorer question

[novicegeek]

So, when I open up file explorer and double-click on my C drive, I have a lot of folders like "Program Files," "Program Files (x86)," "User," and "ProgramData," and I think that is just wonderful. So much so that I would like to have the same thing on my secondary disk drive, where I plan on migrating a lot of my programs and documents and stuff (it's 1 TB, while my C drive is 500 GB and is 83% full).

Is there a way to get those particular types of files on the new SSD as well? Right now the new drive is just a mess of files scattered about with no place to call home.

 

[voyagerfan99]

You're looking at the basic file structure of Windows. If you want to organize program installations, etc, you just make the desired directory and install it there.

 

[novicegeek]

Yeah, that's where the stupid comes in, 'cause I didn't understand that whole make a desired directory and installation part. Sorry.

 

[strollin]

Open the new drive in File Explorer, right click in the file listing area and select New->Folder. Name the folder appropriately and your set. You can now move files into that folder or, when installing a program, change the install destination so that the program is installed in your new folder.

 

[aldan]

you could also clone your existing drive to the new one.

 

[novicegeek]

All right strollin, for some reason that was much simpler than I was thinking. I'm trying to make this too complicated.

Aldan, I actually like the cloning idea. I guess all the registry entries clone with it. Never mind. Stupid question, which I seem to be full of at the moment.

Thanks all.

 

[PlanetLockdownFilm]

Might be a better idea to make a clean install on the secondary drive. Otherwise, If you have stuff like music and videos on your first drive move those. For programs/games, it might actually improve your performance a bit if you uninstall them from the first and reinstall them on the second, if they run on a separate drive than the operating system. I haven't looked into cloning a lot, but you might run into problems when booting from the second drive, because of EFI entries. I'm not sure, but something to look out for.