C drive full how to use D drive

if you have saved a lot of data on C such as photo or video that are large size files simply copy those and paste in D.  after those files are checked to be readable on D, delete the original ones on C to free up space

@RoHe​ Windows 10 Home

@PGUn  - Just follow the instructions at that link for Win 10 to move the default folders to D: and set Windows to save new files on D:

@RoHe​   Thanks, Ron.   My problem now is that I followed some instructions to "Delete Volume" on D drive to try to extend C drive, but that did not work.  The result is that the computer now does not assign a "D" or any letter to the second hard drive.  It does not show up under "this PC" .  I can see it with a partition recovery software, but cannot access it or make it recognizable even after restarting.  So I'm not sure how to recover and be able to use the second hard drive at this point.   Any ideas?

Open Windows Disk Management and see if you can set the drive letter for that drive there.

May need to reformat D drive in Disk Management and assign a drive letter.

Well, you guys saved me big time on this one.  I didn't know what to do.  I didn't even know windows had "Disk Management" until you told me.  I started it and it showed the second hard drive.  After a little poking around, I right clicked on the unallocated part of the drive and it gave me the option to create a simple volume which I did and followed the prompts.  Disk management assigned "D" to the drive and it was good to go. Didn't need to format it in this case. Then I followed the instructions in the link you sent to move files to the "D" drive..  Worked great.  I did need to create folders on the "D" drive to hold the files but that was no problem.   So now I have plenty of room on my "C" drive and I know how to use the second hard drive.

Thanks!  What started with a lot of frustration for me has ended up working out very well.

You're welcome and well done.

How much space did you free up on your C:  drive?

Keep an eye on your apps for a while to make sure they're saving all new files on D: drive.  If you notice any that aren't automatically saving their output on D:, look for a Preferences option on that app's toolbar which will allow you to specify the drive letter and folder where you want its output saved. 

Now that you've move all those files off the C:, you should optimize this drive.  Click Start>Search>optimize. Click it on the results list. When that opens, select the C: drive and click Optimize button.  If C: is an SSD, this will "retrim" the SSD. If C: is a HDD, it will defrag the HDD.

Note: If Optimization isn't automatically scheduled, it's a good idea to turn it on and set a schedule - maybe monthly, so it does it automatically in the background. Be sure to select which drive(s) to be optimized on whatever schedule you choose.

And if your questions have been answered, please mark a post(s) in this thread as Accepted Answer. Thanks.

I now have free space on the "C" drive.  59.3 GB free of 223 GB.   And I have started saving all new stuff including apps on the "D" drive, so the "C" drive should remain as it is.  Thanks for your advice and the links.

Still not a lot of free space on that SSD, but hopefully enough for Windows to use when installing big updates, etc.  Have you trimmed that SSD since cleaning it up?

You could also enable Storage Sense in Win 10 and see if it can free up any additional space...

@RoHe​ Hello Ron, I have a learning disability, a bit slow so please bear with me.  I have Windows 11, Dell XPS 8930. My SSD Drive C is full just about, always getting messages of no more storage. Could you tell me the steps and/or links to transfer files (biggest ones are pictures/videos) from Drive C to Drive D HDD.  There is almost no files in Drive D. Thank you.

@redxps630​ Hi redxps630. I meant to send you also, my post about having the same problem. Maybe you can also answer this other Q.  Is it possible to merge Drives C & D data with the storage pool?  I don't know how to storage pool works. My Drive C is just is almost 100% full whereas Drive D is nearly empty. Thank you for your help.

@2011and2019​  Ron hasn't been on this forum since around March.

Go into PC or Computer window that shows both C and D drives.  Double-click open the D drive.  You'll probably see a blank window if nothing has been transferred there yet.  Next, open your files that take the most SSD/HDD space, like your photo and video files.  (Video files take much more space than photos.)  Next, simply click on and slide the files over to the D drive window.

If you don't want to slide just one file at a time, one can use CTRL held down and click on each file to highlight.  Or, click on a file on top, hold down Shift, click on a bottom file, and all files in between will be highlighted and ready to slide over.  Lastly, in a window of files, CTRL-A will highlight all files.  Then you can slide all over at once.  When a bunch of files are highlighted, click on one keeping mouse button pressed, and slide files over to D drive window.  I don't know if you know those shortcuts already.

Storage pool is called RAID.  It's unnecessary unless you want programs and files across both drives.  I've never used RAID, so I don't have the expertise to set it up.  Not sure if it's in your area of expertise either.

If programs (not just files) require more space than what your C drive has, then RAID is a good option. 

@bradthetechn

@2011and2019​  Ron hasn't been on this forum since around March.

Go into PC or Computer window that shows both C and D drives.  Double-click open the D drive.  You'll probably see a blank window if nothing has been transferred there yet.  Next, open your files that take the most SSD/HDD space, like your photo and video files.  (Video files take much more space than photos.)  Next, simply click on and slide the files over to the D drive window.

If you don't want to slide just one file at a time, one can use CTRL held down and click on each file to highlight.  Or, click on a file on top, hold down Shift, click on a bottom file, and all files in between will be highlighted and ready to slide over.  Lastly, in a window of files, CTRL-A will highlight all files.  Then you can slide all over at once.  When a bunch of files are highlighted, click on one keeping mouse button pressed, and slide files over to D drive window.  I don't know if you know those shortcuts already.

Storage pool is called RAID.  It's unnecessary unless you want programs and files across both drives.  I've never used RAID, no I don't have the expertise to set it up.  Not sure if it's in your area of expertise either.

If programs (not just files) require more space than what your C drive has, then RAID is a good option. 

Hi bradthetechnut,

Thank you for jumping in with your detailed response.  It appears that data is being duplicated on Onedrive as well as in C.  How can I fix that?

Right now, this is lame, but I can't find my pictures/videos in C: drive thru the fie explorer, so not able to drag C files towards the D: drive. If I take a screenshot and use the snippet tool, I do see it being saved among many pics in the "users" file on C. But ironically I don't see the path/link for the screenshots when I go through file explorer! Doesn't make sense :(. 

Sorry, I don't know how to explain it well. I wanted to upload the screenshots of the files under C so you can see the file names under C but I don't know how to use an URL link to do so. I hope you can understand /follow what I'm trying to say. 

Thank you for your patience and help if you respond. As for RAID, no expertise here so I'll avoid for now.