C:/ Drive Is Being Filled While D:/ Drive Is Saying It Is Empty!

[pixahai]

I recently purchased a pre built MSI Gaming PC and it contains a 128 GB SSD (C:/) and a 2 TB HDD (D:/). I want to store the OS and any games I play on the SSD and I want my personal files, videos and etc... To be stored on my HDD. I have set up a partition on my D:/ Drive so it wasn't unallocated and the Drive does show up on the "This PC" Page.
However, my main problem is that on the "This PC" Page the 128 GB SSD is being filled up by files that are on my HDD, I have set all of my: Documents, Pictures, Videos etc... Folders default location to my D:/ Drive and it still fills up my SSD and says my HDD is empty.
Thanks for reading please help me resolve this.

 

[Paperdoc]

You say you already have set Windows' default locations for many folders to the D: drive. BUT within each application itself (Word, Excel, graphics, game software, etc.) there normally is a way to set the default locations of that one application's files. Often that is somewhere in Windows' default file folders. But many apps may set their own default file locations, and unless you have told each of them to place things on the D: drive, they won't. By default, many apps at the time they are first installed set themselves to use the C: drive.

 

[pixahai]

You say you already have set Windows' default locations for many folders to the D: drive. BUT within each application itself (Word, Excel, graphics, game software, etc.) there normally is a way to set the default locations of that one application's files. Often that is somewhere in Windows' default file folders. But many apps may set their own default file locations, and unless you have told each of them to place things on the D: drive, they won't. By default, many apps at the time they are first installed set themselves to use the C: drive.

Im not sure if this is relating to what you replied but when I installed 7 Zip as an example I set it to download to the D:/ Drive and I also set my chrome download folder to be the downloads folder in my D:/ Drive.

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, that's what I was talking about. Unless you did the same thing for every application you installed, some of them are placing files on the C: drive.

Check in each major application. You should be able to find a place to specify the default file folder location. IF it is on the C: drive, make a note of exactly what folder that is. Now use Explorer to go to the D: drive and set up a new folder with that same name. Then COPY all of the stuff from the C: drive folder to the new matching D: drive folder. Finally, return to the app and use that screen to change the specification to use the folder(s) on the D: drive. Shut it down. Now start it up again and create a new junk file and save it. Then use Explorer to check whether it was actually put in the new location on the D: drive. If yes, shut down the app and re-start it. Open that junk file - if it finds it and opens from the D: drive, you have succeeded. IF you are sure that you copied all your old files from this app over to D:, you can then use Explorer to go to the old location on the C: drive and delete the entire folder sets for that one app.

If this all works for you, repeat for all your installed app where you WANT their files to be on the D: drive if they are not there already.

 

[pixahai]

Yes, that's what I was talking about. Unless you did the same thing for every application you installed, some of them are placing files on the C: drive.

Check in each major application. You should be able to find a place to specify the default file folder location. IF it is on the C: drive, make a note of exactly what folder that is. Now use Explorer to go to the D: drive and set up a new folder with that same name. Then COPY all of the stuff from the C: drive folder to the new matching D: drive folder. Finally, return to the app and use that screen to change the specification to use the folder(s) on the D: drive. Shut it down. Now start it up again and create a new junk file and save it. Then use Explorer to check whether it was actually put in the new location on the D: drive. If yes, shut down the app and re-start it. Open that junk file - if it finds it and opens from the D: drive, you have succeeded. IF you are sure that you copied all your old files from this app over to D:, you can then use Explorer to go to the old location on the C: drive and delete the entire folder sets for that one app.

If this all works for you, repeat for all your installed app where you WANT their files to be on the D: drive if they are not there already.

As of right now I have only installed about 3-4 programs and only 1 of them was intentionally put on C:/ drive and it is around 20-25 GB. But when I installed 7 Zip, Avast and Epic Games I made sure I selected the D:/ drive and the usual download folder does not contain any of those folders from those 3 programs and it still says my HDD is completely empty when I know there is around 5 GB on it.

 

[Peter Martin]

you probably have old windows folders on your C:\ Drive

I get rid of old windows copies that are made by updates automatically.

right click on C:\ drive, choose Properties, then Disk Cleanup, then click the button that says Cleanup System Files

when that is done, choose the stuff you want to delete, like all of it and delete that junk

 

[engineer5261]

Can you tell us what it is that is filling your hard drive? Is this files you have downloaded, or content you have created? By the way 128 GB is a really small drive, I do not think you would be able to keep too many big games on it along with windows.

 

[Peter Martin]

the Windows.Old folder is a pig and has to go. I left instructions on how.

 

[pixahai]

Can you tell us what it is that is filling your hard drive? Is this files you have downloaded, or content you have created? By the way 128 GB is a really small drive, I do not think you would be able to keep too many big games on it along with windows.

On my hard drive I am filling it with programs like wallpaper engine, 7 zip, my documents. pictures, Avast, recycling bin currently and wallpaper engine alone is 4 gb and it is saying only 1 gb is being used