Moving stuff from my SSD to my HDD

Jun 1, 2018
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I've seen this question asked quite a few times, but I think mine's a little different to others. So, I've had this new laptop for a month and a half now. My SSD is 120gb, and my HDD is around 1tb. I mostly use this for games, and I made sure to download Steam on the D drive (HDD), and so that's already up to 450gb (games these days are insanely massive). But, I've been noticing that my C drive (SSD) was pretty high. I've apparently used 100gb and only have 20gb left. So, yesterday, I checked through it and realised I had random things. Here's a gif, as I'm not sure how much of it is random and how much is required to be in this folder (Program Files (x86). - https://gyazo.com/4cfb0da0208014450d0b258eb5bddf0b - As you've probably figured out, I'm not that good with computers. Anyway, continuing, that folder is taking up almost 20gb. Program Files, which has a lot of similar folders as the 86 version (what's even the difference between the 2, and can I delete one of them?), is taking up 26gb. The only other 2 folders are Users (5gb) and Windows (18gb) and Perflogs (which seems to take up 0 space?). Sorry if I went a little off track there.

(Kind of a TLDR?) Here's my questions, in short:

1. Can I just move the Program Files and Program Files (x86) and maybe even Users to my D drive?
2. Can I freely delete whatever I want in either of Program Files folders, or would it mess up my computer if I deleted a few specific things.
3. I've moved my Desktop, Documents etc. from my C drive to my D drive through the "right click, properties, location" trick, should that have solved the problem for the future? I tried downloading a game and it downloaded to the D drive downloads folder, but when I did the setup, it tried downloading it to the C drive. For everything, do I have to manually change the download path to the D drive and create folders to accommodate them? (For example, the game is called "Dauntless". I changed it to download to the D drive, but I didn't have a "Program Files" or anything like that. So I made a folder next to Desktop, Documents, etc. and called it "Random Crap" and made a folder inside of that called "Dauntless," then downloaded the game in that folder. Should I keep doing this for everything else?)
4. I still have 20gb free. Should I do all of this now, or should I wait until I have like 1-2gb left. Or would that be leaving it too late.

Keep in mind I'm very tired, so some of this probably doesn't make sense. I'll check it later when I'm more awake. Thankyou for reading.

Edit: I realise that most of the items in Program Files x86 are not that big. Things like Epic Games and battle.net are pretty small, but Microsoft Office is still 2.5gb. Also, I just checked Program Files, and it says Epic Games is 23.6gb (Program Files itself is only like 26). I don't play any Epic Games games, so I can probably just delete that. But I suppose my original post and questions still stand. Once again, super tired. Probably all just a small mistake that confused me because of the Dauntless game trying to download it all onto the C drive.
 
Solution
1. Only way to move program files to D is uninstall them on C and when you reinstall, point the installer at the Program folders on D (like you are with 3). You can't move user folders as there are some things (like drivers) that auto install to C drive and are hard coded to do so.
2. I would uninstall programs as it is the cleanest way. Fixes registry entries. Simply deleting the folders doesn't clean everything up.
3. Yes, the create folders and point the individual installers at D is the best way. There are fixes that change the default save locations but this messes up windows updates and driver installs, as Windows isn't smart enough to have granular install options, its all or nothing.
4. Do it now as the ssd will get slower as...
1. Only way to move program files to D is uninstall them on C and when you reinstall, point the installer at the Program folders on D (like you are with 3). You can't move user folders as there are some things (like drivers) that auto install to C drive and are hard coded to do so.
2. I would uninstall programs as it is the cleanest way. Fixes registry entries. Simply deleting the folders doesn't clean everything up.
3. Yes, the create folders and point the individual installers at D is the best way. There are fixes that change the default save locations but this messes up windows updates and driver installs, as Windows isn't smart enough to have granular install options, its all or nothing.
4. Do it now as the ssd will get slower as it starts to have less space.

Get some sleep so you not frazzled and make any silly mistakes you have to waste more time to fix :)

You should think about getting a 250gb ssd as 120 is getting cramped for running windows in.
 
Solution
1. No. You can't move the Program Files folder like that.
And especially don't move the whole /Users/ folder

2. Uninstall, not a simple 'delete'

3. Steam games can be moved easily.
Applications and programs will generally default to installing on the C drive. This is when you tell it to install on the other drive. With any install, don't just accept the defaults. Most programs give the option of changing that. And opting out of whatever default checkboxes they have for some included junkware.

4. For a 120GB drive, you need to leave ~15-20GB free space. 1-2GB is far too little.