I have Windows 10 on my SSD & Windows 7 on a WD 1TB hard drive. I have not added anything to the hard drive since installing Windows 7. I want to move the Libraries on Windows 10 to the hard drive. Do I need to partition the drive to do this? If so, what size do I need? What other steps are required?
Hi Moolah!
You can move specific user files separately (Downloads, Music, Photos...) or all together (all User files).
For specific files, right click on that folder in Explorer and select tab named Location. There you have option "Move". It is the same as in Windows 7...
Size depends of your files. I suggest you to install free program, that will list the size of all folders: Treesize free. It will give idea about size needed. Below is picture for Documents location.
About separate partition. 1st you have to have enough empty place on disk. In disk management you right click on disk (hdd) and select shrink. In empty space create new simple partition...
Second option is for advance users. You can move all Users files. Here are tutorials by Kari:
Users Folder - Move Location in Windows 10
It is not mandatory to use separate partition for user files, bit it is wise (in my opinion). I am used to make separate partition for system & application and separate one for data (user files, downloads etc.)
Regarding to size of that partitions: it is up to you - how many applications you use. Since you have separate SSD for your system and only Windows 7 on your hard drive, I would left approximately 100 - 120 GB for Windows 7 (more, if you have a lot of used space) and make the rest as separate partition.
If you have user files under Windows 7 system, move that files first to the new partition - look at the video tutorial above. (kindly provided by @essenbe).
After that repeat the process for Windows 10 system and you will have dual boot system with only one set of User files in separate partition.
Word of caution: this will work for separate user libraries, am not sure about appdata folders - because those could be system specific.
Here is disk management picture of my system with 240 GB SSD and 1 TB hard disk, dual booting Windows 10 (SSD) and Windows 8.1 (on hard disk) with user libraries on hard disk separate partition. This organization is just one of many possibilities :)
Moving folders using the method in the video does not move the AppData folder. If you use this method, it will.
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