No it doesn't.
That "new content" is not program installation(s), it's personal data.In "All Settings/System/Storage/Change where new content is saved" there are options to save new apps, new documents, new music, new photos, new movies, and offline maps to a location other than C: drive.
That is not applicable to traditional exe based programs. To add to this, such programs create:
- registry entries
- start menu entries
- various folders in e.g. these folders on C: over which you have no control:
- not to mention working space folders in Documents, Videos, etc, msi files, possibly drivers...
Of course, if you were to restrict yourself to UWP apps and truly portable programs, you could perhaps have those on the HDD. But there's absolutely no point in trying to do what you want without a deep and proper undertanding of the implications.
I have, like you, a 256Gb SSD and 1Tb disk on 1 laptop as you can see from my specs.
I have far more progs installed than you are likely to have, and still have plenty of space on my SSD.
Simply routinely using disk imaging, as is so so often recommended here (Macrium Reflect - free&paid), secures my SSD, my programs and my O/S.
Think about what would happen if you split your installed programs between two drives. If your HDD fails, you'd have parts of those programs left on your SSD.
What would you do then?
I read your question as how you should install your software on your new PC.
Not - how to move programs already installed to another drive. (Or a cloned disk)
Is this correct?
If you are installing programs on a new PC you can install them anywhere you want. I have been installing my programs on a partition other than C: for years now, in Windows 7 and Windows 10 - no problems.
Just always do a "Custom" installation when the option comes up during the install, then you can point the installation to any drive or partition you want. Most programs will create their folder automatically on the chosen drive. Sometimes it is good to create your own folder to install into. This is OK too.
There will always be files and folders installed to the C: drive anyway. These are AppData files in your User Profile and some system files and dll's too. Windows handles these seamlessly, even (most times) on un-installation.
Windows is highly customizable. You can do what you ask here without worry.
You can relocate Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos and so on to the non-sdd drive.
I guess that from everything said here that this falls into the category of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
I just felt like that if I could just keep the OS on the SSD and store everything else on the HDD that I would have a smoother running laptop all around. I don't really have a ton of documents and pictures and music but I do have a lot of software or apps or whatever they are called these days but I have not really gotten started reinstalling my software programs and it just seems like the SSD is not going to hold it all. I will just have to wait and see.
Thanks to all of you for the advice and education.
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Pretty much correct. Basically wanting to future software installs on the larger HDD. I am finding out that moving already installed software is a major task involving making registry changes which I don't want to get into.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean about doing a custom installation though. I tried to install some software last night and when the option came up as to where I wanted to install it, there did not seem to be any real options. I simply tried to change the drive letter to D but that did not work. Later, I saw something that mentioned creating a "Program Files (x86)" folder on the destination drive to make the installation switch drives but I did not try that. Otherwise, I don't see any other installation options available for a custom install.
You have two physical hard drives. I assume the SSD is all one partition and designated C:
Then you have one big spinning Hard Disk Drive, and I assume it has at least one partition on it labeled D:
You want to install any new (not on the PC already) software to D:
On D: > Create a new Folder named PROGRAMS. (or anything that works for you)
Now when you install a new program you will normally go through a series of steps: Welcome> License to agree to > and then setup window. This is where a lot of software asks you if you want to do an (easy) quick installation, or, (sometimes in small writing), a custom install. The wording may be slightly different, but you want to get to the option where it asks you where the DESTINATION is - the destination folder.
This is where you point it to your PROGRAMS folder on D:
Now some programs will automatically create their own sub folders (like \Corel\Corel Paintshop Pro\ ), but some do not.
So pay attention to the name of the folder the program wants to create in C:\ProgramFiles x86 and just type that in.
Or create that folder inside PROGRAMS before you begin. The precise name is not important. If I want to call the folder "Paintshop Pro", that works too.
Point the installer to your folder and install it there. Everything else is normal.
The only note to make when doing this (installing programs on a partition other than C: ) is that when you do disk image backups (and you should be doing disk image backups) is to include the D: partition in the image.
On a big hard drive you could create a partition for D: that is 100GB, 200GB, whatever you think works for you to reduce the size of the image file.
And, you can create and resize partitions later, not a big deal.
I disagree cause there's no rule that says you can't just move the data while leaving the core folders in place.
I've 5 SSD's in my system, but that's not the point per se; the point is instead of moving the base folders - Pictures, Documents, Music, Video, I simply place the data itself somewhere else - I've a drive dedicated to photos, one to music, another to games. My documents folder holds data for immediate use while the old data is archived to an external drive.
Point... there's no "rule" that says you have to move to core "folders" off the OS drive - just move the data. I personally do not advise splitting the OS (moving to base folders to another drive). And with a 256gig SSD there's not need to.
Here's my 512Gig OS SSD drive with a myriad of programs installed plus a "Documents" folder holding 23gig of data, and I'm only at 189 gig. A 256gig SSD drive in a Windows system will show 237gig available - that leaves 48 available were I running a 256gig SSD...
Of course I don't advise you cut it that close, but my point is with Windows and a few programs installed there's still plenty of space where no OS splitting is required.
And there are other ways to manage data without splitting the OS. And some programs look for those folders as they install certain data for said program - Adobe Lightroom for example stores the apps catalogue in the Pictures folder by default. This catalogue is used to manage Lightroom and it's photos.
Additionally, if you use a backup program (as I do) those folders can be backed up - negating the fear of an OS crash.
Yes, I agree with Sygnus21. Let Windows do what Windows wants to do. Leave the system files alone.
If you install your software to the larger disk then the need for space on C: becomes moot.
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