Windows 10: Files moved from C: drive to external drive

H! My 13-year-old decided to make space on the computer by dragging files from the c: drive to an external drive. Now all the file paths are messed up. I don't know what he moved from where exactly and I don't want to just drag things back and make things worse. We are not able to restore to an older version, as we did not have that turned on before he did this.


Please help!

:)

 

move files from my C drive to an external hard drive.

what steps do I take to move files from my C drive to an external hard drive. My C drive is almost full.

 

C drive full, how to move some to D drive

Hi Dan,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that your computer is running out of space and you would like to move the data from C drive to D Drive.

• When you say “How can I move some GB's from C to external D drive?“ do you want to free space on the c drive or do you want to extent the C partition?

If you want to free up space on C drive, I suggest to follow the below given suggestions.

Personal files such as videos, music, photos, and documents can take up a lot of space on your device. To see which files are using the most space:

1. Select File Explorer from the taskbar and find the files you want to move.
   
2. Under This PC in the menu on the left, select a folder to see what files are saved in it. The
   Videos, Music, Pictures, and
   Downloads folders usually contain the largest files that you’ve saved to your device.
   
3. To see the size of the files in a folder, select
   View > Details. Right-click in the open space and then select
   Sort by > Size to show the largest files at the top of the list.
   
4. If there are files you no longer need on your device, you can either delete them or move them to an external storage device like a USB drive or an SD card.
   

Note: If you delete any files, remember to empty the Recycle Bin to completely remove them from your device and free up space.

To move photos, music, videos, or other files that you want to keep but don't use very often, consider saving them to an external storage device like a USB drive or an SD card. You'll still be able to use them when the drive is connected, but they won't take
up space on your PC.

1. Connect an external storage device like a USB drive or SD card to your PC.
   
2. Select File Explorer from the taskbar and go to the folder that contains the files you want to move.
   
3. Select the files, select the Home tab, and then select
   Move to > Choose location.
   
4. Select the external storage device you connected in the location list, and then select
   Move.

In Windows 10 you can also move the installed Windows Store apps to any other drive in order to free up space. You can also change the path of the default installation directory, for new apps.

If you would like to move the installed apps to another drive, try the below given suggestions.

Press Windows key + I to bring up the Settings menu and click Apps. You should be on the
Apps & features page of the left-hand navigation.

Click on the app entry that you would like to move to a different drive to see
Move and Uninstall
options. Click Move button and then select a drive of your choice to move the app.

Note: When you click on a traditional desktop program or an app that came preinstalled with Windows 10, Windows 10 offers only Uninstall option and you can’t move desktop applications
using this method.

For more information on how to free up space on your computer I suggest you refer to the suggestion from the given article

Free up drive space in Windows 10 - Windows Help

Regards,

Zaki

 

External Hard Drive

Hi John,

We suggest that you try the troubleshooting steps below:

• Open your External Hard Drive file in File Explorer.
• Type the name of the file you want to search on the search box and click Enter.

The file will show up in Search Results and you will be able to move it to the correct folder.

Let us know if you need further help.