Windows 10: Moving WSL to an external drive

Lately, I've been experimenting with WSL and have successfully installed a distro on my system. But I have one problem: My C-Drive is nearly full while I have an external drive with space enough. Is there a way to move the ext4.vhdx file to the external drive but still be able to use the distro exactly the same, maybe with some linked file or something?

:)

 

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.

 

External drive

Hi Richard,

There are several factors that can cause your external drive to not read DVDs even though the system is recognizing the device. This could be caused by a driver that needs to updated or corrupted files. For us to resolve your concern, kindly answer the questions
below:

• Just to confirm, the device that is not working properly is a external DVD optical drive?
• Were there any recent changes or updates installed on your computer?
• Have you tried to plug the external drive to a different port on your computer?

As a initial recommendation, we suggest that your run the built in troubleshooter in Windows 10. Kindly refer to the steps below:

• Type “Troubleshooting” in the Search bar and press Enter.
• Click on “View All” in the top left corner.
• This will display the list of troubleshooters which are built-in in the computer. You can click on
  Hardware and Devices from the list and you can run the troubleshooter.

This will check for common errors that affect hardware on your computer and attempts to correct them.

We look forward to your response after completing the steps.

 

Installing to a second Drive. D: or external (Non Boot up Drives)

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



We understand your concern as you are looking for an option to move the game location from the C drive to the Drive D, which is an external drive.



In this scenario, we would suggest you to perform these steps and check if that resolves your issue on both laptop and Desktop.

1. As usual install the game on the PC’s in
   C Drive.
   
2. Insert the external
   D drive to the PC.
   
3. Press Windows + I key from the keyboard to launch
   Settings.
   
4. Select Apps and click on
   Apps & features from the left pane.
   
5. Search for the installed game from the list on the right pane.
   
6. Single click on the game and select
   Move.
   
7. Select the D drive under
   Choose a drive where you want to move the game.
   
8. Restart the PC with the external drive connected and then launch the game.

We await your response.



Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator