Windows 10: Specifying a Different Drive for Environment Variables When C Drive is a Limited-Space SSD

Like many millions of people, my C drive is a limited capacity SSD and my D drive is a standard SATA. There is nowhere near enough space of the SSD to store my data, yet factory installations always seem to default all the %USER..% folder to C:\users\username.

I should say I do have a professional IT background, however not deep into the innards of Windows. Most most users will not. I find it astonishing that

Windows doesn't already detect whether the C drive is an SSD and automatically defaults to D for user data. It should at least ask the question during initial setup.


I have done my best to reset the various folders using right-click --> Properties --> Location, and this works fairly well. However there are a number of applications, e.g. DropBox, that won't let me backup my Documents, Pictures, etc., folders because my %HOMEPATH% still points to C drive. NB Neither %HOMEPATH% or %USERPROFILE% appear in System --> Environment Variables at all, so I can't change it that way. The registry has these user folders listed in quite a number of places, so there's no one easy setting. Anyway, I need to be absolutely sure about what to change in case I render the machine unusable. I should say that I have placed my user folders in the top level D:\, rather than D:\users\username because there will never be another user on this machine.


Trawling through the internet, there are thousands of complex descriptions of ways to change these various folders, but these are mostly written by and for experienced users, and often no longer apply to Win 10.


Have Microsoft come up with an easy way to say, "Put my data on the D drive, please."? Failing that, how do I make sure that all the environment variables are pointing to the correct locations?


Also is %HOMEPATH% only applicable User account data, and is it advisable to leave the AppData folder on the SSD?

:)

 

extend c drive storage space

Hi, I'm , an Independent Advisor.

Disk Management is a Windows built-in tool that supports to increase partition size with its "Extend Volume" feature. However, the program has some limitations in increasing disk space:

- Extend Volume only works on NTFS and RAW partition. FAT32 and other file systems are not supported.

- The Extend Volume will grey out if there is no adjacent unallocated space behind the target partition.

So, the ways to increasing C drive with or without adjacent unallocated space are different. Open the Disk Management, and follow the right tutorials listed below to extend the local disk C drive on your own now:

#1. Increase C Drive Space with Adjacent Unallocated Space

Step 1. Right-click This PC/My Computer, click "Manage", select "Disk Management" under Storage.

Step 2. Locate and right-click on the local disk C drive, and choose "Extend Volume".

Step 3. Set and add more space to your system C drive and click "Next" to continue.

Step 4. Click "Finish" to complete the process.

Note that if that unallocated space on your system disk is not behind the C drive, you can't extend C drive in Disk Management.

Hope this helps. Let me know if I can help you further!

 

System environment variable won't stick

Running Win10 Home on an Acer Spin 3, 64bit, i7cpu. I try to add a path to the system environment variables by:

1. Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Advanced tab > Environment variables

2. The "Environment Variables" window opens.
3. In the "System Variables" pane I select "Path" and click the EDIT button.
4. A list of the current system paths is displayed.
5. I click the NEW button, browse to the path I want to add which is "C:\Python36-32" and click OK. The path "C:\Python36-32" is added to the list of current system paths.
6. I click OK and am returned to the "Environment Variables" window.
7. I click the "X" at the top right to close the "Environment Variables" window.

Now if I click the "Environment Variables" button again (end of step-1) and repeat steps 2-4, the new path I added in step-5 is gone. IOW, adding a new path won't stick.

What am I doing wrong?

 

Searching environment variable in list

I'm using a command that gives me a list of environment variables. When searching in the list, I want to find all environment variables with the word
EXTERNAL; using the following command all that is occurring is all the environment variables are being listed instead of those environment variables with the word
EXTERNAL ?

findstr /c "EXTERNAL"