Windows 10: Storage Sense

[jch2103]

Those of us who are using an SSD as a Windows 10 operating system drive may have run into issues with the Windows default behavior of putting user files (e.g., Documents, Photos, Music, Downloads) on the C: drive. This can make it awkward to move these user folders to a separate drive.

Windows 10 has introduced a useful feature called Storage Sense that enables user files to be stored by default on an separate drive (e.g., D:). If you, like me, upgraded from a prior Windows version to Windows 10, you might have missed this new feature. Googling 'Storage Sense' will provide a number of useful articles, e.g., http://www.portableone.com/Tech-News/Windows-10-Storage-Sense-helps-you-make-sense-of-your-cluttered-hard-drive and http://www.windowscentral.com/how-manage-file-storage-windows-10. The second link specifically discusses how to deal with the fact that creating a new default location doesn't move existing files to the (new) assigned location.

A note of caution: It appears that Windows 10 assigns a slightly different folder name structure when the default location is changed, e.g., from C:\Users\[username]\Photos to D:\[username]\Photos. Or perhaps that was something I did... In any event, check the folder name carefully if you change/move the default location.

[Mario]

Thankfully SSD disks become cheaper and bigger fast - which means that we don't need to put up with this kind of work-arounds for much longer...

I remember the (justified!) outcry when Spotify decided in their arrogance to remove the feature which allows you to configure the folder where you store their cache files. After an update, the cache folder was hard coded in the user documents folder, which is usually on the SSD. And they did not provide a seamless migration, the software just forgot about the old cache location and files. In my case this meant that it had to download about 20 GB of data again, filling up the precious SSD in my tablet. I had to use hard links to move their files to the SSD card I use for mass storage in the tablet.