Move Programs To Another Drive For Free

[@Britec09]

Want to see more on robocopy? let me know in comments

[@g8trsaur]

Absolutely! Robocopy is a powerful utility, and having videos on this program would be very helpful!

[@bmanrockwell2174]

I do want to see how to move large chunks of data. Ty.

[@earlsjrcomputer5208]

Does this work on microsoft edge bec my drive C: is on freeze update is more work daily

[@elvendragonhammer5433]

I appreciate the work you put into these vids & I would like to see how to do this using large datasets/multiple directories! I also had a question- I currently use a non-free program that will move from different drives (both partitions & external drives) & it can calculate CRC Checksum & compares both to verify that the data on one drive is identical on the other- do you know if there is a way to do some kind of verification via this command or another command I could run consecutively? Thanks for your time.

[@mrcabbie]

yes please show me more

[@mrcabbie]

by the way thanks for your amazing youtube channel, I use a lot of your courses for my once a week evening volunteer-job, to teach older-aged person to deal with computers here in the Netherlands

[@Joelifts_stuff]

just wanted to say i found your channel just tonight and your videos are excellent and very easy to follow very grateful that youre about thanks Brian :)

[@e.manaka2140]

should I delete it from the original drive or does the ROBOCOPY also delete it from the original location

[@SAM7167]

I have a question for you @britec09. I managed to replicate what you did and the junction created. But can I move all my files and programs like so to free up my main drive? My main drive being an HDD of 930 GB with only 69.8 GB free and my new SSD NVMe (not yet inside my tower) of 2 TB. I'm guessing it wouldn't work.

[@huwevans2653]

Thank you so much for this tip Brian. I have a piece of old S/W that I use all the time and no longer have the original disk. The modern version just doesn't do what I need and I am going to have to upgrade my PC but haven't done so yet as I need this S/W. Hopefully I can now think about a Mini PC (thank you for your reviews, I will be getting one of those) and can hopefully transfer the App to the new drive. Thank you for all your vids and advice.

[@Ratchet_effect]

Brian! you're a Legend! showing how simple it can be, showing how software pay-walls can hide the simplicity, as they utilize whats already there & hide it behind a GUI 👍👍

[@Britec09]

You're welcome mate

[@adrianarenas1805]

It worked! Thank you. I had a large program that would have otherwise been a pain to uninstall and reinstall in my D drive.

[@edison3571]

Yes I would like to see more on robocopy. Very interesting how that is done.

[@schroedingersdog7965]

Excellent! Many thanks, Brian.

[@stevola1012]

Thank you, I just stumbled upon your site and it's exactly what I needed. Subscribed

[@cbaas8986]

Brian! you're a Legend!

[@nessnos1978]

Thank you so much for this video! I have a couple of programs that will not allow me to choose where to install them. They are taking up space on my C: Drive and I can't move them any other way than this, so this is super helpful!

[@OffiziereDann]

Perfect timing, just got a new drive and then this video was uploaded

[@Britec09]

Welcome

[@pc-doctor1416]

Excellent. I am going to test the first method out and see if any programs give an error.

[@DianneCostalles]

I followed the exact process, but only the folder was moved to the other drive (not the contents inside the folder) ?

[@DianneCostalles]

problem solved!: you need to "run as administrator" the command prompt when opening it! Thank you!

[@nickscake]

quick and easy thanks for not trying to make my buy stuff!!! 💖

[@dimenzio3612]

Is it theoreitcally possible to move a whole drive around using these commands, or would that not work?

[@gedson_pe]

Thank you. Worked and free!!!!

[@antoniiocaluso1071]

question please...Britec's "E-drive" was connected via USB or SATA as a secondary drive to his C: drive, yes? A secondary connected via an external USB Dock, right?? tanx!

[@thenderaaa9252]

Just a robo tip; I use it quite a bit for moving, backing up, etc. Unless you are copying a single file you will gain IO speed by specifying multithreading for the operation. As simple as /MT:2 , look it up. This assumes you have the IO bandwidth between devices to handle more than 1 thread.

[@Britec09]

Thanks for sharing

[@carlos_mann]

If my current internal SSD is not fast enough to run an application, and I install it on a faster r/w SSD will the performance be the same or would it be improved? Providing the SSD is capable of achieving the specs. For example i hear a lot of ppl using those external SSD T7 & editing 4k Videos, would I be able to run an app off a similar SSD without much issue?

But by using a junction you create a dependency to the old directory. If you want to move your application and then delete the old directory you cannot use this method.

[@jonnyshoestring9368]

That is a really useful tip👍 I want to transfer a game to an external drive from my android phone, if I use this method can will the game run from its new destination?

[@saafewolf69]

This is probably a question I know the answer already, but you made me think. I have a 2TB HD that's about full, so I've started looking for bigger. Most of my content are games, so if I just put the games on a separate and have better experience surfing and other productivity tasks on the 1st?

[@ac777]

How do I use Ninite to install my programs to another drive? Ninite seems to only install programs in my C drive.

[@Safiredesignengineer]

Hi, thankyou. is Robocopy capable of taking a program from a PC and installing it on another PC, including the security files embedded in the installed application? the point is I have a piece of equipment that runs off some PC software, I want to sell the equipment but not the computer the software is on as it is used for other stuff. i have paid for the equipment and the software but the company does not support the software anymore as it is 10+ years old....

[@lewislaymons9450]

😎Love it😎

[@zeljkoferber9684]

I saw much tuts like this, with robocopy comand... bud non of this dont work. You explain this on the right way. To thank you. :) Gob bless English language. Not the queen neither king.

[@UnknownMFe]

you look like michael from Vsauce, man. Not bad :)

[@lorenakademar5267]

Great video, very useful!

[@IFroZn]

Hello. Thank you for the video. I was wondering this implies performance improvement aswell. What i mean is, I want to move one of my softwares to my C: drive for it to run better/faster and i'm wondering if the "linking" of the files would cancel the fact that's it is now on my C: drive. Thank you !

[@ChristiaanLowe]

@Britec09 what would one do if you had moved a program, but now have a new bigger faster C drive and wanted to move it back ? Great tutorial BTW. 👌

[@Bewefau]

Doesn't windows 11 have the option just transfer your files and apps to another hard drive?

[@louey2x]

I must say I appreciate that you read your comments and correct and/or give alternatives to problems, Bravo. I am glad you added that last part, if you do this as regular practice it makes things so much easier than any other method.. All in all great follow-up video and a new respect for this channel. I always keep all me exe downloads in a alt drive folder as well if I ever need to re-install, this also makes life easier if you ever need to do a clean install of the OS.

[@ukaszcezary8870]

Brian, you did not enter to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC after operation, so you didn't show if the files are there yet. When i did operation, there is arrow for the Junction, but files still there - on C: drive, and mirror folders and files on E: drive, so Robocopy didn't move my files, but copied

[@noobgamerab9507]

Do you have any solution?

[@ukaszcezary8870]

@@noobgamerab9507 i was wrong about moving files. I verifird this. Yes, it works Good. you will see files like they are in the previous folder. It Just work like this.

[@allyme4117]

is making the link with ''mklink "source" "destination" /j'' necessary? What happens if you don't add the link? Also what if there are Skipped/Mismatched/Failed files What do you do to ''fix'' it? Sorry just want to know everything before moving important programs

[@enkaan1676]

Hi is it possible to do this with virtual box vms . Can I move them and run them from my secondary hard drive. If so a video would be great. Thanks.

[@Dingdoddledingdingdang]

hi, thanks for the video. so far I tried to transfer two files. for the first one, i got one "skipped" dirs. for the second one there was an "error". what do I have to do and is it bad?

[@colhida]

Hi Thanks for helpful video. Can I use this technique to transfer programs from crashed disc to new one? I reinstalled and activated Win-10 on the computer that has crashed but with new HDD. Thanks

[@termite261]

Do you need to have a mklink?

[@benstern310]

Hi I've moved programs like photoshop and illustrator to my D drive and I can see the files now in that drive. The only problem I'm having now is, that when I go to the Windows start menu apps, they're not able to open the software as the files can't be located. I have to go all the way to the program files in the d drive and search for the application to load it up. Even then, it won't allow me to open my recent projects saying I don't have permissiong or the file doesnt exist. Can someone please help lol

[@MeAndTheBoys_]

Fantastic video, came just in time for me. Im able to clear out more room on my little notebook, by moving firefox and other things, onto this little SDHC drive. It works like a charm. Now i just launch apps from my little extra card drive, and it works just like normal drive. Thanks a lot, mate . You know your stuff. Cheers 👍

[@Britec09]

You're welcome

[@welshtony1]

Great info as always. I get what you mean about just uninstalling and reinstalling programs making things allot cleaner. For me I most likely use is for games then within the application (steam for example) just redirect it to the new folder. Games can take a long time to download due to the size and limitations set by the original program.

[@ianven6312]

What if two different disk, one is SSD which is the boot drive the other one is HDD a storage drive installed in one system unit. It is possible to increase the ssd from hdd?

[@betimamet1159]

What does arrow(link/junction) mean? Can i now delete all the files i copied from the original folder?

[@Handedlawtalks]

thanks good work

[@asmrEveryday2]

I am trying to move a software from the C drive to D drive, but the software has a folder in both Program Files and Program Files(x86) , do i move both of these files in the D drive or what?

[@upperlevelentertainment]

But can you delete the program from the main drive to free up space?

[@antywanty]

I bought the paid for the programme Just tired of c:\ being the ony drive option.for alot of programmes Give users other directory drive options Rather use the above script based prog Than risk a error😢

[@GeraldWalling]

I have been using your last method for years now. When I get to the installation folder selection, I just change the C: to E: leaving the rest as shown. The installation setup does the rest. The only problem is that the programs that use the MSI extension don't always give an option for another location.

[@Britec09]

Thanks for sharing

[@benstern310]

I've moved programs like photoshop and illustrator to my D drive and I can see the files now in that drive. The only problem I'm having now is, that when I go to the Windows start menu apps, they're not able to open the software as the files can't be located. I have to go all the way to the program files in the d drive and search for the application to load it up. Even then, it won't allow me to open my recent projects saying I don't have permissiong or the file doesnt exist. Please help lol

[@mrcabbie]

this alternative is a lot better, in the past EaseUS used to offer handy partition tools for free also without ad- or bloatware but nowadays many companies make a lot of money for such tools, also tried once to change something in the environments variables to install software on another drive by default but that seems to corrupt the OS because Windows keeps stuck on wanting you installing your software in their defaults 😛

[@johnsenchak1428]

Old school DOS commands

[@mpop4eva]

Will these methods work to move MS Office from one drive to another?

[@TheParadisecove]

Good question...I'm having no luck with any of these "move" tutorials regarding MS Works and or MS Office...as someone observed...ie. "Works" may depend on a "shared" file that is located outside of the "Works" program file. Therefore you can use any method of moving you want to, but if do not have that one "shared" file, the program may not be able to run.

[@Ahmed.Djokovic]

When i transfer a large game from C: system drive to D: the first command and the second work fine but when i transfer a program from C: to D: the first command works fine but when executing the second command it says that access is denied!.... Is there a solution to this problem?

[@karanjeet6898]

This is a great video and helped me greatly with the task, but I am getting a message on the screen saying access is denied and waiting for 30 sec and it won't do anything after that for some files. Is there any solution for that, please?

[@abdullahyusha3287]

I recently upgraded to a new PC with Windows 11 on an SSD, but I want to keep my old laptop’s hard drive with Windows 10 intact. My goal is to transfer only the third-party software from the Windows 10 hard drive to the new Windows 11 SSD, without moving the entire system or any personal data. I’m looking for a method to selectively clone or migrate just these applications, ensuring they work correctly on the new setup.

[@markvanpetten4956]

I was able to copy the Adobe file from C to D and evrything was successful no errors, When I go to link it step it says unable to link file already exists. So I am stuck any help

[@CSSZiegler]

Do we have to move the registry as well or does the move already take care of this? Also, what if a program has multiple source locations?

[@MageAtYou]

supposedly the option /reg handles that?

[@Lina_okasha]

When I move the files with this method the original file in the first location does not get deleted ..... like if I'm moving as an example photoshop from drive c location to drive d location the Photoshop file location in drive c does not get deleted it is stays with the name and all the original files as if only it copied the exact same files and thats it can someone help please

[@MohammadSalah1979]

Amazing thanks Sir for that Tutorial but how about the Heading File in AppData because most of Application used it

[@jawnTem]

WOW! Awesome! & thank you!

[@pibbles-a-plenty1105]

Another way, Brian, is to always keep the installer files for programs you installed in the past. Unless it's out of date an installer will install the program on another drive that you direct it to.

[@ukaszcezary8870]

It is not another way. Another way to remove viruses from computer is to not install viruses on computer? :)

[@GeordiLaForgery]

Nice one britec this is useful to know.

[@SalamatUK]

Very useful, thanks! 👍 I am curious though, wouldn't some programs need the registry to be updated too? For instance, if some program uses it's own file extensions, and associations, isn't this sort of info kept in the registry and the previous link would now be broken?

[@Britec09]

this uses symbolic link

[@SalamatUK]

@@Britec09 Magic! Thanks!

[@mantiscity]

The app I want to move does not show up on that software

[@kenshyura]

How to move office 2019 from C to E??

[@ozmobozo]

So how about ctrl c and then ctrl v

[@djempathie.9889]

Hi mate, if you extend c drive for more space, is that safe to do?

[@Britec09]

Yes its safe

[@djempathie.9889]

@@Britec09 Thank you.

[@SAS-ftc]

Pls make video of robocopy with license install software, how to move or copy this software

[@sedlyfe1642]

Why don't we use "/copyall" instead of "/sec"?

[@snangalia]

just want i needed. I was able to move the files but get an error with mklink command "mklink error: Cannot create a file when that file already exists". Anyone else having this issue?

[@ChrisLegg17]

I just tried this with Adobe Acrobat DC, and the original source file was only 13.9 MB, but the destination file it created was 1.03 GB !!! What the?! That's insane! The original source file contains like 5 files and the destination file contains like over 4,000 files!! What's up with that?

[@jerrymcg3199]

I think most people, including me, are interested in moving programs, including settings licenses etc, to a new PC. This method does not seem to work for that.

[@iraquna2541]

👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@Shadow.Dragon]

Thanks for the video Brian! It looks like the 1st method uses symlinks. I've "heard" bad things about them. I'll probably stick with the uninstall/reinstall method. 🙂

[@Britec09]

Probably best too

[@louey2x]

Wise choice

[@treasurepoem]

This information didn't help me. It seems to me that it would be easier to just cut and copy the folder's contents into the programs folder of the desired drive and then just make a shortcut to it from the c drive. But most likely neither ways would work if a different c drive was used with the drive that now has the copy. Unless the program is a standalone program it will put files into the registry of the c drive so if you move or install the program to another drive the program wouldn't work without the same c drive installed, because that's where the registry files are which are needed for the program to work.

[@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252]

Hi. I'm here to tell you - I'm doing this and it's a stinking nightmare. However, half-way-through a real education, my C drive is looking a lot calmer now. It's going to take me a few days to get my head around some stuff - moving a half-done project in a DAW etc and all the plug ins. I may uninstall and re-install some of them as easier. DO YOU WANT TO BUY SOME PARACETAMOL? I think it REALLY WORTH MENTIONING AND REMEMBERING to turn your computer off for a while after doing these operations. And if you're messing with Onedrive too..............NASTY! But it's better than shelling out for software to do it - and still not yourself knowing what's going on with your programmes/storage. It's a learning curve. If you get fed up, throw darts at pictures of Bill Gates for a bit.

[@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252]

Update - moved Reaper without trouble. Retained all the inbuilt FX and the couple that I imported. Retained some media recording of same. Lost the work-in-progress of a couple of tracks, it's not important, I'll re-do them better. Much better now that saving projects is under control. I used another tutorial video about setting up Reaper - it's not hard. No more billions of inexplicable repeaks all over the place, the only thing now is to create a folder for the bakkups files. And the C drive is much, much happier. Great video, my thanks to britec09.

[@arkay56]

Thanks Brian. Simplz!

[@Britec09]

You're welcome

[@michelwong1]

👍👍

[@0xc4ae1e5]

I may make a GUI of this

[@aungkyawkyaw8815]

Thanks sir it is useful sir no need to buy paid program.

[@jjohnson71958]

usb external hard drive is best

[@jimzielinski946]

Make sure you have the installation files and the keys to any program you move. Links and junctions do work, however there is a risk of failure when M$soft upgrades your os to whatever new version they come up with. M$ has a history of screw ups with major upgrades with systems that deviate from there typical defaults. Keep in mind that they canned their QA/test dept a number of years ago. Just saying.....

[@richardkaz2336]

Now try that with someting like AutoCAD and watch it fail and potentially mess the registry keys.

[@ArthursHD]

I see your latest video got removed :) For showing what not to do :) Guess I need to do something similar but obfuscate it so it's not going to be taken down.

[@pc-doctor1416]

MKLINK is not a valid command in Powershell. Use CMD to use this command

[@Aindriuh]

On the install, just edit the path by changing the drive letter from C to E.

[@MrMairu555]

It's a pretty terrible idea to try and do this manually if you don't have a perfect, and I mean *PERFECT* grasp of what you are trying to do. It's astoundingly easy to bugger your file system up with this.

[@bigbang6880]

if you have little knowledge what command prompt does you can do it.

[@MrMairu555]

@@bigbang6880 Yeah, you can do it. Doesn't mean it's a good idea. I remember when moving Windows 7 profiles was all the rage, and I had to fix numerous systems the plebs has screwed up! A little knowledge is dangerous!

[@bigbang6880]

@ if you do not know what youre doing it's a terrible idea(playing in cmd with run as admin mode), I don't have high knowledge,I do coding ,I did a 4 hour class on cmd from youtube and make note on basic stuff(so that I can get what Im doing when I use cmd ,I did that thing way back)

[@paulfrayne6519]

😊

[@MrDeadrage]

❤wow❤

[@Britec09]

Thanks

[@xtoadphrogx]

Umm.. drag and drop to another drive? IE: C: to D: (totally free in Windows since 1985)

[@One-Eyed-Willly]

Good info but not my cup of tea. I like to have a decent drive for my os/programs. Everything else I use a different drive.

[@hebecookies]

told you, junction much easier and free

[@Britec09]

already knew

[@MarquoVitali]

so just copy and make a shortcut

[@hangukhiphop]

not the most satisfying solution lol ffs windows