How to Move User Folders to Another Drive in Windows 11

Why move folders off C:

The default layout puts your data on the same drive as Windows, which made sense when there was one drive and stops making sense the moment you add a second. A 256 GB system SSD fills up fast once Documents, Downloads and Pictures hold 100 GB of photos and videos, while D: sits half empty. Moving the user folders redirects the flood: apps, browsers and the Photos importer all save through the system's known folders, so they follow automatically.

The second payoff shows up on reinstall day: when Windows is reinstalled or reset without touching D:, your documents, downloads and photo library are already sitting safely on the other drive. Backups get simpler too — one data drive to back up instead of picking through C:.

• Documents, Pictures, Downloads, Music, Videos, Desktop — all six can be moved from the Location tab
• AppData — not movable this way; leave it where Windows put it
• Installed programs — reinstall them to D: or change the path in the app's own settings, not the Location tab
• Games — each launcher has its own move function (Steam, EA app, Xbox)
• OneDrive-backed folders — turn off or pause their backup first, or the Location tab stays locked

The Location tab, step by step

First create the destination — plain empty folders like D:\Documents or D:\UserFolders\Pictures; one subfolder per library keeps things tidy and makes the drive easy to back up. Then open File Explorer, right-click the folder in the left navigation pane (Documents, say) and choose Properties → Location → Move, select the matching folder on D:, press Select Folder, then Apply. Windows asks Do you want to move all the files from the old location to the new location? — click Yes and let it copy; a library of tens of gigabytes takes a few minutes.

Repeat for each folder you are relocating, then verify: open a Save dialog in any app, and the Documents entry should point to D:. If anything looks wrong, the same Location tab has a Restore Default button that puts the folder back where Windows expects it. Do not just cut and paste the folder manually — Explorer will let you, but the system's known-folder paths still point to C:, and apps will keep dumping files into a freshly recreated C:\Users\<name>\Documents.

When the move misbehaves

The most common obstacle is OneDrive folder backup (Known Folder Move): while it is backing up Documents, Pictures or Desktop, the Location tab is managed by OneDrive, and moving is blocked or silently reverted. Turn the backup off first — OneDrive settings → Sync and backup → Manage backup — do the relocation, and optionally turn the backup on again afterwards; it will then protect the new location. A few older applications hardcode C:\Users\<name>\Documents and will recreate the old folder; that is harmless, just change their save path in their own settings.

Two more rules keep the move clean: never point two libraries at the same folder (Windows warns you, and it genuinely tangles file histories), and do not drop a library onto the bare root of D: — always a named subfolder. After the move, C: shows the freed space immediately; a follow-up pass over temp files and caches — by hand or through a scheduled cleaner like Kleaner PRO — finishes the job of getting the system drive lean again.

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