How to merge C and D hard drives as C drive running out of space

[Dot100]

I have a  C Drive and a Datadrive 1 (D) drive. The C drive is full but there is 2.71 TB free space on the D Drive. How do I merge them so I avoid space problems when updating software etc. Thank you.

[St3ve1]

Hi,

Your PC has 2 separate devices:

128GB SSD

3TB HDD

The OS is installed on the SSD for faster boot but you cannot merge the two because they are two separate devices so you cannot extend the C partition.

Best practice is to keep all your files and programs and games on the D drive that just has more space.

[mdklassen]

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@Dot100 wrote:

I have a  C Drive and a Datadrive 1 (D) drive.

The C drive is full, but there is 2.71 TB free space on the D Drive.

How do I merge them, so I avoid space problems when updating software etc. 

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To "merge":

1. Backup all the files on 'D:' to an external disk-drive.
2. Delete all those files from 'D:'.
3. Run the Windows "Disk Cleanup" utility to free-up some space on 'C:'.
4. See: How to mount a hard drive as a folder in Windows 10  to assign the entire 'D:' drive as a folder "inside" your 'Documents' folder.
5. Restore your files from that external disk-drive.
6. Store all "new" files inside that newly-created folder.

Done.

Step #3 is important: when running Windows Update, it demands free disk-space on the "real" 'C:' disk-drive; it does not use all the free-space "inside" that newly-created folder. Sigh.  You may need to "uninstall" some software, e.g., the free Adobe Reader, reboot, and then re-install it, targeting the newly-created folder to store its components.

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