Can I save personal files like photos, documents, and videos to D drive?

[KimiH]

I just received my new laptop. It only came with 118 GB C-drive. Shame on me for not noticing this when purchasing, I just assumed that, as with every other computer I have ever purchased, storage would be bigger and better than previous purchases. Now my 450GBs of photos and videos (which fit easily on my ten-year-old-HP) won't fit on my brand new computer's C-drive. However, my D drive (which was very small on my old computer) is 1TB. Does this mean I am supposed to save my files to the D drive now? I don't and won't use the cloud. Thanks for helping. 

[Huffer]

Yes that is exactly what that means. I suggest you simply set up Windows so that the "Library" directories (docs, music, pictures, downloads) reside on the 1 TB D:\ drive and not on the C:\ drive. 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2079571/move-your-libraries-to-a-second-drive-or-partition.html

Post back with any more questions and please accept as solution if this is the info you needed. 

[KimiH]

Thank you! I read somewhere that D-drive was not meant to be touched or it will affect system recovery should I need it. Therefore I was afraid to save anything there. Do you know why they are selling computers with such a small C-drive now? Is it just because people use the cloud for storage? 

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Partly. That small C drive is a different kind of technology called an M.2 solid state drive aka a "gumstick". It looks a bit like a memory module which has been stretched out. 

example of M.2 SSD aka "gumstick"

These are many times faster than an old school mechanical hard drive with a motor and spinning plates. However, they cost more per gigabyte so optimally you use a smaller M.2 as the "system" or "boot" disk for speed and then an old school "spinner" for pure storage. You do not need to worry about interfering with the recovery function although I do encourage you to launch the backup and recovery app HP has placed on your laptop and follow the prompts to make a recovery thumb drive. It needs to be 16 gigs I believe. Put that in an envelope and store it somewhere you can find it when you need to as it will save your bacon if the hard drive crashes or gets infected. 

Welcome to the world of personal computing in the 3rd decade of the 21st century!