Is it possible to switch Local Disks?
This is a little question regarding my main desktop's storage.
So this computer has a 1TB hard drive and 256GB solid-state drive. I originally wanted to use the hard drive as its main storage device, and the SSD as the piece of hardware for extra storage. Ever since I started using this PC, I see that the total disk space is 239GB. So this whole time, I've been using the SSD as the main storage device for this PC. Now, as I said, I originally wanted the PC's hard drive, which has 1TB, to be its main hard drive for storing system and program files, and not the solid-state drive.
So what I'm wondering is, is it possible to switch my "Local Disk" from the PC's solid-state drive to its hard drive? Thanks!
Comments
If I should take a shot at this, I assume the SSD is Drive C and the other one D (or some other letter). If that's the case, swapping around their drive betters might do the trick and if not, I'll just dump this quick tutorial here (when knowing your system has 10) > https://www.howtogeek.com/245706/how-to-change-the-default-hard-drive-for-saving-documents-and-apps-in-windows-10/
Yes, my solid-state drive does use the C variable. And you are correct, my computer does run Windows 10. However, File Explorer only shows the C drive, which is currently my SSD, and it doesn't show my hard drive. I want to make it so that I can use both drives, and have the hard drive as my PC's main C drive, and the SSD would be my additional D drive.
I might try those tricks
If it won't show the hard drive, go into Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management and choose Disk Management on the left. In there it should show the other drive and you can create and format partitions on it. If it doesn't show the drive there, something else is wrong - likely a hardware issue.
No, there are no issues with my hardware. What I meant to say was, my hard drive was probably never used by my computer in the first place, so I'm guessing maybe I've been using my hard drive as the computer's boot drive, and the solid-state drive was used as its primary storage device. Maybe I'll have to do something in the BIOS to get my HDD to be the main storage device, and the SSD as the secondary storage device. Although the Disk Management tool may also work.
If you have never used the HDD (as in there being no partitions), then you haven't been booting off of it. But you should keep the OS on your SSD, as an untweaked Windows 10 is very painful to use on a 5400 (and probably 7200) rpm HDD, with the updates, telemetry and especially the apps hogging up the I/O.
So you would have to use Disk Management to check out the HDD situation. And then once you have partitioned and formatted your HDD, you can designate it using the instructions in @Bry89's link to contain your data files.
You should keep your programs(but not games) and the OS on the SSD, but keep your files on the hard disk.
Yes, that's what I meant to say. My hard drive currently doesn't have any partitions, but my SSD does. Though it's probably not the OS's fault. Might just be how I set the storage methods up.
What I had in mind was to have my installed programs and apps on my hard drive which has more storage, and store my games on my SSD. I personally think that that's pretty efficient for computer storage. I might have to do some partitioning with both drives to make that happen.