1. Moving Your Files Away from Windows 8
I described how to create a new partition when installing Windows.
But what if you want to move your data to a separate partition after
you have already installed Windows 8? To help you do this, Windows 8
includes a feature to grow and shrink the size of partitions and then
allows you to make extra partitions in the available disk space created.
In preparation for moving
your data to a new partition, delete any temporary files that consume
space. Windows 8 can shrink the partition it’s installed on by only so
much. The more files
and programs you have installed on the partition, the less Windows 8
will be able to shrink the drive. To remove unneeded files, perform the
following steps:
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Open the Start screen and type free to find the Disk
Cleanup Wizard, which will be in the System section of the results,
labeled as Free Up Disk Space By Deleting Unnecessary Files, as shown in
Figure 1.
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Run the wizard, indicating which drive you want to clean. (This will usually be the C drive.)
You will be able to select various options in the Disk Cleanup dialog
box for recovering wasted space on your hard disk or Windows 8
partition. It is safe to choose any of the available options in Desk
Cleanup, which are illustrated in Figure 2.
You might also want to use a third-party utility to help clean up your drives. I recommend CCleaner from www.piriform.com/ccleaner.
Shrinking, Extending, and Creating Partitions
The next step toward creating a new partition for your data is to
shrink the size of the Windows 8 partition so that you can create space
for a separate partition. You can also extend a partition if there is
any available space into which it can expand, although you will not need
to do this in this instance.
If your files are
already on the same partition or drive as Windows 8, you should move
them to a separate disk or partition if possible. Having a copy of your files
on the same partition you are trying to shrink will severely limit how
much it can contract. To shrink a partition, perform the following
steps:
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Open the Computer Management console.
The quickest way to find this is to press Windows logo key+X to bring
up the Administration menu and select Computer Management from the
results that appear.
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In the Computer Management window, in the left pane, click Disk Management.
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A list of the available hard disks and their partitions appears in the center panel of the window (see Figure 3).
Note in the example that I have two hard disks on this particular
computer and two backup partitions on a different hard disk than my main
copies of Windows and my files. One backup partition is for files and one is for a copy of Windows. I also keep a second backup of my files separate from my computer.
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Right-click the partition you want to shrink and select Shrink Volume, as demonstrated in Figure 3.
Windows 8 determines the maximum amount it can shrink the partition.
On a new installation of Windows 8 with no additional files, this can be
quite a lot.
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Choose a new partition size that will meet your needs and then click OK.
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In the blank volume that you have created, right-click anywhere in
the empty space, and then from the options panel that appears, select
Create Volume.
You will want to format the new volume you create so that you can write files to it by using the NTFS option. This is the default disk formatting type in Windows 8.
Moving the Shell User Folders
If you followed the procedure in the previous section, you now have a spare partition onto which you can move your files. But first you need to move the shell user folders to the new partition. Shell
user folders are the pointers within Windows 8 that open the correct
folder on the correct disk or partition when you click My Documents, My
Pictures, and so on. Follow these steps to move the shell user folders:
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Open File Explorer on the desktop.
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At the far left side of the address bar, next to the folder icon,
click the small arrow to bring up a menu of folder locations, as
depicted in Figure 4.
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From the drop-down menu that appears, select your username.
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In your user folder, select the folders that you want to move.
I would suggest Downloads, Favorites, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos.
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On the ribbon, click Cut.
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Navigate to the partition or disk to which you want to move your user folders.
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On the ribbon, click Paste.
