How install to drive other than C

[scook]

When creating directory junctions the name used for the junction cannot already exist on the drive.

IOW in the following command

mklink /j "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk" D:\Cakewalk

will fail if there already is a folder called Cakewalk in "C:\Program Files" because the file system cannot have both a folder and a directory junction with the same name.

 

The process is

• Move the folder from its current location to the new location
• Then create the junction using the old folder name pointing the the new folder location.

 

 

[Gabriel235]

This is absolutely unbelievable @bandlab - your assistant installer doesn't provide any option to change the default folders which you can view (and open a finder browse) on settings in the windows assistant app. Please prioritize installation folder customization as an option in a future release. Please.

Gabriel

[Tez]

On 10/23/2020 at 5:08 PM, John Schlegel said:

tried all these methods...although there are some minor differences to get into admin command...... The command for cakewalk projects worked, but, the second one program files \cakewalk  to D:\cakewalk does not. it keeps saying it cannot create the file because the file already exists ????

The only thing I can suggest is does "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk" actually exist on your system? If it does you need to move it to your desired location before creating a soft link  or a junction to that location. As for running as an administrator the simplest way I know is to be logged on as an administrator, right click the batch file and select "Run as administrator"...

[JohnK]

i have a TINY old SSD (125GB RAID1, its old and hence small) but I have a heap of programs and samples "installed" on C drive (>400GB), as well as the OS and apps etc. what i did a few years back when it first started to get overloaded/full was create junction points. in the OS, it appears that it physically sits on the C drive (SSD), at a very low system level, it jumps to another drive (a HDD). It is actually used heavily by the windows OS already, so its not something unusual/funky. i have moved my stuff onto my 4TB RAID1 H drive (a large pinning HDD) 

So my C drive looks like the below in windows explorer (Take note of the different folder icons on the Junction Points. NB: The red circles are simply cut points I added to the image to make it smaller

And below is my H drive i.e. the true physical location of the files.

An example command I used

Quote

mklink /D /J "C:\Program Files\Music Applications" "H:\JunctionSources\C_Program Files_Music Applications"

I have mostly done it after the fact (ie installed to C and then transferred to H). But If you create an empty folder/junction point and then install, I would say it will be installed directly to H. Currently, as I have a junction point on "C:\Program Files\Music Applications" to "H:\JunctionSources\C_Program Files_Music Applications", anything I install under "C:\Program Files\Music Applications\*" will actually get installed to H drive, but appear to be located on C drive to the OS and the app itself.

Once its done, its totally transparent to the user, i.e. no need to run as system admin.

Edited November 29, 2020 by JohnK
spelling / typos

[hockeyjx]

It seems like the long way to go about it. Cloning the old drive to a new one with more space is a better play.

[dave coomber]

@JohnK  Glad you posted this.  I came to this thread because I have a 128GB SSD and a 1TB HDD.  Mklink does seem to be the way to handle this.  Many people are aware of what the winsxs folder is for, and this is how it works.  I just didn't know it was available to ordinary users.  For others getting this far here is a link I found from my searches to understand how this works.  Explains it simply and understandably:

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

It's of particular use after you have installed a program, and then create junctions using copy/paste to get things right.

Now I gotta go find out what happens when you want to make a backup image of your drive.

Edited February 1, 2021 by dave coomber