moving program to another drive

[Guest]

Hi,
my PC have 2 drive C and D. All my program files are install in C. Now drive
C is almost full meanwhile drive D still have a lot of space. Could I move
any program files folder to D (without installing the program again in drive
D) and run program without problems? what is the best way to move programs
from C to D. without reinstall from C and install to D again?
Thanks

 

[R. McCarty]

Better to re-allocate some of D's space back to C:. Moving
programs isn't recommended. There are associations inside
the Registry that will reference it's original path. If you move
the folders the application may not work or work correctly.
Unfortunately, dynamic re-allocation of space cannot be done
with Windows - it requires a 3rd party app like Acronis Disk
Management or BootIT-NG. Partition Magic is also a choice,
but I try to avoid recommending any Symantec/Norton apps.
If space is critical, you might be able to redirect a few system
folders to D:\ to get a little additional space. Things like the
\ServicePackFiles and \DllCache can get you back ~1.25 Gig.
If you do opt for reallocating space, be sure to backup/image
before starting. Most times it (re-allocation) works, but there
is a minor risk that if it fails the PC may not be bootable.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

my PC have 2 drive C and D. All my program files are install in C.
Now drive C is almost full meanwhile drive D still have a lot of
space. Could I move any program files folder to D (without
installing the program again in drive D) and run program without
problems? what is the best way to move programs from C to D. without
reinstall from C and install to D again?

Because installed programs have many pointers to them, in the registry and
elsewhere, you can generally not do this (except for a very occasional tiny
self-contained program).

There is software that purports to search out all these references and
change them for you, such as COA.exe. I've tried such programs in the past
and found them to be considerably less than perfect. I don't recommend
trying this; the best thing to do is to unintsall, then reinstall the
programs from their original media.