Maximize Your Storage: Expert Ways to Expand Capacity Without Buying a New SSD

Published Apr 17, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

Tashreef's fascination with consumer technology began in the school library when he stumbled upon a tech magazine, CHIP, which ultimately inspired him to pursue a degree in Computer Science. Since 2012, Tashreef has professionally authored over a thousand how-to articles, contributing to Windows Report and How-To Geek. He currently focuses on Microsoft Windows content at MakeUseOf, which he has been using since 2007.

With hands-on experience building websites and technology blogs, he brings practical developer insights to his technical writing. You can view his complete work portfolio at itashreef.com.

You might also stumble upon his short how-to video explainers, simplifying complex topics. Beyond writing, Tashreef enjoys creating short explainer videos, gaming, and exploring animated shows.

When you have a high-performance but puny SSD, as I do from Samsung, you are in a dilemma. You don't want to let go of an expensive SSD that still works great, but you also need a bigger drive because your primary SSD keeps running out of storage, and Windows keeps blaring the low storage warning even when you are doing basic tasks such as browsing the web. So, what should you do?

The truth is, as long as you have a secondary storage drive, preferably a SATA SSD, you don't need to replace your primary one at all. Windows lets you move Store apps to another drive in a couple of clicks, and for everything else that's eating your space, like game libraries, Docker images, and the Downloads folder, junction points let you redirect the folder without the app ever knowing it moved. It's the same kind of cleanup thinking I had when I went looking for hidden folders that quietly hoard gigabytes on my SSD, except this time the goal is relocation instead of deletion.

Move Store apps to a secondary drive

The easiest place to start freeing up space

The first thing you can do when your C: drive starts choking is move Microsoft Store apps to your secondary SSD. Windows has a built-in option for this, and it works without any third-party tools or registry edits. Store apps are usually the safest to relocate because Microsoft designed the Store framework with portable installs in mind.

To move an app, open Settings, head to Apps > Installed apps, and find the app you want to move. Click the three-dot menu next to it and select Move. A dialog appears with a drop-down to pick the target drive. Pick your secondary drive and hit Move again. Windows handles the file copy and updates the internal references on its own, so shortcuts and Start menu entries keep working.

You'll notice that not every app shows the Move option for core system components like Microsoft Store, Xbox, and most Win32 apps installed via .exe files have it grayed out. That's because system apps are tied to Windows itself, and Win32 installers write to fixed paths and the registry in ways that don't survive a simple folder move. For those, you need a different approach.

One more thing to check is that your destination drive must be formatted as NTFS. FAT32 and exFAT drives won't appear in the drop-down because they don't support the permission model Windows uses for app sandboxing.

Move game libraries and Docker images

Use the official tools whenever they exist

For everything that isn't a Store app, check if the program has its own move option, and use it. Game launchers ship with built-in tools for relocating their data, and these are far safer than messing with files manually. The launcher knows its own file structure and updates the relevant config files for you.

Let's try to move some Steam games to demonstrate how it works. Open Steam, go to Steam > Settings > Storage, and click the + button to add your secondary drive as a new library folder. Once added, you can either right-click a single game in your library, pick Properties > Local Files > Move install folder, and choose the new library. Or you can open the Storage manager, tick multiple games on the source drive, hit Move, and shift them all in one go. Battle.net, Epic Games Launcher, and GOG Galaxy also have similar built-in options buried in their settings.

Docker is trickier, but still doable

Docker Desktop is a different beast because it stores everything inside a single VHDX file that grows dynamically and never shrinks on its own. To move it, open Hyper-V Manager, create a new fixed-size VHDX called docker_data.vhdx on your secondary drive (I went with 100 GB), then open Docker Desktop's Settings > Resources and browse to a folder on the new drive as the disk image location. Hit Apply & Restart. Docker creates a DockerDesktopWSL\disk folder there with its own VHDX.

Once done, quit Docker completely, delete that auto-generated VHDX, and drop your fixed-size one in its place with the same name. Restart Docker, and it'll use your fixed-size disk going forward.

Importantly, back up any critical containers and volumes before you do this. The swap is reversible, but file replacement always carries a small risk.

Related

Move all other apps using junction points

Robocopy plus mklink does the heavy lifting

For regular Win32 apps without a built-in move option, you can fake the move using a directory junction. The idea is to physically copy the program folder to your secondary drive, then create a junction at the original location that transparently redirects every read and write to the new path. Windows, the Start menu, and the app itself all keep thinking the files live where they always did. It's a much cleaner approach than trying to delete random Windows files and folders to reclaim space, which usually only buys you a few hundred megabytes anyway.

Before you start, create a system restore point in case something breaks. Then open File Explorer, find the app folder under C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86), and create a destination folder on your secondary drive like D:\Apps\AppName. Open Command Prompt as administrator and run:

robocopy "C:\Program Files (x86)\AppName" "D:\Apps\AppName" /E /COPYALL

Once the copy finishes, delete the original folder on C: (close the app fully via Task Manager if Windows complains it's in use), then create the junction:

mklink /J "C:\Program Files (x86)\AppName" "D:\Apps\AppName"

Launch the app from the Start menu to confirm it still works. The shortcut hits the original path, the junction silently redirects to the new one, and the app loads from your secondary drive.

Junction points can break some apps

When the redirect quietly causes problems

Junctions work for most everyday apps, but things can still go wrong. The biggest gotcha is updates and uninstallers. Some installers detect the junction and either refuse to update, overwrite the junction with a real folder during the update (leaving you with a split install across two drives), or fail in confusing ways that look like permission errors.

Apps that store absolute paths in the registry or in their config files can also misbehave. Most modern apps use relative paths, but security tools, drivers, anti-cheat-protected games, and anything tightly integrated with Windows are risky candidates. I'd avoid junctioning antivirus software, VPN clients with kernel drivers, and game launchers with anti-cheat entirely. The performance and stability cost isn't worth the few gigabytes you'll save.

Backup software is also prone to causing issues with this method. Some sync and backup tools skip junctioned directories entirely, others follow them and back up the same data twice, and a few break on junction loops. Test your backup routine after moving anything important, and keep a list somewhere of which folders you junctioned so you can roll them back if needed.

If something does go sideways, the cleanest fix is usually to delete the junction (it deletes like a normal folder, but only the link, not the data), reinstall the app fresh on whichever drive you want it on, and skip the junction trick for that one.

Samsung 980 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD with Heatsink

The Samsung 980 Pro is easily one of the fastest NVMe SSDs out there, boasting impressive read speeds of up to 7,000MB/s and write speeds of up to 5,000MB/s it really is a force to be reckoned with in the storage market. If you are looking for an NVMe SSD with faster performance for your PS5, the Samsung 980 Pro is a perfect choice. In fact, it is listed as one of Sony's recommended NVMe SSDs for the PlayStation 5's second hard drive slot, making it officially supported. In addition to the included heatsink, Samsung's cutting-edge thermal control algorithm, coupled with the high-quality nickel coating ensures that the device continues to run at low temperatures at all times, even when being pushed to its limits

Worth trying before you spend money on a new SSD

I've done a bit of everything for my setup. I've moved Store apps through Settings, my Steam games to a dedicated library on my SATA SSD, Docker pointed at a fixed-size VHDX on the same drive, and a handful of junctioned apps for stubborn installers that refused to install anywhere else. It freed up close to 100 GB on my primary drive and let me keep the fast NVMe for Windows, my browser profile, and the apps that benefit from the speed.

This is certainly not a permanent fix if your primary drive is genuinely too small for your workflow, but it bought me at least another year before I have to think about a bigger NVMe. For most people running into low storage warnings, the problem isn't drive size; it's where the bulk of the data lives.