How to make sure nothing else downloads to my ssd

[Cantaloupeman]

So I currently am using my ssd as my boot drive and my 1tb HDD as storage. I have installed all my really slow games on the SSD and the ones that don't have loading issues onto my HDD. I keep getting extra stuff downloading to my C drive however that I don't want. Under my Appdata games are being installed onto my HDD and my SSD. I think APEX legends might be installed in two places but I cant figure out where. Im super confused how all this works.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, Cantaloupeman said:

So I currently am using my ssd as my boot drive and my 1tb HDD as storage. I have installed all my really slow games on the SSD and the ones that don't have loading issues onto my HDD. I keep getting extra stuff downloading to my C drive however that I don't want. Under my Appdata games are being installed onto my HDD and my SSD. I think APEX legends might be installed in two places but I cant figure out where. Im super confused how all this works.

Patches and updates are going to auto-install to the directory where the program is installed. If you block this, things will crash/break.

 

[SupaKomputa]

You can use symlink to redirrect the game folder to your HDD.

Move the game folder (Origin Games / Apex) to your hdd.

And use symlink on the programfiles folder.

With this the game will think you're running from program files instead of the custom hdd folder.

 

[Eastman51]

You can change the directory of the downloads folder, pictures folder, documents, etc

 

Appdata folder exists separately from those. If there is a way to move it, I wouldn't know how.

[Mira Yurizaki]

If you're using game clients like Steam or Origin, there's typically a folder where stuff is downloaded prior to actually being installed (the so-called download cache). I know with Origin you can tell it to store download cache elsewhere. With Steam it lives with the game library (though you can use a symbolic link to redirect it elsewhere).

 

If you're referring the %APPDATA% folder, you can move this and create a symbolic link that points to it, but you have to do it on another user account and from my experience, it's best done on a fresh user account.

[Cantaloupeman]

1 minute ago, Eastman51 said:

You can change the directory of the downloads folder, pictures folder, documents, etc

 

Appdata folder exists separately from those. If there is a way to move it, I wouldn't know how.

Well I'm a bit confused because I should only have 3 games installed onto my SSD, yet it had only 50 gb left and it is a 240gb SSD. Gta V is 65 gigs, Arma 3 is 20ish, Apex is supposed to be installed onto my D drive but thats 20 gigs, rust is about 21, and windows is 20 something. So why is my SSD so full now? I do have spotify, origin, steam, discord, chrome, and NZXT Cam installed but theres no way all that equals enough storage to make a difference. 

[Eastman51]

You'd have to go into all your launchers (steam, origin, epic games, etc) and set the game library folder manually to make them install elsewhere. Otherwise its all defaulted to install on the C drive. 
 

I have a 500GB SSD boot drive, which has no games or even documents/files stored on it; just windows and basic apps (spotify, chrome, etc). It takes up 100GB. 

Windows just be like that sometimes.

[Cantaloupeman]

Just now, Eastman51 said:

You'd have to go into all your launchers (steam, origin, epic games, etc) and set the game library folder manually to make them install elsewhere. Otherwise its all defaulted to install on the C drive. 
 

I have a 500GB SSD boot drive, which has no games or even documents/files stored on it; just windows and basic apps (spotify, chrome, etc). It takes up 100GB. 

Windows just be like that sometimes.

Is there any way I can make windows dump all its crap onto my HDD instead?

[SupaKomputa]

Use something like Treesize, it will help you analize witch folders are using space.

But first i recommend you to use Disk Cleanup and make sure you click "clean system files" and delete the Temporary Files or windows install files.

[Cantaloupeman]

1 minute ago, Eastman51 said:

You'd have to go into all your launchers (steam, origin, epic games, etc) and set the game library folder manually to make them install elsewhere. Otherwise its all defaulted to install on the C drive. 
 

I have a 500GB SSD boot drive, which has no games or even documents/files stored on it; just windows and basic apps (spotify, chrome, etc). It takes up 100GB. 

Windows just be like that sometimes.

I've already got my downloads, documents, pictures, etc moved to my D drive

[Origami Cactus]

4 minutes ago, Cantaloupeman said:

Well I'm a bit confused because I should only have 3 games installed onto my SSD, yet it had only 50 gb left and it is a 240gb SSD. Gta V is 65 gigs, Arma 3 is 20ish, Apex is supposed to be installed onto my D drive but thats 20 gigs, rust is about 21, and windows is 20 something. So why is my SSD so full now? I do have spotify, origin, steam, discord, chrome, and NZXT Cam installed but theres no way all that equals enough storage to make a difference. 

Go to settings, storage, and then click on your drive name. It gives you a detail rundown of everything that is using the ssd space. you can further click into every category, to inspect further.

Pretty much like the storage setting on android.

[Eastman51]

2 minutes ago, Cantaloupeman said:

Is there any way I can make windows dump all its crap onto my HDD instead?

Short of installing Windows on the HDD, not that I'm aware of.

[Origami Cactus]

1 minute ago, SupaKomputa said:

Use something like Treesize, it will help you analize witch folders are using space.

But first i recommend you to use Disk Cleanup and make sure you click "clean system files" and delete the Temporary Files or windows install files.

why?

Why don't i ever see someone mention the windows built in storage analizer, that is really good?

You can click into each of those categories:

Spoiler

 

[SupaKomputa]

3 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

why?

Why don't i ever see someone mention the windows built in storage analizer, that is really good?

You can click into each of those categories:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Can it do this?

It will precisely report how many space used by any folders.

[Eastman51]

10 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Can it do this?

It will precisely report how many space used by any folders.

I need this.

[SupaKomputa]

2 minutes ago, Eastman51 said:

I need this.

Yes app like that is crucial to manage space.

That's why my 256gb SSD still have 80gb left.

[Cantaloupeman]

22 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

why?

Why don't i ever see someone mention the windows built in storage analizer, that is really good?

You can click into each of those categories:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Okay well whats confusing me, is that my games are appearing in the steam library folder and my apps and games section. My apps and games take up 109 gb and the steam library takes up 32? Im not sure how this is the case though because gta v is 65 gb. The only games installed on my C drive are rust (21gb), gta v (65gb), and arma (20gb)

[Origami Cactus]

20 minutes ago, Cantaloupeman said:

Okay well whats confusing me, is that my games are appearing in the steam library folder and my apps and games section. My apps and games take up 109 gb and the steam library takes up 32? Im not sure how this is the case though because gta v is 65 gb. The only games installed on my C drive are rust (21gb), gta v (65gb), and arma (20gb)

Gta V is not 65 GB. It is closer to 100gb the last time i checked. It was 65 when it launched, but the dozens of updates have made it much bigger.

[Cantaloupeman]

6 hours ago, Origami Cactus said:

Gta V is not 65 GB. It is closer to 100gb the last time i checked. It was 65 when it launched, but the dozens of updates have made it much bigger.

So the only stuff i want installed on my ssd is GTA, Rust, and Arma 3. All that added together should be 136 gb. (Gta is 85 gigs). Im just confused because with my storage sense on windows it says apps and games are 144 gbs and "other" is 50 gbs. The only folder in other is my steam library folder with those three games on it. So why are these things listed twice? And since I posted this topic, my SSD is now completely full and I havent installed anything else but portal 2 on my other HDD and TF2 on my HDD.

[Origami Cactus]

5 hours ago, Cantaloupeman said:

So the only stuff i want installed on my ssd is GTA, Rust, and Arma 3. All that added together should be 136 gb. (Gta is 85 gigs). Im just confused because with my storage sense on windows it says apps and games are 144 gbs and "other" is 50 gbs. The only folder in other is my steam library folder with those three games on it. So why are these things listed twice? And since I posted this topic, my SSD is now completely full and I havent installed anything else but portal 2 on my other HDD and TF2 on my HDD.

Can you navigate to steam folder and see which games are installed there?