How to Save C Drive Space Using Powerful Directory Links?

When it comes to cleaning up the C drive, besides the traditional “delete” operation, we can also use the “move” operation to relocate files from the C drive to other partitions, effectively freeing up space.

However, sometimes we don’t know which files in the C drive can be safely moved and which ones might cause system or software issues. After all, many files in the C drive play a crucial role in maintaining system stability and software usability. So today, I’ll introduce a method that allows you to move files from the C drive to another partition while keeping their original file paths unchanged.

Sounds magical, doesn’t it? How can a file’s path remain unchanged after it has been moved?

Keep reading.

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Directory Links

A directory link, also known as a symbolic link, is a type of shortcut in the file system. Directory links only apply to folder operations. You can create a directory link for any folder at any location.

What happens if we create a directory link for the folder C:\Users\Windows\desktop at D:\000?

The answer is: a shortcut to the folder C:\Users\Windows\desktop appears inside the D:\000 folder.

What happens when we click on this shortcut?

This is the essence of directory links: the address bar in File Explorer displays the path as D:\000\desktop.

So, if a software application specifically needs the folder D:\000\desktop, this directory link shortcut can completely fool the software into believing that there is a real folder named desktop inside D:\000, and that this desktop folder can be opened, with the path also showing as D:\000\desktop.

However, when reading or writing files to D:\000\desktop, the actual folder being accessed is still C:\Users\Windows\desktop, because D:\000\desktop is just a shortcut that doesn’t consume any actual space on the D drive.

Using this method, we can deceive not only software but also the Windows system itself.

Now that we’ve covered the theory, let’s dive into how to implement it.

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Quickly Creating Folder Directory Links

The Link Shell Extension (LSE) software can help us quickly and batch-create directory links, hard links, symbolic links, and other special link types.

Official website:

https://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html#contact

The software is very lightweight but requires Microsoft’s runtime libraries. Your computer needs to have the common Microsoft runtime libraries installed.

After installing the software, when you right-click a file or folder, an additional option called “Select Source Link Point” appears in the context menu. This is LSE’s shell extension.

Example: Moving the folder C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Tencent from the C drive to the D drive and creating a directory link at its original location.

Here’s how to do it:

• Copy the folder C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Tencent to any location on the D drive (e.g., D:\000), then delete the original folder from the C drive.
• Right-click the Tencent folder inside D:\000 and select “Select Source Link Point“.
• Navigate back to the C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming folder, right-click on an empty area, and select “Create as... → Directory Link (M)“.
• This will create a directory link for the D:\000\Tencent folder. When you open this directory link, the address bar in File Explorer will display the path as C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Tencent\.
• The next time you open any Tencent-related software, it will read and write to the D:\000\Tencent folder through this directory link.

Using this method, you can apply this technique to many folders on the C drive, moving files and folders you’re unsure about or cannot move to other partitions, thus saving space on the C drive.

However, some folders cannot be moved this way, such as system driver folders. Although these folders may be large, drivers are loaded before the system boots, and directory links are not active at that point. Moving these folders could cause the system to crash.

Sometimes, files in the C drive have high permissions, making it impossible to operate on them directly within the current system. In such cases, you can use a PE system to copy and paste those unmovable folders to the target location, then return to Windows to create their directory links. After that, boot into the PE system again to delete the original folder from the C drive and rename the directory link to match the original folder’s name. (This process is a bit more involved.)

For large projects, productivity software, and big games that default to storing their files on the C drive without offering an option to change the path, directory links provide an excellent solution.