The default C drive is too small. How to make Windows boot from D drive

Solution 1:

If this is the product you own then you are sorely out of luck.

This laptop has 32 GB of eMMC (flash) storage which means the storage is literally soldered onto the motherboard and non-upgradable.

I am not sure where your "WORK" D:\ drive came from but I am going to assume that it is attached via USB.

In theory you can run CloneZilla to transfer your OS onto the D:\ drive and boot from it IF your BIOS even offers the option to boot from an external drive. This option will erase the contents of D:\.

The other option is to offload as many files to the D:\ drive as possible.

Side-note: it should be a crime to sell severely hobbled computers like these in this day and age. You can get a phone with better specs for that kind of money.

Update:

After translating the Amazon product page I see that the description states:

It has a 32GB flash memory expandable with SSD

So, assuming that you have an SSD inside the machine and based on this newfound information you should be able to use CloneZilla to transfer your current Windows install to the D:\ drive. This of course assumes that your BIOS allows you to boot from the SSD.

Solution 2:

Is it possible to make Disk 0 (currently mapped as D drive) to become C, and visible as the boot partition? Is it possible to i.e merge the two physical drives to be visible as one single C drive?

No, this is not possible unless you reinstall Windows.

A 32GB drive simply is not big enough to run Windows 10 nowadays. Technically speaking it is enough, but indeed, you will not be able to run everything.

It is possible to construct something to move data from C to D, but it can literally break Windows.

You can move folders from C to D, then recreate junctions using mklink /j.

You definitely cannot move the Windows folder, and program files is another one you cannot move. The Users folder is possible, but may break things if not done correctly. Folders inside a users folder can be moved though.

My suggestion is to buy a bigger drive. I recommend 128 Gig minimum, and clone the disk to that drive and then replace it.

Solution 3:

Assuming there is nothing on the d-drive that you want, or if there is, back it up first to a USB drive (I noticed that the amount of data is not great so it would fit on an 8GB drive), you could clone the disk 1 to the disk 2 in its entirety, and set to boot from that. There are a couple of ways to do that, including in the BIOS, switching the locations of the drives after.

Lastly, and this would not be my preference, but you can change the location of the Windows Update downloads. It is explained here.