Micro Mart - 10 March 2016_

84 Issue 1361

z

JASON

ASK

Send your questions to:

Jason D’Allison

Micro Mart

Dennis Publishing

30 Cleveland Street

London

W1T 4JD

Contact Jason by email at:

[email protected]

While we try to cover as many

questions as we can, we regret

that Jason cannot answer your

questions personally, but he’ll cover

as many as he possibly can each

week. Please ask one question per

letter and remember to include the

full specification of your computer,

including its operating system.

Jason

Meet Jason

D’Allison, a veteran

of Micro Mart’s panel

of experts. He’s here

to help with any

technical questions,

including anything

to do with tablets or

smartphones, as well

as PCs

Location,Location,Location

A few months ago, thanks to advice Ireceived on

the Micro Mart forums (forum.micromart.co.uk),

I successfully fitted an SSD to my laptop. It’s in the

bay formerly occupied by the DVD drive (whichI

seldom used). All’s well, but I could only afforda

120GB model at the time and this is now running

short of space.

I’ve had the idea of movingWindows’ ‘special’ file

folders – Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures,

and Videos – to the 500GB spinner, which still sits in

the laptop’s hard-drive bay. It’s three-quarters empty,

and I could free up 50GB on the SSD at a stroke.

With ‘normal’ folders, I can just cut and paste, but

with these other folders, no cut option seems to

exist. I’m runningWindows 10 – is that the problem?

Even if I do move them, will programs know where

to find them?

D Collins,Virgin Media

As you’ve found,Windows’ default save folders can’t

be moved in the same way as user-created folders.

It’s still straightforward to do, though. Nothing’s

changed inWindows 10.

Right-click, say, Documents and select Properties.

In the new window, which will show the default

root path of C:\Users\[Username], hit the Location

tab and click the Move button. In the next new

window, browse to the desired folder or drive and

click Select Location. Back in original window, click

OK. A warning box will appear – clickYes to confirm

the action. Finally, repeat the process for any other

folders you’d like to move.

Windows will sort out all the tricky stuff that goes

on behind the scenes.Your programs will save to

and open from the new paths automatically (unless

directed otherwise).You’re quite right that shunting

personal data to a spinner is your best bet when SSD

storage is getting tight. Most user files don’t really

benefit from an SSD’s miniscule access times and

ultra-fast sequential read and write speeds. Program

and system files do, so it’s essential to keep them

where they belong.

jWhen SSD space gets low, it’s a good idea to move

Windows’ default file folders to an HDD – but how’s

it done?

84 Issue 1404

AccessAllAreas

Here’s another problem with folders...

I’ve been tasked withretrieving the data offa

work colleague’s laptop. He dropped it and it

won’t turn on, but I think the hard drive’s okay.

I’ve hooked it up to my desktop PC via a USB

enclosure and I can see all the folders, but access

is denied – I don’t have the correct permissions. Is

there a wayround this? Surely it must be possible

to back the data up,ready for transfer to a new

system. I’m runningWindows 7, and I think my

colleague was too.

Stephen Martin,Yorkshire

It’s a security measure, as I’m sure you’re aware. If

your colleague’s laptop were stolen, his data would

be safe from easy access. Of course, such a measure

becomes a right royal pane in the glass when

someone’s innocently trying to back the data up.

Luckily – or unluckily for anyone relying on it – it’sa

doddle to circumvent.