topic Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive? in Installation & Licensing Forum

How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Sæmorr — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 11:59:19 GMT

I've got the following folders on my C: drive:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk -> 550 MB

C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk -> 183 MB

C:\Program Files (x86)\AutoCAD 2007 -> 352 MB

C:\ProgramData\Autodesk -> 4.47 GB

My C: drive is almost full, and I would like to move all autodesk contents to F: drive. Some Autodesk software can be installed on a different drive, however additional libraries and plugins to to C: no matter what. I've been looking for the Libraries feature of Windows 7, however I can't create a windows library on a custom folder.

Any idea how to do that?

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Darin.Green — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 13:49:45 GMT

Hi Saemorr,

Some installation content will always point to the C drive regardless of the location you chose during the install process. That is due to plugins and shared resources. That aside, if you're creating drawings on your local machine, then you should consider storing them on your F drive instead to help with storage.

In addition, please try clearing out your temp directory, there could be GB's worth of unnecessary data in there.

C:\Users\<username>\Appdata\Local\Temp
&
C:\Windows\Temp

Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Darin

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Sæmorr — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 17:09:25 GMT

I think the symbolic link feature may work. Moving the desired folder and creating a symbolic link to it where the original folder were should work. The only problem is that there are a lot of DLL files loaded in memory so can't perform the move operation on normal windows operation. Booting Windows in safe mode must work though.

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Sæmorr — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 14:40:12 GMT

Finally tried moving "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk" to "H:\DriveC\ProgramData\Autodesk" and working perfectly, provided that you are in Safe Mode. Luckily the ProgramData folder rised no issues because no file or library was in use during such safe mode.

This is the command ran to generate a Junction Link, from msdos Command prompt:

MKLINK /J "C:\ProgramData\Autodesk" "H:\DriveC\ProgramData\Autodesk"

It echoes a message that operation was successful:

Junction created for C:\ProgramData\Autodesk <<===>> H:\DriveC\ProgramData\Autodesk

In case it is desired to be done with the other Autodesk folders, a further workaround is required because some files are in use even in Safe mode. Those files can be found with Process Explorer or similar software using the search function. The following screenshot shows the results in my computer:

The files is use are the following ones (DLLs and Semaphores):

C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs\Autodesk REX.evtx

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Sync\QtXml_Ad_SyncNs_4.dll

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Sync\QtNetwork_Ad_SyncNs_4.dll

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Sync\QtSql_Ad_SyncNs_4.dll

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Sync\QtCore_Ad_SyncNs_4.dll

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Sync\AdSyncNamespace.dll

Although the Junction type was used in the example, the symbolic link will work also for a standard use. There are some differences between them that should be explored. Hard links are also possible to choose in some cases.

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 04:22:28 GMT

would you mind writing a more detailed guide on this process? I'm not familiar with Junction Links, or symbolic links.

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

barasalah — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:35:23 GMT

thank you worked very well for me in revit 2021 saved a lot of space

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 23:40:15 GMT

hey would you mind posting how exactly you done this? I'm having the same issue with 2021.

thanks,

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

twallace — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 15:56:01 GMT

All this is fine if you are a computer expert. I'm not. I do drafting. I can't believe you guys can't fix the simple problem so when I download the program, or want to move it to a different drive I have to go through all that. My system came new with a partitioned drive. C: drive is now out of space; even though I save drawings on an external source, and my 😧 drive has more than enough space for the programs. I just moved a 100GB simulator program yesterday with "3" clicks. Took about an hour.. Has anyone seen what's happening on Mars lately? Amazing what technology can do these days!

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

pendean — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 16:07:45 GMT

There is nothing simple about any of it; you simply cannot move the entirety of AutoCAD to another drive.
Cannot. It is not designed for it. Other programs don't count here, that is irrelevant.

Take your PC to a repair shop or hire an IT person to repartition your C: drive to something bigger, or get a higher capacity disk drive: there are even low cost tools to do it yourself.

That's the solution. Sorry if it means pain and agony, pre-partitioned C: drives are never a good idea for inexperienced users who have no IT support IMHO.

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 17:45:08 GMT

wow Mr. fancy pants... should I use a rotary phone if I don't know how to side load apps on an android? Your response is useless. Thanks for nothing.

Bottom line: AUTODESK and AUTOCAD truly need a redo. The procedures and methods of using the programs are 20years behind. Lucky that inventor even starts to mimick behaviors of more sophisticated programs.

This example of not being able to move the operation of the bloated programs somewhere else is typical.

Terrible interface and terrible user friendliness. Too bad its the only affordable package out there.

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

pendean — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 19:11:38 GMT

@Anonymous if you hate it so much and want affordable you can indeed look elsewhere, only thing holding you back is nothing really. Feel free to start here, thousands have and are doing it
https://www.google.com/search?q=alternatives+to+autocad

HTH

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 01:41:57 GMT

You can try this tool

how to move files from one drive to another

It help move apps including autodesk, onedrive, microsoft office from one disk to anohter within only a few clicks.

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

leowarren34 — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 14:55:00 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

This thread was started 5 years ago, plus it's not just as simple as moving files from one drive to another. Some files have to be on the OS drive due to how the data is used/stored.

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Labyrinth_Visual — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 17:54:24 GMT

For anybody still looking to create a "symbolic link", autodesk now has an option to do that if you create a "custom download". Not sure I necessarily understand it, because I had no idea what a symbolic link is until reading this thread. haha. But I stored the bulk of the program files in my data drive, and maya is running fine.

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

Sæmorr — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 12:55:16 GMT

You can use PowerShell to create junction links, so no problems at all. I've found that some games like GTA5 now detect that you are using a junction link and force you to do a real "install", but fortunately allow to you install games to any drive not only C:

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

dodotv007 — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 21:43:56 GMT

Are you kidding me? So your solution to change autodesk install folder is "remove other stuff that you already have on that very disk before installing autocad"?

Re: How to move all Autodesk folders to a different drive?

dodotv007 — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 21:48:24 GMT

> it's not just as simple as moving files from one drive to another

If the application was coded better instead of hard-coding drive letters and locations (lmao), it would be that simple.

>This thread was started 5 years ago

Now its more than 5years and still people have same problem that this company refuses to fix, that no other proper software has