Mounting a hard drive as a folder in Windows?

Question

Why would you mount a hard drive as a folder? I am asking this because I have a 120gb SSD hard drive that runs Windows 10 and I also have a 1TB HDD in this computer as well that I have not partitioned yet.

Solution

If you are referring to Windows' option to mount a hard drive as an NTFS (the file system windows runs on) Folder. This folder will appear on your other hard drive, but not take up any space on it.

This means anything you put inside that folder actually goes onto the hard drive.

The benefits are that you do not need to map extra drive letter and it allows you to continue to use a logical folder structure if you have one.

Its not a fantastic idea in practice, as it hides where the files actually are which can be confusing. I'm not sure how windows reports the capacity usage on a drive in use like this, you may have to right click and look at the folder to see usage rather than being able to go to "my computer" and seeing quickly.

Comments

[Admin]

What do you want to do exactly?

[Admin]

The question is unclear.

[Admin]

I think he is refering to the ability to mount a hard drive as a folder: windowscentral.com/how-mount-hard-drive-folder-windows-10 Is that correct @Charlie? If not please explain where you are seeing the option to mount as a file.

[Admin]

@lister your right

[Admin]

@Charlie No worries, If we edit your question slightly it should help others who have the same question as you down the line.

[Admin]

Ok I will edit when I get a second. Thanks again

[Admin]

Thats fine, thanks for editing. Welcome to super user :P

[Admin]

"Why" questions are broad and are asking for opinion and speculation. There are reasons, that is sufficient. Are you trying to decide if that is the right thing for you to do? That is also a matter of opinion where only you can make that choice.

[Admin]

Why questions prompt pros and cons

[BeardedWonder_30]

Thanks for the explanation. That's exactly what I was looking for