How can you move or transfer a Minecraft root folder to another drive?
I have recently gotten my hands on a new computer (MSI G Series GS70 STEALTH-037 - specs below if relevant) that has a Solid State Drive (SSD) that goes along with my hard drive (HDD). I would like to move Minecraft to the SSD is because it will be a lot smoother and faster than on the hard drive.
How can I move/transfer/change Minecraft from using the typical root it goes to in the %appdata% folder to the SSD drive?
PC Specs:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-4700HQ 2.4 GHz (6 MB Cache)
- RAM: 12 GB DDR3L SDRAM
- Drives: 750 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive, 128 GB Solid-State Drive
- Display/Graphics: 17.3-Inch Screen, NVIDIA GeForce GTX860M with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM
- OS: Windows 8.1
Best Answer
You can use mklink to create a directory junction, which will enable you to access Minecraft in the usual way while it is physically stored elsewhere (in your case, on another drive).
Move the Minecraft folder where you want it to physically reside, then hit Win-R, enter cmd, hit Enter and input the following command:
mklink /j link target, where target is the new location of the Minecraft folder and link is where it originally was.
Example: mklink /j C:\Users\Username\Appdata\Roaming\.minecraft D:\Minecraft
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Quick Answer about "How can you move or transfer a Minecraft root folder to another drive?"
Can I move my minecraft folder to another drive?
You can easily move Minecraft from one drive to another using app migration software. Or you can manually migrate Minecraft to a different drive in Windows Settings or change the location of the Minecraft file.How do you move from C to D drive in Minecraft?
Scroll down the list and find Minecraft in the list. Click it and you will see a Move button. Click the move button and a small menu will open where you can select a drive to move Minecraft to.How do I change the root folder in Minecraft?
Move the . minecraft folder to where you want it to be. Then, open your launcher and go into the Installations tab, click on the profile you play on, click on browse button under Game Directory, and select the . minecraft from the directory you moved it to.How to Change Minecraft's Location \u0026 Directory (2022)
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Answer 2
Assuming you are on Windows, this might be easy.
This link has a solution that is simple enough. In summary:
- move/copy the .minecraft folder to another location
- create a batch file that sets the APPDATA environment variable (for that session) to the folder you want minecraft to run in and then execute the minecraft.exe
- run the batch when you wish to play
This said, I think the biggest thing you can do to improve minecraft performance is to give it more RAM (either by having more RAM and/or telling the Java process it can use more memory) if you aren't already.
NOTE: Calling "SET" in a batch file only SET's the environment variable for that command window session. It does not affect any other session/window except those launched from that window. IOW, it's harmless for this purpose.
Answer 3
Even when you choose the game directory minecraft will still work on the main drive. On the game directory are saved only texture packs and saves. So basically useless
Answer 4
In Windows you have local profile of Minecraft in %APPDATA%.minecraft. Assuming you want to move .minecraft to your SSD disk D:
Move directory %APPDATA%.minecraft to D:\Games\
Run CMD as administrator and execute:
mklink /j %APPDATA%\.minecraft D:\Games\.minecraft
You will have junction in your profile and you can use both of them in Minecraft Launcher.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: John Diez, Sora Shimazaki, Sora Shimazaki, John Diez