How to free Space from LAptop by moving all native to HArd drive

Hello, got myself an SSD to move my NI stuff (which is now already on an external (spinning) HD).

Is there a way to Repair-Relocate ALL in 1 go in NA2?

I realise this is an old thread, but I suspect there are, and will be, others like me with this problem, who come across this thread and (entirely my fault) not understand that @MyStudioOne response explained the cause. That is, I don't think I read MyStudioOne's answer carefully enough to realise it answered my question. I was too frustrated at the time about the problem! I hope that by me providing a detailed example of the cause, why it is occurring, and what to do about it, others will not overlook MyStudioOne's answer like I did.

Like others, my NI libraries (e.g. Lores, Orchestral Essentials) are installed on an external drive (in my case D:). The 'Content' path in Native Access is D: as well. As others have observed, the Win 10 'storage tool' lists the NI libraries as Apps on C: under 'Apps & features', which is clearly incorrect. How can the NI libraries show as an App on C:, while the CONTENT of the libraries are on an external drive? Well, it's complicated!

If I had read MyStudioOne's answer more carefully, it wouldn't have taken me so long to realise that the Win 10 'storage tool' information is incorrect. In my case, the opening screen of the storage tool said my C: was taken up with 68Gb in Apps, 49Gb in Music, 12Gb in OneDrive, etc. (It turns out, this was pretty accurate.)

The incorrect information was in the 'Apps & features' breakdown (and filtered by C: only and sorted by size), which listed NI Lores library at the top (67Gb), then Orchestral Essentials 2 (20Gb), then Orchestral Essentials (8Gb) etc. There were 188 apps in total listed with sizes, including NI libraries. For a long while I was blind to the obvious (and MyStudioOne's answer) that even though the NI Libraries are listed, the sizes are not being counted in the total I saw on the opening screen. These three libraries alone total 95Gb, and therefore much larger than the total of 68Gb of Apps shown on the opening screen.

I think, like most people, I assumed the Win 10 storage tool would only list Apps contributing to the total on the opening screen. I therefore didn't manually add the sizes in the breakdown to realise the totals don't match. It is understandable that we get confused like this when we think the information we see is correct.

But information in the 'storage tool' is incorrect, so the question is why? It turns out it's due to the combined quirks of how NI installs libraries (or CONTENT) and how Win 10 works out the size of Apps.

Based on discussions with NI support, it appears that NI Libraries are installed as Apps, but the CONTENT of libraries can be moved to an external drive, as per the NI instructions (see above). For example, NI Lores (a music library, not an App) is registered in Win 10 as an App on C: during Native Access installation. The Lores CONTENT folder is placed in the CONTENT path stated in Native Access preferences (e.g. an external drive). This means NI libraries are registered as Apps living on C:, but their CONTENT can be on D: (in my case).

It's similar to how the MS Word App can be on C: but the content (e.g. docs) are stored elsewhere (e.g. on D:). This is why NI libraries get listed under 'Apps & features' on C: by the storage tool, but the CONTENT of the library is not taking up space on C: because it is on an external drive (like D:).

The quirk with Win 10 'storage tool', as MyStudioOne hints at, is that if the App installation process on Win 10 does not register the size of the App, the Win 10 storage tool tries to work out the size by searching for folders with the same name. It appears the storage tool finds the folders on the external drive, and uses that size. So even though Win 10 sees the NI library as 'App' installed on C:, it thinks the App size includes the matching external drive folder.

This explains why when an NI library 'App' is deleted via Native Access, it is deleted from the 'Apps & features' list as well, because Native Access deregisters the NI library as an App on C:. (And for those who tried to delete the NI Library via the Win 10 storage tool, it also explains why the NI library folder on the external drive disappears because that folder is the CONTENT for the NI Library App. But don't do that. You should only uninstall NI libraries via the Native Access app.)

What this means is that the Win 10 'storage tool' is not useful for finding the offending storage hogs on C: if you have NI libraries installed. Instead, you must use a different software tool.

I installed TreeSize (free software for analysing disk storage use) and discovered that the real culprit behind me losing space on C: was actually my DAW projects (including WAV files from bounced tracks) which I keep in my Music folder.

So the solution to this problem is don't use the Win 10 'storage tool' to work out what is consuming space on your main C: drive. Use something else. It also means that, despite what the storage tool implies, the NI libraries are not using up space on C: if you have moved them correctly to an external drive as per the instructions provided by the NI support team (see the links provided in this thread).