Music, video, and pictures that users store on their Windows 8 devices are not just pieces of digital content. Stories about who these users are, documentation of their family’s existence, and sometimes the only way to prove they’ve gone on a particular vacation or met a particular person.
Essentially, these pieces of data are the life of the user. These great, personal computers were always going to be part digital notebook and part eternal scrapbook.
The problem is that unlike paper scrapbooks and physical CD collections, Windows 8 devices can be left infected. More importantly, users may run out of space to store all those memories.
So what should a user do when their Windows 8 device runs out of storage space? Fortunately, all recent versions of Windows include something called the Library. A library effectively combines different locations on users’ hard drive and treats them as one. For example, in Windows XP there was a My Music folder that users had to drop their media into if they wanted it to appear in Windows Media Player. Libraries allowed music to be stored anywhere. By comparison, the Music, Video and Pictures apps in Windows 8 can be configured to combine different folders. This means users can store media anywhere such as SD card or hard drive and keep it separate from their applications and programs.
Here’s how to move your music, videos and pictures to an SD card or external hard drive in Windows 8. Before we begin, it’s important to remember that your device must have the Windows 8.1 update installed to perfectly match what it looks like. in the screenshots below. If you’re not sure if you have Windows 8.1 installed, go to the Windows Store by tapping or clicking the Store icon on your Start Screen and look for a giant purple banner asking you to download Windows 8.1 for free. If you haven’t installed the update, install it now. The process should take a few hours at most.
Moving Your Files
The first thing you will want is your external storage. If you are using a desktop computer, it is a very good idea to invest in a USB external hard drive. They take up more space but cost less for more storage.
Windows 8 tablet users are in a slightly different position. It is better for them to check if their device has an external storage slot. For example, The Surface tablets all have microSD card slots. Check if your tablet has an external storage slot. Smaller types of storage like flash drives and SD cards will cost more for more storage, but the entry price is worth it because you don’t have to worry about carrying a large external drive with you wherever you go.
The last and most important type of external storage includes OneDrive. Built into Windows 8, OneDrive allows users to store their stuff on Microsoft’s servers. If implemented properly, things in these folders will appear as if they are stored on the actual device as long as there is no internet connection. Storage packages on OneDrive cost $25 for every 50GB of data, and users must pay this fee once a year. We won’t go into details about OneDrive cloud storage in this how-to, but we’ve discussed it in detail in: Top 5 Ways to Backup Your Windows 8 Device.
First, enter your device. If you chose to use a hard drive, plug it into your USB port. If you have chosen a microSD card, now is the time to insert it into your device. Windows 8 devices don’t have a single place to expect a microSD card slot, so it’s best to refer to the instructions that came with your individual device for how to install your device.
A popup window should open with all the files of this storage device. If it is new, the window will be blank. Since we have already recorded some things on our device, there is something in it.
icon in the Taskbar of your Desktop, using a mouse. It is located at the bottom of your screen. Tablet users must tap and hold the icon to open the menu. Users adding a hard drive should right-click on that hard drive in their Taskbar.
Now tap or click on it to open a new window.
Select the type of media you want to move to your external storage and tap or click the corresponding folder. In this case, we are going over some of the music stored in the music folder of our Windows 8 device.
For organizational purposes, you may want to create new folders in the window for your new storage option for each type of information, and then select . Tablet users should place their fingers anywhere in the window and wait until a box appears and tap New and then Folder. We named it Music.
Select whatever you want to move in your media folder by clicking anywhere empty and holding down the left mouse button and drag it across all your media. Then you will go to the one that opens when you add your new storage option.
How long it takes your device to copy this information really depends on how much media you carry and how fast your external storage is. Complete the same process for all the media you want to move. This includes Pictures and Videos if you want them to stop clogging up your device storage.
Once done you will need to delete the original version of the file you copied over. To do this, tablet users must tap and hold the original files they want to delete from their device and select Delete. Mouse and keyboard users should right-click on these original items and select delete from the menu.
Adding SD Storage to Your Apps
Windows 8 allows users to add media to Libraries, which we discussed earlier. However, libraries are something you really need if you plan on spreading your files to different places for some desktop applications. If you only plan to open them in the default Music, Video and Photos, there is a much simpler way to do it.
Press on your device’s keyboard or press the Start button on the screen of your tablet or convertible. Small tablet users should place their fingers on the right edge of the screen and slide their fingers slightly to the left. Then tap Start.
Click the arrow in the lower left corner of the Start Screen to open the full list of installed apps. Touch users should place their fingers anywhere on the Start Screen and swipe up to reveal the same list. Tap or click .
In Music, hover your mouse cursor over your screen to open the Charms Bar. Touch users should place their fingers on the right edge of their screen and swipe left slightly to reveal the Charms Bar.
Tap or click .
Tap or click .
Tap or click .
Now tap or click the icon.
In the file chooser, tap or click to select from the drop-down menu. Then find the folder you created on your SD card. By default this field is . Tap or click the icon in the lower right corner of your screen.
Going forward, Xbox Music will find all the music in this folder on your SD card and automatically add it to your collection. To be clear, you need to repeat these steps for any other media you move to your SD Card in their respective apps. For example, you need to add your SD card to the Videos app the same way before you can find your content.
It’s a lot of work, but the results speak for themselves. If you’re using any Windows machine that doesn’t have that much storage, it’s a very good idea to dump media into a microSD card slot. More space on your device means more space to install apps and games.
