How to Use an SD Card as Permanent Storage Expansion Drive

Using SD card as permanent storage is a handy and convenient way of expanding the storage of laptops as most have a card reader built in.

SD Cards are a handy and convenient way of expanding the storage of laptops as most have a card reader built in and they do not take up USB sockets or have long trailing cables.

When inserting the SD card it is by default added as a second drive letter (sometimes D: or E:) which will function OK, but anything in your Windows 10 libraries will need to be manually copied over to the SD card. In this tutorial, we will mount the SD card in a folder and change the location of your library so that any photos, videos or downloads get saved to the SD card instead of the internal hard drive.

Firstly, to use an SD Card as permanent storage we need to format your SD card to NTFS. Be sure to backup or copy off any files that you wish to keep.

1. Open "Computer"
2. Right-click (or long tap) on your removable drive and choose "Format..."
3. Choose "NTFS" from the "File System" drop-down menu and click "Start"
4. Accept the warning
5. Open the SD card, through "Computer", and create four new folders: "Documents", "Music", "Pictures" and "Videos".

Now, we're going to create a mount point

1. Open "Computer"
2. Navigate to your "C:" drive (or primary drive where Windows is installed).
3. Create a new folder and call it "SD card".

Now for the fun part. We're going to mount the SD card into the folder we've just created and then "fool" Windows into adding the SD into the libraries.

1. On the start screen, search for "Disk Management" - it is listed under "settings" as "Create and format hard disk partitions".
2. Find your removal disk - it will be listed as "Removable". You can check the drive letter and the storage space to ensure that you've got the correct disk.
3. Right-click (long press) on the SD card and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths..."
4. Click Add
5. Ensure "Mount in the following empty NTFS folder" is selected and then click "Browse"
6. Navigate to "C:\SD card" and select the folder. Click "OK".

Now let's add the SD card to the libraries

1. Open Libraries
2. Click on "Documents"
3. At the top of the window, click "Manage"
4. Click "Manage library"
5. You'll now see a window called "Documents Library Locations", click on "Add"
6. Navigate to "C:\SD card", then click on the "Documents" folder you created and click "Include folder".
7. Optional: you can also set the SD card to be the default location to save stuff. Just right-click (long tap) on the folder you've just added and then click "Set a default save location".
8. Repeat the process for the other libraries

Your libraries are now saved directly to your SD card. When you save things like albums or photos they are now on your SD card instead of on your laptop's internal storage to save space.

If you remove the SD card, you'll break the link and won't be able to access the files in your library. When you re-insert the SD card the link will be re-established and you can access the files again.