Haha - I'm not offended by "old age" since it beats the alternative. I try to be calm as even for me - who has been working on computers since 1983 - I get aggravated when some one is explaining something either at warp speed or simply leaving out crucial steps. Thanks so much for commenting! ~John
Thanks. I just purchased an SD card for the first time to use as an extra hard drive for a Chromebook and I never would have figured out how to set it up without this video.
Hey, who are you calling "old ?" LOL While I might disagree with you regarding that adjective, I do know computing because I live and breath it every day. On a serious note, thanks for your comment! ~John
Honestly glad I found this video… I have a gaming laptop that only has 250gb of storage, but planned on getting a 2tb storage SD to use for storing downloaded games.
4KCC - hey john, can i just take a second to say thanks. i read all the comments and i noticed that you actually had a couple people reach out to you and you offered to help them out for free. i almost can't believe there's still people like you out there. just wanted you to hear that from me, thanks for all you do:) -barbie
I'm never too sure about the gentleman part (LOL) but thanks. As for views, hopefully, with nice people like you visiting my channel, they'll increase. ~John
Very clear explanation how to use sd card as a second hard drive . God bless you with good health and wisdom to continue helping the humanity . Thank you
This video thoroughly explains a lot of information I was curious about. the fact that your explanation was simple and easy to understand made your directions easy to follow. I am going to purchase a SD card for my laptop soon and mount it to my laptop following the instructions from this video. I do have one question. what is the difference between using a standard SD vs using a Micro SD?
Thanks for your comment. I'm sorry for the delay in answering. I was moving! Ugh! Anyway, a micro SD card is a physically smaller card. For many computers, you have to use an adaptor because they don't have mini ports. You might see what I mean by visiting amzn.to/465TfUd. ~John
Harry...I'm so glad you found my video easy to understand! Don't forget, age is just a number. My Dad who made it to 99 1/2 (may he RIP) never had a computer until he was in his 80s and he wrote checks online, sent greetings cards and did lots more. So, keep plugging away! ~John
@@phosphor6531 I really like helping people and I figure if they take the time to comment, I need to take the time to reply! Thanks for noticing! ~John
Thanks for the excellent tutorial, John! I'm an amatuer, so here's an amatuer question. What size sd card would you recommend, or what would be the largest sd card you'd recommend? (I have 4gb of ram in my laptop right now. Hp Stream 14 w/Windows 11)
Thanks for your feedback. There are some considerations besides size. I would direct you to my blog post on SD Cards found here: www.4kcc.com/blog/2021/02/02/sd-card-info/ I would recommend 64GB or 128 GB. However, if the card reader on your device can read HD SD cards, you can go even higher. ~John
@@4Keystone btw, is there a way to do the opposite process to this? Unmount the sd card? Just in case I purchase another SD card later and want to remove this one as hard drive? Or use it for another device
OMG. My PC has a sd card slot and I always wondered what was the point of it. This is absolutely the most useful information, and so clearly explained. Thank you!
very very informative video, so neat and easy to understand . is it okay to remove the SD card and insert it back again? Sometimes, i will need sd card slot to read/transfer my other sd card files. thanks!
Eric...Thank you for your nice comment! I'm glad you found my video easy to understand. As for your question about removing the SD card: Yes, you can remove it to insert another card to transfer data. The Library that you created will remain. However, if you had changed the storage areas like I showed near the end of the video, anything new you store while the original SD card is out will default to the original area. For instance, if you set all new documents to save on your SD card, any document you create while that SD card is not plugged in will default to c:\Users\[User Name]\Documents. You would then have to move those new documents to the SD card when you re-insert it. I hope I didn't make that sound too complicated! 😊 ~John
Great question! You will not need to repeat the process if you re-insert the same SD card. The drive will re-appear in the Library you created. If you modified where new content is stored, that drive letter will still be there. ~John
@@4Keystone i need to know, not even with cloning tools,apps? like Aomei backupper, Macrium reflect, Acronis (i just saw these names in the net, do not know much about...)
@@josepeixoto3384 To the best of my knowledge, Windows will not run off the SD card even if you make it a hard drive like I show in this video. I don't see that cloning tools would make any difference. I'm making assumptions here as I haven't actually tried the process. ~John
Thank you so much for helping us all, liberating our laptops and giving new life. as previouse comments quaity and a gentle old school approach to teaching. Thanks
Thank you so much for these easy to follow steps! The only thing I had to figure out on my own was the fact that I had to move each of my son's games to the SD Card file before they'd run again (since his laptop was out of storage). This video saved me a trip and some $$$ to a computer pro. You have no idea how much I appreciate it!
Lisa...I'm glad it helped. Games are in a field of their own. Some will play off the SD card and some won't. Congrats on figuring out that you had to move them. And, I'm glad you saved some money! ~John
this was one of the best tutorials I've ever seen, thank u so much, it's exactly what I've looking for. I tried many videos on my native language and even in English this tutorial is the best. I have one question, is possible install and run softwares in that SD storage?
Thank you for your very nice comment. I really appreciate it! When it comes to running software on the SD card, the answer is "It depends." You can't run Windows or Windows updates but some programs WILL run on the SD card. It really comes down to just trying it. ~John
Hi - thanks for this. I may resort to this method of adding storage to my cheap HP Stream laptop, which for some reason is not recognizing internal SSD. It's weird, it has a PCIe slot and the m.2 fits perfectly. I think it's b/c there's a soldered emmc 64 gb unit, but I just wanted to add secondary storage.
There are a lot of things to consider when trying to use a m.2 in a PCIe slot. Which version is the PCIe? Is the m.2 a Sata or PCI hard drive? Will the motherboard and/or BIOS support what you are trying to do? If you were working with a tower, it's much easier as you can install adaptors to accomplish your goal. But, for your laptop, using a SD card as the hard drive is probably the easiest and least expensive route to go. ~John
Thank you for your positive feedback! I appreciate it very much. Yes, I us an SD card as a hard drive on one of my own laptops so I'm sure you won't have any trouble! ~John
very good information and explanation! appreciate your efforts. I would like to post a query here. when you use the SD card as internal storage for longer duration, have you faced any issues, except speed? (I understand the fact that the drive may be slower than SSDs)
Thanks for an excellent question. I haven't faced any long duration issues but, I actually take some steps to avoide them. Here's what I mean: SD cards can sometimes become corrupted for no apparent reason. With that in mind, at least once a year, I copy the data from the current SD drive to a new one. Then, I remove the older SD card and use the newer one. Again, I've never really had an issue but I take this step to avoid one. ~John
Can I download movies and TV shows into the SD Card i have just converted to a hard drive. And will the videos play without saying that it has been corrupted?
If the videos did not say they were corrupted when they were played from a built-in hard drive, they should not be corrupted from the SD card. You are merely changing the storage location of the videos. ~John
If you eject the SD card, you would defeat the ability to automatically save files (downloads, for example) directly to the card as if it was a second hard drive. But, the answer is "yes" you can eject it. ~John
This man put me on. Thank you so much for the help. As someone who grew up in the generation of technology and an avid gamer (with a computer tech for a dad) you still did a better job than us both explaining it to me. Thank you kindly 🙏 I have one question, if I take it out to add an external ssd will that corrupt the micro sd?
Thanks so much for your comment and question. Glad I could help. No, you won't corrupt the SD card if you take it out. You'll just lose the ability to automatcially save to it if you set up that option. (Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. I'm in the middle of moving my company to a new location. Grrrr Not a fun job!) ~John
I understand the SD card cannot be used as a drive to run the OS. However, can it be used to store and run Program Files of other software (e.g. Office, PDF editor)? How to do that? BTW, I have a 11.6" Lenovo 120s that I like to use as a portable but most of the space on the installed 32GB SSD is taken up by Win10 OS and in the SD card slot I am using a SanDisk 128GB Extreme Plus card with a top read/write speed of 150/90. If you have any other suggestions to make a computer like this more useable, please add those. Thanks for the great tutorial!
Hi and thanks for your question. You can run programs off the SD card IF the program installer allows you to choose where to install it. Unfortunately, Office 365 and Office 2019 or 2022 do not allow you to install the program anywhere except on the drive that contains Windows. Still, for many other programs, if you check the install wizard carefully, they will often allow you to move the installation to a different drive. It's unfortunate that manufacturers, including Lenovo which I like alot, make computers with such small hard drives. Thje only other suggestions I would have is to store as much of your data online - like as in OneDrive or Dropbox or somewhere you dont' have to store all the data on the computer itself. ~John
You can install some programs on the SD Card although it really is better to steer your data there and not programs. Ejecting the SD card simply removes accessibility to whatever you stored on it. You should not have to redo the process if you bring the card back...however, if you've added something else (external drive, for example) and the SD cards Drive letter has changed, then you'd basically have to redo the process. ~John
Thanks for your question. The answer is, it depends. A traditional hard drive operating at 5400rpm has a transfer rate of about 100 MB/s. SD card transfer rates depend on the SD card's rating. If you need a full explaination as to the writing on an SD card, I would direct you to my blog post from February, 2021 titled "SD Card Info." You'll find it here: www.4kcc.com/blog/2021/02/02/sd-card-info/ Hope this helps you! ~John
Someone else asked me that same question and I'm going to testing it later this week. I believe it will since storage is storage but I'll get back to you after I give it a shot! Thanks for asking. ~John
So can I take this SD Card out with stuff on it & use in another laptop? My dropbox is full & want to put some on this card. If computer crashes I will still have this stuff?
Yes, you can take the card to another laptop that has an SD card reader and you can access whatever is on the card. Remember, all hard drives (an SD card is basically a solid state hard drive) crash so redundancy is always good when it comes to back ups. ~John
Quick question would I be able to use the card in different computers or plug into my tv to watch photos & videos? I current ly can watch photos & videos with a sd card on my ROKU TV.
You can always use the card in other computers (assuming they have a SD port.) and even a TV if it also has a port. However, when you do that, you defeat the purpose of setting up the SD card as a Hard Drive. You can't automatically save downloads, pictures or other data to the SD card if it's not there. The key word in that last sentence is "automatically." You can always drag data to an SD card even if you don't set it up as a hard drive. ~John
Great question! As long as you're only using the SD card to store data and not any program installations, you can always copy the data to another drive then delete the data on the card to get your SD card space back. As far as the computer part, you can just undo what you set up to make the SD card a hard drive. If you ever get where you need to that and you have an issue, just send me a comment and I'll be happy to assist you! ~John
Hey i dont know a lot about about computers but wanted to know if this can help improve my old laptops performenc.....BTW great containt love it from bangladesh
Hi and thanks for your comment! Yes, it can help improve old laptop performance if they old hard drives are 90% full or more. Beyond that, it probably won't make much difference. ~John
Thanks for your nice comment. Unfortunately, on the Chromebook, you can't use the SD card as a second hard drive like in Windows. You can, however, use it as data storage - you just have to move things there manually instead of automatically. ~John
Are there any SD card types that don'work with this method? Can any SD card act as an hard drive with this method? Would like to know before buying one, I see SDHC and SDXC cards in store, thanks.
Thanks for your question! For this method, the type of SD card that you use doens't matter; however, what does matter is what types of SD cards your computer will handle. Some older computers won't recognize some of the newer SD cards. Actually, this happened to one of my customers - they purchased a card that wouldn't work in their computer. If you didn't view it already, you might want to read my blog post from last February regarding SD cards. You'll find it here: www.4kcc.com/blog/2021/02/02/sd-card-info/
Great video. My son has a hp all in one computer and his memory gets so full with only a couple things! All he uses it for is games but it only has two! We have nothing else on the computer so I find it really strange. Anyway if I were to do this would this allow us to download apps to the sim card? Like gaming apps or even something like zoom meetings? Thanks!
Hi, Amanda! Thanks for posting your questions. Unfortunately, I can't give you a blanket answer. Some apps will work off the SD card when it's set up as a hard drive and some won't. One thing is for sure - Windows updates will not operate off the SD. But, when it comes to games and other apps, it comes down to just trying it. ~John
When I go to where new content is saved I try to put the SD_HD_001 in my folders and it says the operation did not complete successfully.try again later.But I did all the steps do you think you can help?
I'll try to help. (Sorry for the delay in replying - I've been away.) Can you give me some details? What version of Windows? What are the SD Card specs? Anything you can share will help. ~John
Thanks for your question! While technically it's possible to do what you're asking, I wouldn't recommend it. If you did that, it means you could never remove the SD card from your machine or the program or driver wouldn't work. Additionally, an SD card is more likely to get corrupted or fail when compared to your device's actual hard drive, you stand a higher chance of something going wrong.
Thanks for taking the time to ask me your questions! I prefer either PNY (like this one: amzn.to/42K1mlN) or SanDisk (like this one: amzn.to/3X9E7QS). As for performance, may I suggest you read my blog post on SD cards? You'll find it here: www.4kcc.com/blog/2021/02/02/sd-card-info/. ~John
Hi I ran out of space on my laptop and bought a SD card to use for a extra hard drive and I found your video and was following along and messed up now it is saying my SD card is unreadable and corrupted and it also said I named it wrong because I messed up and started over and I think it duplicated it and I have tried everything I can think it is brand new is there anything you can help with?
also I called the HP company because after I thought I had it fixed I couldn't get it to change to where new things would save to it and they wanted to change me $50 and then have me sign up for 6 months of service at $9 a month I told them I couldn't afford that and the guy hung up on me.
would yall recommend using a SD card to edit? i have a home office where i do most my editing, i bought a ipad and a mini dock so i can edit outside my office , i dont wanna carry a 1tb ssd around so i thought of buying a 1tb sd to plug into my ipad so its compact ( i still have the files in my backup not just the sd)
Is the mounted sd card storage and internal or exernal hard drive? What I wanna know is if I were to physically remove the sd card from the laptop and insert it on the same laptop wil everything still be there and also if I were to insert the sd card on another laptop will it even work there also and will my data still be there?
Thanks for your questions. If you move the SD card to another computer, it won't work as a secondary drive unless you go through the same setup as in this video. However, your data WILL be on the SD card. You'll just need to go to it with File Explorer same as you would any SD card or external drive. As for removing it and then putting it back in, it should continue to work as a hard drive assuming you didn't change any settings. ~John
