Switch Backup Location of iTunes From SSD to HDD

One cannot deny the remarkable speed benefits introduced by Solid State Disks into the PC world. Replacing the traditional mechanical arm and read/write head mechanism currently observed by Hard Disk Drives (HDD), this NAND-based technology makes use of microchips to store and retrieve data at a much swifter pace. However, blinded by these perks, people often undermine the limited storage space offered by this device, and go on to use this machine as their primary drive. While there is nothing wrong with this option, things suddenly become messy when users start storing bulky and rarely used data on this already stuffed device. One such data that is commonly found chewing up precious space in various SSDs, is the iTunes backup files. Our recommendation would be to transfer these files to the bigger Hard Disk Drive and clear up some memory. Don’t know how? Follow this tutorial and guide yourself towards a cleaner SSD.

Note: This tutorial moves iTunes data to the G:\ drive. You can use any other secondary drive other than the OS drive to save data.

Step 1 – Create a new backup directory

Firstly, create a new backup directory in the secondary drive. This will be the new home for your iTunes backup data.

• Navigate to the G:\ drive from Computer
• Right-click in the window pane and point to New
• Choose Folder
• Name the folder iTunes Backup

Step 2 – Rename your Current Backup Directory

Next step is to locate the old backup directory and give it a different name. This is to avoid any conflict between the two iTunes backup directories.

• Open Run box (Windows + R key) and copy the following address to reach iTunes backup folder

%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync

• Locate the folder Backup and rename it to Backup-Old

Step 3 – Create a Symbolic Link

Before we can move on to the creation of symbolic link, it is first important to understand what this feature does.

A symbolic link is basically an advanced shortcut that refers the requesting application to another file or directory, without the awareness of the program or even the user. In our case, we will use this sophisticated function to redirect any application requesting for iTunes backup in the old directory, to the new directory that we created in the G:\ drive.

So, let’s start!

• While staying in the /MobileSyn/ folder, hold the SHIFT key and right-click inside the explorer
• From the available options, select Open command window here to suitably start Command Prompt from the current directory
• Create the symbolic link by copying the command below

mklink /J “%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup” “G:\iTunes Backup”

• Notice the creation of a shortcut folder named Backup

Upon clicking the Backup folder, you will see the inside content just like in any other normal directory. However, what you or some other requesting application does not know is that the data inside this folder is actually physically located in the secondary disk (G:\ drive in our case). As a result, none of your SSD space is occupied, granting you extra memory to play with.

 Step 4 – Test your link

While carefully performing the above steps should not result in any errors, it is always nice to check whether your operations went as planned.

• Reach \MobileSync\Backup directory as formerly demonstrated
• Right-click anywhere in the window pane and hover over New to select Text Document
• Once a new file is created, navigate to G:\iTunes Backup
• Notice the file created in step 2 placed in this directory
• Congratulations! Your link is working as covertly and well as expected

Finally, it is now time you relocate all your backup content to the secondary drive. While moving data through the symbolic link may lengthen the usual transferring time, you should be able to complete the process successfully.

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