# WSABuilds       ## Guide: Moving/Installing Windows Subsystem For Android™ (WSA) to another partition or disk ### Preface: ##### WSA can take up a lot of storage space, hence you want to move it to another partition or disk with more space.
This guide goes through a method by which you can install WSA from another disk and to store the data in that drive (instead of "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe"). ### Prerequisites: - The partition/ disk that you want to move/install Windows Subsystem For Android™ to, ****MUST**** be **NTFS** - Recommended that both disks, C:/ and the disk/partition that you want to install (move) WSA on (to), are SSDs - HDDs may work, but performance issues may arise - Basic knowledge on Command Prompt (CMD) usage - There must be enough space on the disk/partiton that you are installing/moving WSA to (recommended 20GB, as the VHDX can become very large in size) > **Note** > > If you want to preseve your data, make a backup of the `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\userdata.vhdx` file. After uninstalling, copy the VHDX file back to the `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache` folder. ## Process: - ### Step 1: Remove all previous installations from WSABuilds or official WSA Releases - To remove WSA installed through WSABuild: - **1.)** Make sure that Windows Subsystem For Android™ is not running - **2.)** Search for ``Windows Subsystem For Android™ Settings`` using the built-in Windows Search, or through Add and Remove Programs and press uninstall - **3.)** Delete the WSA folder that you extracted and Run.bat was run from to install WSA (MagiskOnWSA folder) - **4.)** Go to ``%LOCALAPPDATA%/Packages/`` and delete the folder named ``MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe`` - If you get an error that states that the file(s) could not be deleted, make sure that WSA is turned off - To remove WSA installed from the Microsoft Store: - **1.)** Search for ``Windows Subsystem For Android™ Settings`` using the built-in Windows Search, or through Add and Remove Programs and press uninstall - ### Step 2: Install WSA from the desired partition - **1.)** Download the latest WSA Build according to Windows Version and CPU Archtecture from [Downloads](https://github.com/MustardChef/WSABuilds#downloads) - **2.)** Extract to the desired partition or drive - Using the same process as detailed in [Installation](https://github.com/MustardChef/WSABuilds#--installation) - **3.)** Open the extracted folder and run ``Run.bat`` - ### Step 3: Moving the AppData (VHDX + data) from your Windows drive (C:\) to the desired partition/drive - **1.)** Go to ``%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\`` and copy the folder named ``MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe`` to the desired drive/partition, making sure to delete the folder from ``%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\`` after copying - **2.)** Open Command Prompt (Admin) through Windows Terminal (Admin) or directly and run the command: ```shell mklink /J "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe" "Location_Of_Folder_In_Other_Drive" ``` Replacing Location_Of_Folder_In_Other_Drive with the location of the folder named ``MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe``, copied to the desired to the drive/partition in 1st point of Step 3 - ### Step 4: Testing if everything is working - Run Windows Subsystem For Android™ Settings - If it crashes, you have made a mistake whilst following the guide. Try following it again. ### If you find yourself stuck, or do not understand any steps in the guide, Join the Discord and ask here: [](https://discord.gg/2thee7zzHZ)