How to Move Adobe Apps to Another Drive without Reinstallation

Tracy King updated on Dec 04, 2024 to PC Transfer | How-to Articles

You may want to move Adobe apps to another drive for many reasons. How can you do this to ensure all your programs function correctly despite a change in location? In this article, we'll show you techniques to move Adobe apps from the default C drive to another drive on your computer.

Can I Move Adobe Apps to D Drive or Another Drive?

Yes, it's possible to move Adobe apps from the main drive (C Drive) to other drives connected to your computer (both internal and external). You can move Adobe apps such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Adobe Express, Acrobat Pro, etc. You may have to move Adobe apps to another drive or install Adobe Apps to an external hard drive due to several reasons, including the following:

  • Limited space on your C drive.
  • Adobe apps are taking too long to start.
  • Adobe apps are crashing.
  • Computer warning on low disk space error.
  • The need to collaborate with team members using a shared drive.
  • To keep a backup of your data.

You'll learn how to move Adobe apps to another drive in the next sections. Read on.

💡Read More: How to Uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud

How to Move Adobe Apps to Another Drive without Reinstallation

When you want to move Adobe apps from one drive to another, you won’t need to reinstall them before they function correctly on the second drive. The Adobe programs will function normally, provided you successfully transfer all the system files. You can move your programs from the C drive to another drive in two primary ways:

  1. Using EaseUS Todo PCTrans
  2. Using Adobe Creative Cloud

The easiest method is via EaseUS Todo PCTrans. Briefly, we’ll look at how you can apply the two techniques. 

#1. How to Move Adobe Apps to Another Drive with EaseUS Todo PCTrans

EaseUS Todo PCTrans is the best choice for migrating your Adobe apps to another drive seamlessly. The software comes with a powerful migration feature that allows you to move programs installed on your C drive to a different drive location on your computer. You can achieve this in very simple clicks.

When your C drive runs out of space, EaseUS Todo PCTrans allows you to move apps and their data to internal or external drives without reinstallation. In addition to Adobe apps, the software allows you to transfer other programs like Microsoft Office, YouTube, and Netflix.

To easily get started with the transferred apps in the event of system reinstallation, EaseUS Todo PCTrans also allows you to export and save their product keys. Ensure you download a free version of EaseUS Todo PCTrans today to get started with the software. Below are the simple steps on how you can use it to move Adobe apps to another drive location:

Step 1. Run EaseUS Todo PCTrans on your PC

Go to "Loacal Migration" and click "Start" to continue.

Step 2. Select programs to move from C drive to another drive

1. Tick the C drive and select programs (marked as "Yes") that you want to transfer.

2. Click the triangle icon to select another drive on your computer as the destination, and click "Transfer" to start the process.

Step 3. Finish the transferring

Wait patiently until the transferring process finishes and click "OK" to confirm. 

When it has done, you can restart PC if necessary. This will keep all changes on your PC and then you can run and programs from another hard drive without reinstallation.

Alongside moving Adobe Apps to another drive, this reliable PC transfer software also helps you to:

Backup After Effects Projects Transfer Adobe Creative Cloud to New PC Transfer Adobe After Effects to New PC

#2. How to Change Adobe Apps' Install Location Through Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud allows you to manage all your Adobe apps conveniently. Therefore, if you want to change the default location for these apps, you’ll need to use Adobe Creative Cloud. Upon changing the default location for your Adobe apps, all the changes made in the future will get saved to the new drive location.

You can change the default drive location using Adobe Creative Cloud via the following steps:

Step 1. Launch the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Step 2. Click on the account icon and go to "Preferences".

Step 3. Navigate to the sidebar and select apps.

Step 4. Click on the edit icon under "Install Location" and select a new location to install the Creative Cloud app.

Step 5. Click on "Done" to save the changes. Your Adobe apps will now install in a new location.

Final Verdict

It's possible to move Adobe apps such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Adobe Express, and Acrobat Pro from their default location on your computer to a different drive. Even after doing that, your apps will still function normally since they'll contain all their data in the new location.

You may want to move Adobe apps from the default C drive location due to limited storage, hanging issues, or the need to collaborate with your team using a shared drive location. The two primary ways to move Adobe apps to another drive include using EaseUS Todo PCTrans and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Among the two methods, we highly recommend using EaseUS Todo PCTrans since it allows you to conveniently migrate Adobe apps from one drive to another or between PCs. Also, it allows you to move applications alongside their product keys. Make a step of downloading EaseUS Todo PCTrans today for all your app migration needs! 

FAQs about Moving Adobe Apps to Another Drive

You can read through the following questions if you want to know more about moving Adobe apps on your computer.

1. How to Move Adobe Programs to Another Drive without Creative Cloud?

If you want to move Adobe programs to another drive without Creative Cloud, you can use a third-party tool like EaseUS Todo PCTrans. This software allows you to move programs across PCs from one drive to another. You can achieve that through the following simple steps.

Step 1. Download EaseUS Todo PCTrans.

Step 2. Install and launch the application.

Step 3. Select the Adobe programs you want to move to another drive.

Step 4. Select the target drive to transfer, and click "Transfer". Wait until the transfer process completes.

2. How to Move Adobe Programs to Another Computer?

The easiest method to move Adobe programs to another computer is using EaseUS Todo PCTrans. This software allows you to connect two PCs and move programs between them. This is made possible via the following steps.

Step 1. Download and install EaseUS Todo PCTrans.

Step 2. Launch the application.

Step 3. Click on PC to PC transfer mode.

Step 4. Connect the two computers via a network.

Step 5. Select the Adobe apps you want to transfer to the second computer and click “Transfer.”

3. Can I Install Adobe on D Drive?

Can I install Adobe on D drive? This varies based on different situations. For example, if you want to install the Adobe Creative Cloud app, that won't be possible. However, you can install Adobe programs like Photoshop, Acrobat Reader, Adobe XD, Illustrator, InDesign CC, After Effects, Dimension, Spark, Fresco, etc.

The reason why you can't install the Adobe Creative Cloud app on your D drive is that it needs to be on the same drive partition as your operating system (which, by default, is on the C drive). However, the other Adobe Apps don’t need to reside on the same drive as your OS.

4. How Do I Move Photoshop from C Drive to D Drive?

Photoshop is one of the numerous Adobe apps. It's primarily used for image processing. To move this application from C drive to D drive, you'll need to use the Adobe Creative Cloud app. You can apply the following steps to achieve this:

Step 1. Open Adobe Creative Cloud.

Step 2. Click on the three buttons in the top right and go to "Preferences".

Step 3. Open the "Creative Cloud" tab and select "Change".

Step 4. Select a new location for your Photoshop app, i.e., D Drive.

Step 5. Next, uninstall and then reinstall Photoshop. The application will launch from your D drive instead of the default C drive.