Surface RT - mounting a micro SD card and making use of libraries

At the moment you can only store and browse media files using file explorer. Those media files do not show up in their appropriate apps. This is what you need to do. Go to search and type “Disk Management”. The entry in Settings will show “Create and format hard disk partitions”. This is Disk Management. Click it. You will see that your microSD card has already been assigned a drive letter. Right-click your “Removable” drive and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths for <drive letter>…” Once the card has already been inserted and assigned a drive letter, you cannot simply click “Change…” here (the option you need will be grayed out). So you have to click “Remove”. Now the only option you have is “Add…”. Click it and you will see “Mount in the following empty NTFS folder:” Create a folder in your Users directory or in C:. For instance, C:\Users\username\microSD. Select that folder. You are now able to treat your microSD like any other folder in Windows 8, including adding to Libraries like Pictures, Video and Music etc. You can now open File Explorer and right-click the Pictures, Video and Music Libraries in the left hand Navigation Pane, select Properties, then Add and select the folder you just mounted in your microSD in. Now when you go into the Photos, Videos or Music apps in Surface you will be able to see your media files you added to your microSD card.

You actually can...... it's just not as easy as it should be.....

This was a trick I did on my PC to let me add SD cards to the Music library in Windows 7:

• create a folder "C:\SDCard" on your tablet
• Go to the Desktop
• Right-click on My Computer
• Select Manage.
• This brings up the MMC and one of the options there is "Disk Management"
• Find your SD card there, right click on it, and select "Check Drive Letters and Paths"
• Here, you click ADD and choose the empty folder on NTFS option
• Select C:\SDCard and hit OK.
• Now, nothing will be added just yet, so make a folder called "Xbox Music" there.  Move all of your music files in this folder with a subfolder of Music in that Xbox Music folder.  They can be in folders.... that's fine.
• Go to Libraries and right-click on the Music library.
• Add C:\SDCard to this library.
• Change the default options for saving, etc. (there should be two) and set it to this folder.

Give it a few minutes and the tablet will start loading in your music.  Apparently Microsoft doesn't let you add removable media to the Libraries but doing this works and has since Windows 7. (and probably Vista)

Hello Renegade0906,

Sorry to hear you are having issues using the extra memory from your card.

As you mentioned, you are not able to install apps on the SD card, see the following community post and here for tips from our community.

Hope this helps.

Best regards.

The SD card is treated as a removable storage device. Same with a USB flash drive.

You might find this page helpful:

How to use Windows 8, RT Apps, Libraries and Removable Media

http://digitalmediaphile.com/index.php/2012/11/02/how-to-use-windows-8-rt-apps-libraries-and-removable-media/

Kate

Greetings Bert,

Unfortunately, it is not possible to install apps onto the MicroSD card. I would suggest using the SD card for file storage, and using the built in hard drive for apps.

Thanks Barb, that app is the very close to replacing my photo app!! great job. The only thing is I do need raw support, so for now Ill have to be manually rebuilding my library. which is frustrating because my video and music apps don't have this issue.

Thanks for the tip though, ill be using the free version of gallery HD until it has raw support. (facebook share support would be great too but I can live without it) great job though...

Kate (and Steve and all)

You have to manually re-index when you add/delete/change photos on the SD card

using the mount in empty NTFS folder kludge like

http://digitalmediaphile.com/index.php/2012/11/02/how-to-use-windows-8-rt-apps-libraries-and-removable-media/.

Start screen

type the words

indexing options

settings, indexing options

advanced

rebuild

I'm hoping to find the time to check and see whether using junction points (more

complex and geeky) has the same issue. HOWEVER, the MS Photo just does not play

well in general with removable media and networks, and I found a replacement app

which I have written up

http://digitalmediaphile.com/index.php/2013/01/03/gallery-hd-w8-photo-app-for-network-media-and-more/

For my needs, I care less about the pictures that I have on Flickr, Facebook,

SkyDrive and if I want, I can use the MS App for ONLY those cloud based assets.

And use the Gallery HD app for local/network/removable media images.

$.03 YMMV

Barb

MVP - Windows Entertainment and Connected Home

http://digitalmediaphile.com/

Please mark as answered if this answers your question

Hi there -

Am trying to figure out if there's an easy way to direct the Surface to download movies to the SD card rather than taking up internal memory which I'd like to reserve for apps... any thoughts?  Thanks.

Hey Stephen,

Not so easy, but here's the way to do it. The below links will walk you through the steps to do what you ask not only for videos, but for photos and music as well. Just ensure that you ignore what they say to name the folders on the SD card and name them exactly the same as on your Surface i.e. My Videos etc. All I can say is that it worked for me. Why this isn't already coded into Windows is beyond me as these solutions are neither elegant nor simple for the average person. Hopefully MS will address this in the next firmware update, I mean, removable storage is an integral part of Surface and one of the reasons we purchased one.

http://winsupersite.com/article/windows8/surface-tip-microsd-content-libraries-metro-apps-144658

http://digitalmediaphile.com/index.php/2012/11/02/how-to-use-windows-8-rt-apps-libraries-and-removable-media/

And for a more in depth solution:

http://mattblogsit.com/windows/configure-surface-to-use-microsd-as-primary-storage

Good luck!

http://digitalmediaphile.com/index.php/2012/11/02/how-to-use-windows-8-rt-apps-libraries-and-removable-media/

at the end of the process, set it as default save location

Barb

MVP - Windows Entertainment and Connected Home

http://digitalmediaphile.com/

Please mark as answered if this answers your question

Greetings Wazzaville,

Here are the steps to mount your SD card:

• create a folder "C:\SDCard" on your tablet
• Go to the Desktop
• Right-click on My Computer
• Select Manage.
• This brings up the MMC and one of the options there is "Disk Management"
• Find your SD card there, right click on it, and select "Check Drive Letters and Paths"
• Here, you click ADD and choose the empty folder on NTFS option
• Select C:\SDCard and hit OK.
• Now, nothing will be added just yet, so make a folder called "Xbox Music" there.  Move all of your music files in this folder with a subfolder of Music in that Xbox Music folder.  They can be in folders.... that's fine.
• Go to Libraries and right-click on the Music library.
• Add C:\SDCard to this library.
• Change the default options for saving, etc. (there should be two) and set it to this folder.

Give it a few minutes and the tablet will start loading in your music. 

You can also go to the following link:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfwinrt-surfusing/will-microsoft-fix-the-issue-of-being-unable-to/63928c69-90e9-4484-a692-d8a93ad2def7

This article will get you through:

http://winsupersite.com/article/windows8/surface-tip-microsd-content-libraries-metro-apps-144658

Caveat:

I did this after copying the music i wanted onto the Micro SD card and don't plan on removing it to shuffle things back and forth.

There is a reason that this isn't supported, along with adding network locations to libraries, and it likely has to do with the fact that Libraries build indexes of their contents and having them change all the time would mess up all sorts of things.

This is not possible or supported on the Surface for Windows 8 RT. Having programs installed on removable media can make the system unstable or corrupt if important program and system files were to simply vanish.

While Windows Store apps are simple to install, uninstall and use they still access the system's registry, and these registry pointers would fail if the removable storage was to no longer be available.

If you're having performance issues with your microSD card make sure you upgrade it to a fully supported microSDXC card. The read and write speeds of your microSD card varies greatly depending on the brand and model.

microSDXC is currently the fastest on the market. I have played a 1080p movie from my 64GB microSDXC card with no performance issues.