How to Mount Removable Storage Devices in Windows 10/11

When the base storage of your Windows 10 PC fills up, the ability to use a microSD card as a permanent storage solution in Windows 10 can be a useful solution if you need more storage. You can use extra storage on your Windows 10 PC to store documents, photos, and videos, freeing up space on your PC’s main storage for apps and games. The Microsoft Surface line has the advantage of having a MicroSD card slot (the Surface Book 2 has a full SD card slot) for adding extra storage space. Find out How to mount removable storage devices in Windows 10/11 ?

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How to mount removable storage devices in Windows 10

If your Windows 10 PC doesn’t have a MicroSD or full SD card slot, you can use a USB drive or cloud storage services like OneDrive to add more storage. Cloud storage services, on the other hand, don’t always work well as a long-term storage solution in Windows 10. Because they don’t require internet access to sync, USB drives and microSD cards are better storage options.

To use your removable storage devices as a permanent drive in Windows 10, you must first format it. This step will delete all files from the removable storage device. Before you begin this step, make sure you have a backup.

Insert your removable storage into your Windows 10 PC.
Format your removable storage to NTFS.

The next step in Windows 10 is to create a new folder on your main drive.

Open File Explorer (keyboard shortcut Windows Key + E)
Right-click and create a New Folder in your Main drive. Name the folder whatever you want. In this case, I named the new folder, “SD Card.”

Related: How to Change Default Screenshots Folder Location in Windows 11

The formatted drive must then be mounted in Windows 10.

Type “create and format disk partitions” into the Windows 10 search box and press Enter.
The Disk Management window will appear on the screen. Locate the removable storage device’s drive. Your removable storage device will be listed as “Removable,” which is a hint.
Choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths…” from the context menu when right-clicking on the removable storage drive.
Select Add and then the newly created folder.
Select OK.
The Disk Management window should now be closed.

Related: How to use Windows Sandbox

Follow these steps to ensure that your removable storage device was mounted correctly:

Open the File Explorer application.
Go to the folder on your main drive that you created.
The folder should be visible on your drive, but it no longer has a folder icon. When you right-click the folder and select Properties, you should see something like this:

When you open the folder, you’ll notice that you’re inside your removable storage device, which is now mounted to your main drive rather than having a separate volume path. Any new software, apps, or files can now be installed in the folder you just mounted to your main drive.

Here are the Amazon links for the SanDisk SD card and the BaseQi microSD drive holder that I used for this tutorial on my Surface Book 2.