How to move podman-machine-default (.local ~147GB) from C: drive to D: drive on Windows?

[rutvik1110]

Hello Podman Community,

I’m using Podman Desktop on Windows, and I’ve installed Podman Desktop itself on the C: drive.

However, I noticed that the Podman machine data directory
C:\Users.local\share\containers\podman-machine-default
has grown to around 147 GB, which is filling up my C: drive.

I would like to move the Podman machine (or its storage) to the D: drive so that C: drive space can be freed.

Is there an official or recommended way to relocate podman-machine-default to another drive on Windows?

Environment details:

OS: Windows 11

Podman Desktop: latest stable (v1.24.2)

Podman machine backend: WSL2

Thanks in advance for your help!