move_wsl.md

Move WSL to another Drive

Determine the names of the distros on your machine,

$ wsl --list -v
  NAME                   STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu                 Running         2
  Kali                   Stopped         2
  docker-desktop         Running         2
  docker-desktop-data    Running         2

Stop WSL to be safe. If Docker displays a warning, ignore it for now.

wsl --shutdown

Export the distro to a .tar file,

wsl --export Ubuntu d:\ubuntu.tar

Delete the distro on the original drive

wsl --unregister Ubuntu

Import the distro to the new drive

mkdir D:\WSL
wsl --import Ubuntu D:\WSL\Ubuntu d:\ubuntu.tar

If necessary, set the distro back to the default,

wsl -s Ubuntu

When you export a WSL distro then import it, the default user is switched to the root user. To switch it back to your user, follow the instructions Set the Default User back from Root after Importing WSL Distro.