Correct path for data folder in nginx.conf

Nginx 1.16 on Windows 10
trying to implement http://nginx.org/en/docs/beginners_guide.html "serving static content",

http {
server {
location / {
root C:/nginx-1.16.0/data/www; #actual folder
index index.html;
}

location /images/ {
root /data;
}
}
}

Whenever i start localhost, I keep getting
[error] 11876#14120: *10 "C:/data/www/index.html" is not found (3: The system cannot find the path specified), client: 127.0.0.1, server: , request: "GET / HTTP/1.1", host: "localhost"

even through I explicitly set C:/nginx-1.16.0/data/www!