Moving system folders

Jeffnwm · Nov 8, 2009

In Vista I was able to move all system folders to another drive...Windows recognizing that drive as the default location from then on...I can't remember how I did that. I have read some posts on here about the topic but none of them sound familiar.

What's the process for moving the default location of System folders (user accounts and sub folders) to another drive?

burtie · Nov 8, 2009

What i do is go to the start menu and click on your user name under the user picture at the top. You get a window with all the different default folders. Right click a folder and select properties. Click the location tab and select the move button...you can chose where you want it to point to. I have all my docs, pics and music etc on an external drive so I change the location for all these folders to point there instead

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

Hope this is what you meant?

harpua · Nov 8, 2009

I know a lot of people advocate moving system folders such documents, pictures, music, etc. to a different partition from the system. What are the main advantages of doing that and are there any disadvantages? Can one move one's entire user account to a separate partition, and if so, is this advisable?

Frostmourne · Nov 8, 2009

Is there a point? What's wrong with the default locations?

burtie · Nov 9, 2009

Nothing wrong with the default locations...I just use an external HDD for all my documents so if I mess up my OS I don't have to worry about backing them up or loosing them. I like to keep my C: drive to a minimum and even install my programmes on another internal HDD...I don't know why but I just do lol

seekermeister · Nov 9, 2009

Frostmourne said:
Is there a point? What's wrong with the default locations?

I think that the point might be that if the OS becomes corrupt and requires reinstalling, that important documents aren't risked by becoming inaccessible, or lost due to overlooking them prior to commencing reinstallation.

I do think that using another partition on the same drive is not sufficient, because the problem could be caused by the drive itself. Of course, the drive where that the documents are redirected to could be the one to fails instead, so an appropriate backup is needed.

Maxheadroom · Nov 9, 2009

if i moved a games folder (like activision) from OS hdd to a different internal hdd would i notice any online gaming performance issues?
my activision folder alone is over 14GB

thanks

seekermeister · Nov 9, 2009

I'm not certain, but you could try it and if there was an issue, move it back again.

EDIT: Considering the size that you mentioned, it would appear that is the installation folder for those games, rather than a system folder. If that be the case, there are registry entries to consider, which would end up with nonfunctional keys, which would definitely effect the games. They should remain where they are initially installed, unless you want to completely reinstall them in the new location, so that the registry would have proper reg keys.

Jeffnwm · Nov 10, 2009

my reason to move them is space...300gb system drive, almost 2Tb of storage space on other drives...want to keep the system drive relatively small and clean. most of my apps get installed to the other drives...want all the downloads , docs, music etc off the system drive

Moving system folders

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