Symbolic Link not working

TehFrederick · 20 Dec 2012

Hello,

I recently got a small sdd for my system. However, being a heavy gamer, my appdata folder is starting to get quite large and I do not want to "waste" all the writes on my sdd. I used this guide to move my entire user file over. User Profile - Change Default Location

After finishing that I realized my programs might still be trying to reference my old appdata folder and tried to make a symbolic link

mklink/J D:\Frederick C:\Users\Frederick\Appdata

Where D is my new user file after I moved it. It keeps telling me "Cannot create a file when that file already exists." I checked the path myself (typed C:\Users\Frederick\Appdata) and it told me it did not exist, so... how do I fix this?

Thanks.

Layback Bear · 20 Dec 2012

Warning
Before doing this, you should create a system image to be safe. This way you can do a system image recovery to undo any mistake you might make in the instructions below that could result in the user profile you are moving, or Windows, to no longer work.
-------------------------
This is the way I would do it.
Change Default Location

TehFrederick · 20 Dec 2012

Layback, I did that first (Succesfully). But I am unsure if some programs will still reference my old apdata which is no longer there.

Layback Bear · 20 Dec 2012

System Restore
^Another option.
v Many options.
Tutorial search - Windows 7 Forums

TehFrederick · 20 Dec 2012

I have no idea how that is supposed to help me. I am simply having trouble getting a symbolic link to work properly.

Layback Bear · 20 Dec 2012

Well if you go to a restore point before you made changes you could give a try again.
Something went wrong on the first try. If you use your image that you made you could also go back to the way your system was before the changes.
Just suggestion.
Have a nice day.