User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

How to Create User Accounts on another Partition or Disk During Windows 7 Installation ​

   Information

There are several methods to move user profiles to another disk or partition after you have installed Windows 7. The easiest way is to use Audit Mode and System Preparation Tool, both built-in Windows 7 features, to permanently move the location of the folder Users.

This tutorial shows how to relocate both Users and ProgramData to another disk or partition when doing a new, fresh and clean install of Windows 7. If you have already installed Seven, and you'd like to move those folders away from their default location in C: drive, please read first post number 22 in this thread. Follow the steps told in that post, and continue then from beginning of the page 4 in this tutorial.

When Windows 7 is installed, 5 or 6 system folders are created depending on chosen bit-version:

• PerfLogs (Performance Logs), where Windows stores performance and reliability logs
• Program Files, where applications and software are installed. Windows x86 (32-bit) stores all applications here, Windows x64 (64-bit) only native 64-bit applications
• Program Files (x86), only in Windows x64. All non-x64 applications are stored here
• Windows, which contains core operating system files and drivers
• ProgramData, where some applications store application and user specific settings and configuration files
• Users. This is the "home" of all user folders. When a new user account is created and this new user logs in first time, Windows creates a set of user specific folders Users\New_User

Moving Windows and Program Files folders is not recommend by Microsoft. However, moving both Users and ProgramData folders is safe and can save a lot of space on system disk. Pictures, mp3’s videos, documents and so on, a user folder with its subfolders can be tens, sometimes hundreds of gigabytes.

For instance, using this laptop of mine as an example, the total size of Users folder and subfolders is at the moment about 240 GB. The size of ProgramData folder is at the moment almost 18 GB. I simply could not have these folders stored in my system C: drive, there’s not enough space.

When installing Windows 7, I recommend using Windows System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) in so called Audit Mode to relocate Users and ProgramData, leaving C: drive only for Windows and applications.

   Warning

An upgraded Windows cannot be sysprepped. As this method is based in sysprepping, this tutorial is valid only for Windows setups which have not been upgraded.

This means that if you have for instance in-place upgraded Vista to Seven, you cannot sysprep. The same applies if you have upgraded from a lesser edition to a better edition, for instance from Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional.

Notice that a repair install is also an upgrade install, so if you have ever done a repair install (= in-place upgrade to same edition), you cannot sysprep.

In other words, when sysprepping an existing Windows setup it only works if the Windows was installed clean and has never been upgraded or repaired using repair install, or if it is the original pre-installed Windows.

Using this method causes Windows 7 to lose activation information, and it needs to be reactivated afterwards. If your Windows 7 is an OEM version, you might not be able to reactivate it, at least not without phone activation option.

   Warning

IE10 Users: Please read this article first: Sysprep Fatal Error With IE 10 (FIX) | System Administration

Complete tutorial as PDF: View attachment Relocate User folders during Windows 7 installation.pdf (1.22 MB)

Kari

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Change the Default Location of a User Profile in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Change the Default Location of Windows 7 User Folders
• How to Restore the Default Location of Windows 7 User Folders
• How to Free Up and Recover Hard Drive Space in Windows 7
• How to Change the User Folder Name of a User Profile in Windows 7

 

[crawfish]

Kari, Britton, I've never had a more pointless series of exchanges than with you two, and my last post was not directed at you two. It was for the benefit of people who stumble upon this thread and don't innately understand the problems that are inherent to the procedure presented here, who maybe aren't aware of simpler, more robust alternatives and are misled into thinking this is some kind of smart, "power user" thing all the cool kids are doing.

I know Kari has a corresponding thread on this subject at eightforums.com, and it recently popped up in "New Posts" there, which is the only reason I see these threads. In light of all the insults, rudeness, and pointless argumentation that's been hurled my way here, people might find it instructive to read Kari's recent thoughts on AppData and my reply to the person he was "helping" on the other forum:

User Profiles - Relocate to another Partition or Disk - Page 49

It's another good contrast between the sort of advice Kari provides and reality.

 

[Britton30]

Fish you are more than welcome to write your own tutorial that is not so "flawed" and rife with "risks" as you say. However you past experience which you admittedly have had in XP and Vista wouldn't lend much credence to your lesson. If, if, you'd followed best practices nothing would have gone wrong, nor will it with Kari's method.

When you look at new posts why only pick on those where some person has an issue? Read through the thread and find those who thank Kari for the method and how happy they are with their systems.

Lookin' forward to your tutorial.

 

[InputOutput099]

You have two options with Vista:
1) Do first updates, including the SP2, first thereafter sysprep to relocate Users
2) Use Sysprep on an existing installation to relocate folders back to C:, install SP2, use sysprep again to relocate folders to new location

Kari

Oye..... option 1 sounds like I would need to reinstall..again..would that be the better option of the two in your opinion? Regarding option #2 should I pick up from post #22 in the tutorial? Again are the instructions pretty much the same for Vista? I admit I have not read through all 80+ pages of this thread so I was wondering if this issue may be a common occurrence or did I miss a step somewhere? Thanks

 

[Kari]

Instructions are the same for Vista.

Run sysprep with a modified answer file as told in post #22, naturally first backing up your data just to be sure.

Basically, relocated Users and ProgramData folders in Vista and Seven should have nothing to do with Windows Update and service packs installation issues especially when relocating is done while installing, before Windows has finalized the setup and no user profiles nor installed programs exist. Windows 8 is a bit different story, relocating ProgramData might cause Windows Store and Store apps not to work why it is only recommended to relocate Users in 8 and 8.1.

For instance personally I have never experienced any update and service pack issues caused by relocated system folders. I will test this but cannot promise I have time to do it before the weekend, I need to start from scratch and install Vista in a test rig first.

Kari

 

[crawfish]

Fish you are more than welcome to write your own tutorial that is not so "flawed" and rife with "risks" as you say. However you past experience which you admittedly have had in XP and Vista wouldn't lend much credence to your lesson. If, if, you'd followed best practices nothing would have gone wrong, nor will it with Kari's method.

When you look at new posts why only pick on those where some person has an issue? Read through the thread and find those who thank Kari for the method and how happy they are with their systems.

Lookin' forward to your tutorial.

You can use the Conclusions section at the end of my last message as a "tutorial" setting forth actual best practices, with the bulk of the message above it being the demonstration proof that moving Users/ProgramData in Windows 7 locks you out of the system when the second drive goes bad or is unavailable for whatever reason, a problem which does not happen when you leave those folders on the system drive. I wouldn't have had to do the experiment and write it up if I had received a meaningful response to my first post, instead of, well, what I got, and the record of that speaks for itself.

Again, my purpose in posting here has been that none of the drawbacks I described or the safer alternatives I presented are even hinted at in Kari's "tutorial", and frankly, I think it's irresponsible not to mention them, because the people applying the method may not be aware of the new failure mode they're creating, the consequences for backup, etc, nor may they be aware they can do something much safer that will obtain the majority of the space saving by just moving data folders, which is supported directly by the Windows Explorer UI. They just see threads in multiple forums with hundreds of messages and thank-yous, and it's an official "tutorial", so it must be a good power user thing, right?

Clearly this thread is its only little universe, but there is a larger one, and unsurprisingly, I'm not the only one to think as I do. A quick google reveals that Ed Bott recommends moving data folders and leaving Users and ProgramData on the system drive, just as I have done.

Here's an article from 2011, where he advises against moving Users:

Windows 7 and SSDs: Cutting your system drive down to size

If you read the comments, on the first page you'll find this from "magnusak", which is a reply to someone advocating moving the Users folder "during a clean and 'unattended' installation", i.e. Kari's method:

@simonneedham I advice against this approach in a normal desktop environment. If the entire Users folder is placed on a different drive, a failure on this drive (temporary or permanent) will unable you to even log on to the computer (you will get a message saying "Unable to load profile" or something like that). That is very different from, say, not being able to load your documents because the drive is down. It makes debugging and error correction much more complicated.

I say this based on first hand experience.

That's exactly the same concern I expressed due to my own first hand experience with Vista in my first message here, and after getting several rude non-replies to my question as to how Windows 7 would behave, I documented the Windows 7 behavior in my follow-up message here, and I found it was just as bad as Vista. It's a real thing, as is everything I've talked about in this thread.

Here's an article from 2013, where Bott touches on things even I didn't know about.

Don't move your Windows user profiles folder to another drive

Bott links to Microsoft's Technet documentation, and here's the current version of it which applies to Windows 7, 8.1, and Server 2012:

ProfilesDirectory

Microsoft thinks it's a bad idea, too, stating "We don’t recommend using this setting, except perhaps in a test environment."

 

[Britton30]

Wow fish you are really a piece of work. If a drive goes bad with the entire system on it, where are you then? I make images of both drives often so I'm never more than a few days behind if things go pear shaped. More than one image on separate external drives, generally 3. I have restored either drive and the system still works fantastic.

Again I don't know why you have had so much trouble while so many other don't. As I have said I've used this very fine method at least 6-7 times with no issues and all systems run just fine. I once even had another OS on the OS drive and dual booted with no issues whatsoever.

While MS doesn't recommend or support moving Users to another drive, there are none the less thousand of people who do it and are quite happy, those examples you seem to ignore.

There are many ways to do it as well. If MS were serious, it would not be possible to do it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html#post199850

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/87555-user-profile-change-default-location.html

 

[crawfish]

If a drive goes bad with the entire system on it, where are you then?

You're in the same boat as you are when your secondary profile drive dies, dead in the water until you correct the problem.

Again I don't know why you have had so much trouble while so many other don't.

I haven't described having "so much trouble". As I've said, I moved my profile for NT4/XP/Vista, which covered the years 1996-2007. Then my profile drive died, and I was locked out of the system. If I hadn't moved my profile but just my data folders, I could have continued to use my computer, because nothing was wrong with the system drive. I could've troubleshooted, used my file-based backups on external drives pending fixing the problem, etc. This was why I stopped moving my profile to save space and started moving data folders, so that a dead secondary drive wouldn't kill my whole computer. And again, it's not just me who understands this. See previous post for another example.

While MS doesn't recommend or support moving Users to another drive, there are none the less thousand of people who do it and are quite happy, those examples you seem to ignore.

Have you not understood that for 10 years, I was one of those shiny, happy people, until all of a sudden, I was not? If all your "thousands of people" are aware of the various consequences of what they're doing and are choosing it over safer, supported alternatives, great, but they're not getting that information out of the "tutorial" promoting the method, because it's completely absent. So I'm not "ignoring" those people as you put it; in fact, it's the exact opposite.

 

[jonapaloma]

Doing this tweak to windows 7... Can it increase booting time?

 

[Kari]

Hi Jonapaloma, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Simple answer is no.

 

[jonapaloma]

Hi Jonapaloma, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Simple answer is no.

Care to explain why?

 

[Kari]

Answering a question with a question: Why and how would it increase the boot time? If something it does quite the opposite; instead of seeking necessary files from one drive the task is divided between two drives.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hi Jonapaloma, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Simple answer is no.

Care to explain why?

Well the only way I know of safely tweaking 7 in my mind is this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

I would however also recommended you back the registry up in case you inadvertently alter it
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4230-registry-backup-restore.html

plus this is a good tool too
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html - just in case I do a back up every week but you can set the time for it when you like.

 

[Britton30]

Doing this tweak to windows 7... Can it increase booting time?

Nope, it may reduce it but largely depends on how much you have it Startup. I have 3 systems installed with this method and boot times range from 28-50 seconds. I have the OS and some programs on SSDs, which is the main reason for doing this.

 

[Monumental]

I've done this on three different systems successfully. One using an mSATA SSD as the OS drive when Lenovo was only using it as a cache, which was really tricky!

My concern is, I haven't been very good about doing system images/backups. I backup files/images I really care about to a NAS, but as I'm hearing some strange noises from my PC and worried about drive failure, I'm looking to do more. So my question is, is there a way to undo this? I've got the SSD OS and HDD data setup. Is there a way to move the system User folders to the SSD so I can just image that one drive?

 

[Kari]

I've done this on three different systems successfully. One using an mSATA SSD as the OS drive when Lenovo was only using it as a cache, which was really tricky!

My concern is, I haven't been very good about doing system images/backups. I backup files/images I really care about to a NAS, but as I'm hearing some strange noises from my PC and worried about drive failure, I'm looking to do more. So my question is, is there a way to undo this? I've got the SSD OS and HDD data setup. Is there a way to move the system User folders to the SSD so I can just image that one drive?

You have two options:

1. Create an image which includes both your system drive and the drive containing Users and ProgramData folders
   • Pro: no extra steps needed. Create the image and when needed restore it to a system which has necessary drives available, i.e. a system drive at least as big as the system drive in your image, and another drive at least as big as it is in the image
   • Con: The image can only be restored to a system with two or more drives or partitions
2. Run sysprep again with your original answer file, this time relocating Users and ProgramData back to C:, create an image, then relocate folders back to another drive. See this post, list item #2 for more information: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ng-windows-7-installation-75.html#post2655002
   • Pro: A smaller image which can be restored to a one drive system
   • Con: Relocating folders back to C: and after imaging back to another drive takes some time

Kari

 

[Levy23]

Ok so I'm trying a few forums right now. Basically trying to do the whole OS on the SSD and everything else possible on an HDD. Last time I tried regedit but my IE10 wouldn't work anymore and I still always had things slowly installing on the SSD- not a lot but slowly had been losing space. I'm afraid of that happening again. Right now I'm waiting to get a replacement HDD from WD (blah blah anyways). But I'm having issues with doing this all and not sure which things to do. I'm reading here to not move the Program Files (and x86 version) but other places to do a regedit to change those directories (which as I said before, caused IE and other odds and ends to not work). I'm a novice when it comes to computer-altering and would greatly appreciate help in knowing which way *for sure* is the way to go and how to do it. I'll be starting with a fresh install which makes it all easier (Both drives will be empty, I have everything backed up elsewhere, as hard files and will be reinstalling all programs and such afterwards). If I could guide for this it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I've missed anything that might help me but I've literally been at this for months now and done so much reading with limited success.

 

[Britton30]

The complete guide in PDF format is here in this thread. I suggest reading through it a few time before attempting to do it.
It has worked for me 4 times now and my system runs and functions well.

 

[Kari]

Hi Levy, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Moving Program folders can cause issues I personally don't want to have. I will not recommend it, nor will I assist in any way in doing that.

That being said, here's what I suggest to you:

• Disconnect the HDD only leaving SSD connected
• Install Windows 7 normally to SSD
• When Windows is installed, shutdown the PC and connect HDD
• Boot to Windows
• Give this command in Command Prompt or Run dialog (WIN+R) and hit Enter:
  

  %windir%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /audit /reboot

• Computer reboots now to Audit Mode
• Using Disk Management, format and partition your HDD as you wish
• Relocate Users and ProgramData folders by following this tutorial from top of the page 4

Kari

 

[Levy23]

Alright, I'll try it out when the drive arrives. Thanks again and if I have any other concerns, I'll return!

 

[Levy23]

Currently I just had to robocall to reactivate my windows, but currently I'm dealing with an error from sysprep that reads "A fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine." I had previously tried the fresh install following the entirety of the tutorial but I think the drive locations in the script were not what I wanted (they used D: and my drive was F: but it wasn't specified if that was the drive you wanted the folders on) and it just did nothing so I reinstalled hoping to just undo that all. After installing with HDD removed, rebooted with it plugged in and did the %windir% via cmd but now its giving me this error. Ugh. Halp thanks.

edit: best ideas I have is to reinstall again, without HDD, and before naming the computer, follow the tutorial from there, or, um. well, that's all I can think of I guess. I'll wait for replies