Solved Can Users Folder Be Put on Different Drive?

[imacken]

I'm looking at getting a solid state HD to put Windows boot files on. 120Gb ones look 'reasonable' these days at around £150.
Although I have 4 x 500Gb at the moment, my Photos and Games are on separate drives, but my Windows drive is using around 160Gb mainly because my User folder is there with Documents, Music, etc.
Can this be relocated? If so, how?
Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello Imacken,

This can help show you how to.

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

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[imacken]

Shawn. Thanks again. This forum always has been a real pleasure to use.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

 

[rap33042]

Based on the information in this post, I was finally able to move the User folder to another drive.
This is something I've been thinking about doing for a long time.

It worked! But there is a caveat I think worth mentioning:
Some of the programs I had installed have "broken" because of this change. They are still looking for their information in the User Folder's original location- which, of course, no longer exists.

Something to think about before implementing this option.

 

[Kari]

@rap33042

Next time when reinstalling, you might want to try this: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...reate-move-during-windows-7-installation.html

Because it changes the value of the environment variable %userprofiles% before even the first user account is created, changing the value from C:\Users to whatever you want to, it is 100% safe and fail-proof method to relocate user folders. All new accounts are automatically created on chosen drive, no need to repeat the procedure if you for instance have to restore system to a point before you manually moved the folders.

Kari

 

[Brink]

Based on the information in this post, I was finally able to move the User folder to another drive.
This is something I've been thinking about doing for a long time.

It worked! But there is a caveat I think worth mentioning:
Some of the programs I had installed have "broken" because of this change. They are still looking for their information in the User Folder's original location- which, of course, no longer exists.

Something to think about before implementing this option.

You may be able to uninstall and reinstall these programs, or use OPTION TWO in the tutorial to create a new user account and create new shortcuts for the programs to fix this.

 

[rap33042]

You are absolutely right, Kari.

I mention this only because I did it after I had a lot of programs already installed- it wasn't a W7 re-install.

It hasn't been catastrophic; only a couple of programs 'broke' and I didn't have to re-install the programs to get them to work.

Thanks for the input & link, though.
I'll certainly remember this if I ever have to re-install W7- shee! I hope I don't have to do that again anytime soon

 

[Brink]

I've added a warning in the tutorial to help.

 

[Kari]

If an app looks AppData from old location and there's no way to change it, maybe as first aid you could create C:\Users\Your_User_Name\AppData again, and move the folders / files needed back to respective Local, LocalLow and Roaming subfolders?

Might just work.

Kari

 

[rap33042]

I turns out that all I had to do is point the program to the new location.
Fortunately, default folder locations, within the specific applications, were 'settable' in their respective Options Menus.

I haven't fired up Delphi yet- that might be a nightmare... may have to re-install that one; it is tightly integrated with the OS and my [old] version doesn't play well with W7. Even before the 'move', I had to tweak some settings that W7 didn't like. I'm scared

Thanks for the acknowledgment, Brink!
And, Thanks for the information, Kari.

I love this place!!

 

[canwilf]

Just add a symbolic Link

Works best if done during a fresh install.

In a nutshell, after you copy the users folder (use robocopy) :

1) Make sure the registry is edited to pint to new disk for users folder

2) Delete the old folder

3) Add a directory link:

>> mklink /D C:\Users X:\Users (where x is the new drive path)

Then programs with hard coded c:\Users will still find it.

 

[bbearren]

Set 7 Free has instructions for moving the Users Folder and also the Program Files Folder. There is registry editing required, and Junction Points to create, but it works very well, and all future installs will go where they should.