Clean install, creating Users folder on another drive, advice please

[gregrocker]

Try maximizing the window by clicking the middle button the the top right.

 

[Alleyoop]

OK.

 

[gregrocker]

If you take the EFI Boot Disk out of the BIOS Boot order you should be able to do a normal install to an MBR disk. Set the DVD drive first to boot, then HD.

Otherwise you'll need to install this way: UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Forums

 

[Alleyoop]

Thanks. When I first installed Windows 7 a few weeks ago, an option between MBR and EFI came up and I chose MBR, for no particular reason. That option didn't come up on my install a couple of nights back. In fact I installed twice on Monday. I opened into the first install to ensure it worked , but I didn't install drivers or do anything much as I decided to reinstall and relocate my User folders. However it appeared to have been successful.
So it was an MBR install with an EFI partition?
The most recent install was interrupted as I attempted to edit the User folder location. I just went back and completed it as an OOBE and it opens ok. It of course has the 100mb EFI partition also.
This install is flawed then?
Going back to the problem I had in Audit Mode, can you see what I did wrong there, why I wasn't able to complete that step? (post #16). I still intend to reinstall and edit that User folders location. (eventually...).
Can anyone outline a good reason why I would reinstall UEFI?

 

[karlsnooks]

Forget about the user folders.

First get yourself a clean install.
2nd, 100% update Win 7
3rd, make a system image backup

Now you can follow the procedure given in the tutorial in this forum to relocate your user profile FOLDERS. I do not advocate relocating the entire profile. I've never known to be anything except trouble, if not immediately, then later down the road.

 

[gregrocker]

There is no reason I see to redo your install. I was only commenting generally about installing to an MBR disk from an EFI BIOS.

You can move your User folders using this method: User Folders - Change Default Location

However an easier method is simply copying each User folder to the data drive, then rightclicking it to link to the related Win7 Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums.

This saves some problems down the road and accomplishes nearly the same thing.

 

[Alleyoop]

OK.
At this point I am booting into Windows when I select UEFI as my boot option. I get nowhere if I select my boot drive as my boot option.

 

[Alleyoop]

I've updated Windows and imaged and am now installing drivers.
Thank you all for your help and guidance on this issue. I appreciate that my ignorance tested your patience, I got a bit flustered in frustration at times.
Apart from being successfully installed, I learned a lot about about the Windows 7 installation process.
Thank you.

 

[gregrocker]

We are glad to help. Feel free to stick around as the spirit of learning here is most welcome.

 

[UTAmaverick]

alleyoop,

We have several tutorials on installing, covering all possibilities.

Personally, I always make a 100% clean install.

As far as moving the folders, I do such all of the time.

Do NOT move the program folders or program data folders.

Move such folders as Music, Videos, Pictures, Documents.

Helpful would be for us to know the sizes of the two disks that you will be using.

Put Windows, all programs and program data on one disk. After that, it's your call but there is no sense in putting small folders such as bookmarks on your larger drive.

Not sure if I understand or agree with the program folders or data comment. I know on my old PC it was quite large and hindered system performance.

I also just made the jump to a SSD drive 60GB that I'm running in an older PC, which has improved it quite a bit, but now that I'm installing a new Windows 7 OS on the PC and I'd like to keep the SSD clean for just the OS, and maybe a few other files that can benefit from SSD speed. My data drive is 2TB for all the programs, art, music, video and other large data items.

I'm aware that moving the programs and users files to another drive can cause an issue at some point, BUT is a there a hybrid approach (like leaving the ADMINISTRATOR account on the SSD) that entails moving ONLY some user accounts to a larger drive. I can't emagine that the admin account will grow larger if I'm using my own user account(s) for all the data, media, music, docs and other items so it could remain on the SSD. That way if my user links were severed or my SSD loaded a bit to fast for the HDD one day that the system will have the admin and default accounts and hopefully won't go crazy since it can use one of those to startup. It also won't leave me locked out of the system or attempt to recreate new default accounts.


So my question is can I redirect or link just inside the USERS folder not the whole folder itself and thus avoid problems down the road? Since my SSD is only 60GB, and almost half full now with clean OS and OFFICE. I would just relocate users as required, for example the account "Student".

If I can get away with leaving programs on the SSD, or just some of the major ones that might be an option, but I don't have space for everything nor do i want to clutter up the OS drive.


What about doing these links as a safer alternative:

robocopy "C:\Users\Student" "F:\Users\Student" /COPYALL /MIR /XJ
robocopy "C:\Program Files" "F:\Program Files" /COPYALL /MIR /XJ
robocopy "C:\Program Files (x86)" "F:\Program Files (x86)" /COPYALL /MIR /XJ
robocopy "C:\ProgramData" "F:\ProgramData" /COPYALL /MIR /XJ

rmdir "C:\Users\Student" /S /Q
rmdir "C:\Program Files" /S /Q
rmdir "C:\Program Files (x86)" /S /Q
rmdir "C:\ProgramData" /S /Q

mklink "C:\Users\Student" "F:\Users\Student" /J
mklink "C:\Program Files" "F:\Program Files" /J
mklink "C:\Program Files (x86)" "F:\Program Files (x86)" /J
mklink "C:\ProgramData" "F:\ProgramData" /J


In another post somewhere I saw a comment that the AppData account needs to be copied but from what I can see it's part of each user account folder so it will be copied anyway not sure why it was pointed out as a separte item. Yes it's hidden but the command switches above take care of hidden folders and sub foldes. Maybe it's different in Vista or the non X64 version? Some of the discussion started in older forums.

Any issues seen with only taking part of the accounts to a new drive and leaving the other default and admin users intact for emergency or maintenance reasons?

Did I include everything that is required when entering data at the command line level in the recovery console?

Other insights and comments?

Henry

 

[gregrocker]

I suggest you get a large enough SSD that you can include everything except your User data.

Then copy your active User folders to the data HD, link them to the related Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums. This prevents issues caused by moving the shell User folders.

If you run out of SSD space then I'd uninstall lesser used programs and reinstall them to the data HD. But you will suffer a speed loss because SSD speeds benefit programs as well as the OS which is why they should not be installed to a slower HDD.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/585-library-include-folder.html