Profile Relocator: Software by Joseph Cox
Article in Lifehacker:
Profile Relocator Moves Windows Profiles to a New Location
My own tutorial written at AF:
Question: adding SSD to system - Android Forums
_________________________________________
Neat little trick to help extend life of the SSD: In addition to things like TRIM, moving hibernation and pagefiles onto spinners, etc. is to move oft use folders, like 1) Special folders (My Documents, etc.) onto the Spinners as well as 2) your Profile folder(s). This is easily accomplished when you're first installing the OS, by way of a little used feature of Win7 called Audit Mode.
Read about it here:
Customize Windows in Audit Mode
When you get to the screen where it asks for your Username, do this: Hold
CTRL + SHIFT + F3 and it will automatically take you into audit mode with a reboot. Then, you'll get a nice dialog (after you get the "Windows is preparing your computer for first time use" animated screen) that asks what you want to do - change the first drop down to "
Enter system Audit mode" and the second dropdown to "
Quit" -
DO NOT SELECT GENERALIZE!! MAKE SURE IT REMAINS UNCHECKED!! - and then sysprep will create a
throwaway admin account for you to use for all sorts of purposes, including installing apps, customizing settings, etc.
Next, get Profile Relocator from bootblock:
Software by Joseph Cox - extract and run.
How to use:
PURPOSE
-------
Profile Relocator is a step-based application that allows the re-locating of the Windows Users profile directory. Once re-located, any created profiles will appear in the new location in their entirety. The advantage to doing this allows profiles to be stored in a location that doesn't reside on the system drive, ensuring that profile data isn't compromised as a result of re-installation or system failure.
Profile Relocator has been designed to work with Windows XP, Vista, and 7.
USAGE
-----
The application contains the required information on how it works, but below is a brief recap on what you should do. Please note that if the "re-installing Windows" step doesn't apply to you, you can just create the new account from your current account. Unfortunately this means you will not be able to create the new account using your current account's name.
If you're just about to re-install Windows, you should create an account when prompted by Windows during the Windows installation phase using a temporary name. Do not use the name you would like your permanent account to have. For example, use an account name of Test.
Once you've been logged into your temporary account (or main account if you did not re-install Windows), do not install anything except for Profile Relocator. Run PR, read and agree to the the disclaimer in the first step, then select the location you would like all future-created Windows profiles to be located in and click Start.
Once the relocation process has finished, click Finish.
Restart your PC and log back into your temporary account and create your new profile using the User Accounts control panel applet, using the original account name that you wanted. Check the profile destination you entered in PR above and you should see the newly created account in that location.
Log out of your current temporary account and then into the newly created account. Once you have ensured the account is working as intended (no errors being reported by Windows upon login), feel free to delete the temporary account (eg. Temp) that you just logged out of as it is no longer required.
Profile Relocator does not support the location change of existing profiles as is much more risky due to the required number of steps and their complexity.
Since Audit mode creates a throw away Admin account, after (and every time) reboot you get the same dialog as before, with 2 drop down boxes and the generalize button. When you are complete with making all of the changes, leave the first dropdown on "
Enter System Out of Box Experience" and the second on "
Reboot".
Et voilà your user directories (and all future users' profile directories) are now permanently configured to be located on a different drive from the SSD, making reinstalls much much easier, as most of your software settings (even those in the registry) are stored under %USERS% profile. Furthermore, it also makes Software reinstalls a lot easier, as the settings are not wiped when you format the system drive, but you'll have to go through this process again on a reinstall. Finally, as settings get continuously changed when you use software, you're not writing repeatedly to the SSD.
One point to note: When in system audit mode, change the power settings to
High performance- otherwise, if you have to walk away, and the system goes into standby mode, you
cannot unlock it, as the throwaway admin account gets
disabled, and you'll need to reboot the machine to get back into Audit mode.
HTH
(I really should make this into a blog and start posting it for ppl to use....)
_________________________________________
I have written a blog about it since, but have not included any details, just a general write up on how easy it is. I can make a tut later this evening to add to the Move Users folder tut....
