Solved moving the partition containing "my documents"

[DocDJ]

I currently have the "my documents" folder (and other folders) on a separate partition (E on a 2nd drive (drive 2). Drive 2 is failing (slowly) and I want to move E: off it, back to drive 1 with C:, but keeping it as a separate partition.

I plan to use Partition Wizard to copy the old E: to drive 1 and label it M:. Next I need to switch the drive letters for both partitions and reboot. When all is good, I can delete the old E: and hopefully be on my merry way.

It's been a LONG time since I created the E: partition, so I just wanted a sanity check. My eventual goal is to have my system partition on an SSD and everything else rotational. That way, system restores/etc. are independent of my data. I'll be replacing Drive 2 VERY soon and will move E: to it. I have another partition on Drive 2 and will do the same with it, but it is independent of the system pointers that "my documents" has built into it.

Can you tell me if my plan is OK?? Did I forget anything?

 

[AddRAM]

You`re overthinking it, there`s no reason to go moving folders around. Just keep the data you don`t want to loose on another partition or hard drive.

Make an image of 7 and put it on another drive and leave it at that.

 

[edwar]

You'll probably need a 3rd party disk management program to partition the boot drive as I don't think Windows Disk Management will allow it. But I'm not totally sure as I've always used Acronis Disk Director for this type of thing. Once you create that other partition you can copy all the files from the E drive to that newly created partition and then use Win Disk Management to reassign drive letters so it shows up as E. Once all the is don't and you reboot the My Doc folder should be accessible just like it was before.

 

[gregrocker]

Create a data partition or prepare the target location for moving the User folders, then move them the same way as always using the Location tab as shown in User Folders - Change Default Location. Choose the option when offered to copy the files to the new location.

 

[Brink]

DocDJ,


If you like, you might consider this below to be able to access the files from your libraries with the files actually located where you like instead. This way you will not have to worry about any potential issues that come with moving user folder locations.

• Create a new folder at any location you want.
• Move any files you want into the new folder.
• Include the new folder into a library of your choice.
• If you like, you can also set the new folder to be the default "save" to location for the library as well.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[DocDJ]

The My Documents folder and several others were moved to a new partition on another drive a long time ago. Now that drive is failing and I wanted to move THAT partition to a different drive. I just wanted a check on my process for doing that. I DO want to keep these folders on a SEPARATE partition from my system partition.

So I tried to copy the partition using Partition Wizard, but it failed (I suspect it's because of the reason the drive itself is failing), so I just copied (using Windows Explorer) all those folders to a newly created partition, swapped drive letters on the old/new partitions and re-booted. All is well.
Yes, I am already using Libraries for access to specific folders in that partition. It is a nice mechanism.

 

[Brink]

DocDJ,

In that case, yes you could also use the tutorial that Greg posted above to move the user folders to another location of your choice. It's the same way that you originally moved them, but at step 5, you would want to go to where they are currently located on the failing HDD instead to move them from.

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

 

[whs]

Prudence would suggest that you first post a picture of your disk management before you create more partitions on your drive with the OS. I would hate for you to have to deal with dynamic partitions.

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, post up a screenshot first of http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html along with preference for how you want partitions laid out, and we will give you the steps.

Do you want a new data partition on the OS HD?

 

[DocDJ]

DocDJ,

In that case, yes you could also use the tutorial that Greg posted above to move the user folders to another location of your choice. It's the same way that you originally moved them, but at step 5, you would want to go to where they are currently located on the failing HDD instead to move them from.

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

Thanks Brink. I'll bookmark that for future reference.

 

[DocDJ]

Yes, post up a screenshot first of http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html along with preference for how you want partitions laid out, and we will give you the steps.

Do you want a new data partition on the OS HD?

Thanks Gregrocker and WHS for your tips. I had the old partition as a primary partition on the old drive. So I created a new primary ptn on another drive and just copied all the files (which, I think, ends up de-fragging them in the process because the copy will be sequential within each file), chaned drive letters and re-booted. It's all doner and working fine.

You're right that I didn't want to play with logical or dynamic ptns. The limit of 4 primaries on a drive is OK for me.

 

[whs]

You're right that I didn't want to play with logical or dynamic ptns. The limit of 4 primaries on a drive is OK for me.

There is a trap though of which you have to be aware - if you want to create an additional extended (logical) partition, the limit on the primaries is 3 and NOT 4.

If you try to create an extended partition on a disk with 4 primaries, you end up with dynamics.

 

[DocDJ]

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. I am expecting a replacement drive soon so I will be able to move my data to it and delete the ptn. Then I can start on my plan to move my OS ptn to an SSD (using the Apricorn PCIE adapter+SSD).

 

[gregrocker]

You should post up the requested screenshot so we can advise you how to convert one Primary to Logical so you can add as many other adjacent logicals as you want.

You'd want to keep the SYstem and any bootable OEM partitions (Recovery, Diagnostics) Primary, so for example on HP's it is C that should be converted.

 

[DocDJ]

You should post up the requested screenshot so we can advise you how to convert one Primary to Logical so you can add as many other adjacent logicals as you want.

You'd want to keep the SYstem and any bootable OEM partitions (Recovery, Diagnostics) Primary, so for example on HP's it is C that should be converted.

Here's my whole setup.

 

[gregrocker]

Please also follow the steps exactly as given in Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image to maximize the window, show all columns and listings as well as full map, and capture and post the image.

 

[DocDJ]

Here is the snipped file as a PNG.

 

[gregrocker]

Make the space on C drive to copy the old Documents partition onto using How to Copy Partition with partition manager? Partition Wizard Copy Partition Video Help.. If moving the partition causes any problems then create a new Partition there and copy the files into it.

Be aware you can only have four Primary partitions on a HD or you must convert one to Logical to add as many adjacent Logical Partitions as you want. How to set partition as Primary or Logical.
Partition Wizard Create Partition Video Help

The correct way to link your Documents or any other User folders from Win7 to a data partition is to either move the User folder to the folder you've made on the data partition for it: User Folders - Change Default Location

or rightclick the folder to add to the related Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums setting the data drive location as the default for that User folder.

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