Re-directing Windows 7 Users folder to another drive

[ahinman27332]

Being the impatient type, I decided to go for max performance(Minimun boot up and application start-up time) by adding a 300 GByte 10,000 hard drive as my Windows 7 boot and application drive. What I want to do is keep all data off this drive. Any suggestions on how I could re-direct Windows 7 Users Folders to one of my other RAID 0 drives?

 

[kegobeer]

You could try creating a hard link (MKLINK dos command) in the C:\Users directory for each user. I have no idea how stable this would be, though. You should probably start with just creating a symlink for one particular folder, like the documents folder.

mklink /j "c:\users\user\My Documents" d:\wherever

It might work, and then again it might not work. Give it a try.

 

[MacGyvr]

Being the impatient type, I decided to go for max performance(Minimun boot up and application start-up time) by adding a 300 GByte 10,000 hard drive as my Windows 7 boot and application drive. What I want to do is keep all data off this drive. Any suggestions on how I could re-direct Windows 7 Users Folders to one of my other RAID 0 drives?

All you have to do is change the entries in the libraries...Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc.

 

[kegobeer]

Being the impatient type, I decided to go for max performance(Minimun boot up and application start-up time) by adding a 300 GByte 10,000 hard drive as my Windows 7 boot and application drive. What I want to do is keep all data off this drive. Any suggestions on how I could re-direct Windows 7 Users Folders to one of my other RAID 0 drives?

All you have to do is change the entries in the libraries...Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc.

The library is merely a pointer of sorts, and doesn't have anything to do with the actual file locations of the folders in question.

 

[MacGyvr]

Being the impatient type, I decided to go for max performance(Minimun boot up and application start-up time) by adding a 300 GByte 10,000 hard drive as my Windows 7 boot and application drive. What I want to do is keep all data off this drive. Any suggestions on how I could re-direct Windows 7 Users Folders to one of my other RAID 0 drives?

All you have to do is change the entries in the libraries...Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc.

The library is merely a pointer of sorts, and doesn't have anything to do with the actual file locations of the folders in question.

Not true at all. A library is a collection of physical folders. By default, the Documents library points to c:\users\XXXX\documents. Delete that folder from the library and add the folder you want. It IS that simple.

 

[kegobeer]

And when I go directly to my documents, bypassing the library, what then? Also, when applications write to the my documents folder, it does not go through the library at all. If you want to move the folder, you have to either relocate it (speaking of just the my documents folder) via the properties -> location process, or you have to create a hard link to fool the operating system into thinking the files are still where it thinks they are.

 

[MacGyvr]

And when I go directly to my documents, bypassing the library, what then?

Why go there? Save documents wherever you want...that's what makes the library so brilliant.

 

[MacGyvr]

And technically, there is no "My Documents" folder anymore. Even though you see it in a directory listing, if you click in the address bar so that the path is shown, you will see that it is c:\users\xxx\documents.

 

[kegobeer]

I edited my post to include other arguments. However, the library is just a collection point and not a physical location. The OP asked how to move the user folders to a new drive, and playing around with the library does nothing to solve the original issue.

 

[zrtom]

If you go to your documents and open file location you are able to move it to another drive. For example if you go to C:\users\<yourname>\My Pictures you can go to properties and there will be a location tab. You can move it to an empty folder with the same name on another drive. From then on My Pictures will default to the folder on the other drive. Windows will even change the folder icons on the other drive to indicate the default, say, My Pictures folder.
That's one of the beauties of Libraries.

 

[smarteyeball]

***

 

[kegobeer]

I edited my post to include other arguments. However, the library is just a collection point and not a physical location. The OP asked how to move the user folders to a new drive, and playing around with the library does nothing to solve the original issue.

And the question is moot. You can do anything you want with the documents folder...even delete it. All that matters is what folder is in the library. There is nothing special about the documents folder like there was for "My Documents" in XP. It doesn't NEED to be moved. ANY folder(s) can be your documents folder, just put it/them in the library.

I think you're still missing the point. There is no library for "contacts", or the appdata folder in the user directory, or any of the other folders. Unless you move the user directory, there will always be files written on the system drive. The OP does not want that.

If you go to your documents and open file location you are able to move it to another drive. For example if you go to C:\users\<yourname>\My Pictures you can go to properties and there will be a location tab. You can move it to an empty folder with the same name on another drive. From then on My Pictures will default to the folder on the other drive. Windows will even change the folder icons on the other drive to indicate the default, say, My Pictures folder.
That's one of the beauties of Libraries.

Doing that to each user's folders can be pretty tedious. It would be faster to merely use a hard link I think.

 

[MacGyvr]

I edited my post to include other arguments. However, the library is just a collection point and not a physical location. The OP asked how to move the user folders to a new drive, and playing around with the library does nothing to solve the original issue.

And the question is moot. You can do anything you want with the documents folder...even delete it. All that matters is what folder is in the library. There is nothing special about the documents folder like there was for "My Documents" in XP. It doesn't NEED to be moved. ANY folder(s) can be your documents folder, just put it/them in the library.

I think you're still missing the point. There is no library for "contacts", or the appdata folder in the user directory, or any of the other folders. Unless you move the user directory, there will always be files written on the system drive. The OP does not want that.

If you go to your documents and open file location you are able to move it to another drive. For example if you go to C:\users\<yourname>\My Pictures you can go to properties and there will be a location tab. You can move it to an empty folder with the same name on another drive. From then on My Pictures will default to the folder on the other drive. Windows will even change the folder icons on the other drive to indicate the default, say, My Pictures folder.
That's one of the beauties of Libraries.

Doing that to each user's folders can be pretty tedious. It would be faster to merely use a hard link I think.

If you are referring to folders higher than the documents folder, which AppData is, then you are talking about moving an entire profile, something that hasn't been touched on in this entire thread. This article will tell you how to do it:

How to Change User Profile Default Location in Windows 7 | Windows 7 hacker

Terminology counts...."profile" would have gotten you the right answer much earlier.