Redirect appdata folder to a different drive ???

[BuckSkin]

I have successfully done this before, but I cannot remember just how I managed it.

I looked in "Tutorials" but could not find one that covers this; not saying there isn't one, just that I could not find it.

I found this, but it still leaves my question unanswered.

Move your libraries to a second drive or partition | PCWorld

Unlike described in the tutorial above, I have no problem seeing and navigating to the user's appdata folder; it is right there among all the other folders under that user.

The main "appdata" folder has no location tab.

The three sub-folders DO have location tabs.

If I create a folder "appdata" on the other drive, and redirect the three sub-folders to that folder, will that be sufficient to redirect ALL appdata traffic to the new drive location ?

Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.


>>>EDIT: I found this:

How to move Appdata to a Different Drive - YouTube

Contrary to what that guy shows, on this machine, it is the "Local" folder that is growing out of proportion; the "Roaming" folder has only a few mb.

Is there a danger in moving/redirecting the "Local" folder as he states ?

 

[torchwood]

Hi Buckskin,

believe this is the original tutorial you used.

However, It Incudes a warning abount moving certain files/folders individually AFTER installation of the OS, and possibly why your encountering the error


User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

Roy

 

[RoWin7]

Are you wanting to move Appdata for ease of backup or because it's growing too big? What do you mean by "location tabs"?

I have close to 60 programs and my AppData is just under 3GB, of which Local is only 1 GB. Is yours much bigger? I also just dumped a bunch of Temp files from Local\temp.

I don't recommend moving system files. I just ignore my Library folders and have all my data on partition D, and I have a small backup program that backs up my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles and my Appdata nightly.

 

[BuckSkin]

On the machine in question, Local appdata is 20 GB plus and growing, enough so that the system drive is showing less that 5 GB empty space.

I have not ran into any errors just yet as I haven't yet moved anything on the machine.

Programs and Features says 121 Programs installed; of that, 17 are Microsoft and several others are also necessities.

Were it not for the AppData folder, the only things on the system drive are the system and programs.

The Libraries are all redirected to the big HDD; we don't use the Libraries, but various programs often stick stuff in there.

 

[BuckSkin]

What do you mean by "location tabs"?

If you still have your Libraries and AppData folders unmolested, right click on any of them and select Properties; in the dialogue that appears, there will be several tabs, one of which will be Location.

Click that Location tab and there will be the necessary tools to redirect that folder such that anything put in that folder will land in your chosen place.

 

[RoWin7]

Never used the Libraries, just removed the subfolders. Appdata has "Sharing" "security" "Previous version" and "customize" tabs, no "location"

Do you have a D drive for data, and if so, can you redistribute the sizes with a partition manager? If so, can you move some data to an exterior drive or DVD's?

Have you tried the cleanup feature of Glary Utilities or Windows to clean up junk files?

 

[BuckSkin]

Never used the Libraries, just removed the subfolders. Appdata has "Sharing" "security" "Previous version" and "customize" tabs, no "location"

Do you have a D drive for data, and if so, can you redistribute the sizes with a partition manager? If so, can you move some data to an exterior drive or DVD's?

Have you tried the cleanup feature of Glary Utilities or Windows to clean up junk files?

The AppData folder itself willl not have the location tab; look at the subfolders, Local, LocalLow, and Roaming, and you should see the Location tab.

On the machine in question, (C and only (C is on a SSD by itself.

All other data is stored on four separate HDDs, Drives A, B, Y, and Z.

D and E are DVD disc drives.

(A is strictly photos and (Z is a mirror of A; (B is all other data and (Y is a mirror of B.

The reason Photos are (A is so that it is always top of the list.

 

[file3456]

First, I would make sure you don't have unnecessarily junk in your appdata folder that shouldn't be there. Two ways to help remedy this is to run the popular Ccleaner and I like to also run System Ninja. DO NOT use Ccleaner's registry cleaner. You can mess a system up. You've been warned. You may also want to run RevoUninstaller and get rid of anything that you aren't using at all.

Now the fix. This probably involves a sysmlink to the other hard drive. Although, I don't have much faith in sysmlinks and I think one day they can be there and the next they're gone. Also, if you sysmlink the appdata folder to another drive, you had better make damn sure you have a good backup regimen. If that hard drive ever messes up, so too will the appdata folder that Windows depends on and all will come crashing down. Not to mention that possible problems down the line if you have issues with a symlink.

To create a symlink, you can do so one of two ways. The command line method, or using a software that I have used called Link Shell Extension. Information here: The Complete Guide to Creating Symbolic Links (aka Symlinks) on Windows

Offtopic-

The author of Howtogeek looks like your typical nerd. HAHAHAHA For me, I stand six feet, two, weigh 315, and sport Charlie Sheen bowling shirts and cargo pants/shorts. HAHAHA!

sudo -end-offtopic.

 

[RoWin7]

...

All other data is stored on four separate HDDs, Drives A, B, Y, and Z.

D and E are DVD disc drives.

....

Oops, I underestimated the enormity of your stuff.

 

[RoWin7]

Offtopic-

The author of Howtogeek looks like your typical nerd. HAHAHAHA For me, I stand six feet, two, weigh 315, and sport Charlie Sheen bowling shirts and cargo pants/shorts. HAHAHA!

sudo -end-offtopic.

OT--
I don't think that's him: About How-To Geek
end OT

 

[BuckSkin]

First, I would make sure you don't have unnecessarily junk in your appdata folder that shouldn't be there. Two ways to help remedy this is to run the popular >>>Ccleaner<<<

I have never used CCleaner = always been sort of afraid with such things, much like I have to dump the garbage out when the wife is not around and rescue my many treasured things, else they would be gone forever.

Does it show a list of the things it is going to clean away and let me investigate, pick, and choose what is discarded ?

 

[file3456]

Does it show a list of the things it is going to clean away and let me investigate, pick, and choose what is discarded ?

Yes, but I also mentioned System Ninja so use that too. Don't delete folder config. files. That is off by default.