User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

How to Create User Accounts on another Partition or Disk During Windows 7 Installation ​

   Information

There are several methods to move user profiles to another disk or partition after you have installed Windows 7. The easiest way is to use Audit Mode and System Preparation Tool, both built-in Windows 7 features, to permanently move the location of the folder Users.

This tutorial shows how to relocate both Users and ProgramData to another disk or partition when doing a new, fresh and clean install of Windows 7. If you have already installed Seven, and you'd like to move those folders away from their default location in C: drive, please read first post number 22 in this thread. Follow the steps told in that post, and continue then from beginning of the page 4 in this tutorial.

When Windows 7 is installed, 5 or 6 system folders are created depending on chosen bit-version:

• PerfLogs (Performance Logs), where Windows stores performance and reliability logs
• Program Files, where applications and software are installed. Windows x86 (32-bit) stores all applications here, Windows x64 (64-bit) only native 64-bit applications
• Program Files (x86), only in Windows x64. All non-x64 applications are stored here
• Windows, which contains core operating system files and drivers
• ProgramData, where some applications store application and user specific settings and configuration files
• Users. This is the "home" of all user folders. When a new user account is created and this new user logs in first time, Windows creates a set of user specific folders Users\New_User

Moving Windows and Program Files folders is not recommend by Microsoft. However, moving both Users and ProgramData folders is safe and can save a lot of space on system disk. Pictures, mp3’s videos, documents and so on, a user folder with its subfolders can be tens, sometimes hundreds of gigabytes.

For instance, using this laptop of mine as an example, the total size of Users folder and subfolders is at the moment about 240 GB. The size of ProgramData folder is at the moment almost 18 GB. I simply could not have these folders stored in my system C: drive, there’s not enough space.

When installing Windows 7, I recommend using Windows System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) in so called Audit Mode to relocate Users and ProgramData, leaving C: drive only for Windows and applications.

   Warning

An upgraded Windows cannot be sysprepped. As this method is based in sysprepping, this tutorial is valid only for Windows setups which have not been upgraded.

This means that if you have for instance in-place upgraded Vista to Seven, you cannot sysprep. The same applies if you have upgraded from a lesser edition to a better edition, for instance from Windows 7 Home Premium to Professional.

Notice that a repair install is also an upgrade install, so if you have ever done a repair install (= in-place upgrade to same edition), you cannot sysprep.

In other words, when sysprepping an existing Windows setup it only works if the Windows was installed clean and has never been upgraded or repaired using repair install, or if it is the original pre-installed Windows.

Using this method causes Windows 7 to lose activation information, and it needs to be reactivated afterwards. If your Windows 7 is an OEM version, you might not be able to reactivate it, at least not without phone activation option.

   Warning

IE10 Users: Please read this article first: Sysprep Fatal Error With IE 10 (FIX) | System Administration

Complete tutorial as PDF: View attachment Relocate User folders during Windows 7 installation.pdf (1.22 MB)

Kari

Related Tutorials

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• How to Change the Default Location of a User Profile in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Change the Default Location of Windows 7 User Folders
• How to Restore the Default Location of Windows 7 User Folders
• How to Free Up and Recover Hard Drive Space in Windows 7
• How to Change the User Folder Name of a User Profile in Windows 7

 

[Dinesh]

OMG! That is simply awesome. I never knew such thing even exist in Windows 7. I learned a lot from this tutorial and this will help many people here. Excellent work mate.

 

[A Guy]

Great work Kari, well done

A Guy

 

[Dave76]

Well done, nice tut thank you

I'll be using this on my next re-install.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Kari, you are one of the true Gurus around here; I'll rep you for this when I'm able.

 

[Lomai]

Great job Kari
Thanks for this - have to spread some around first

Regards

 

[Kari]

Thanks geeks.

 

[derekimo]

This is great info, nice work Kari.

 

[mickey megabyte]

i should be receiving an ssd some time today, and i'll be doing a clean install.

i'm eager to get my user profiles on another partition on another drive, as space is tight, only 60 gigs.

i've been advised (by whs and others) to disconnect my spinner whilst installing 7 onto an ssd.

but your tutorial needs the other drive connected during the install process.

do you see my problem?

do i do this instead?

 

[Kari]

You can do this only if you have the drive where you want to relocate Users connected. Sorry. You have basically two options: first, let the second drive be connected but do not format it before in Audit Mode. If it's formatted, delete the partitions. Second possibility is to start installation with second drive disconnected, then when Windows boots first time to Audit Mode shut it down from Start Menu > Shut Down (Definitely not from sysprep dialog!). Now connect the second drive, and reboot. The Windows boots back to Audit mode, and you can run the script.

AS long as Windows is not rebooted from sysprep dialog window in OOBE, it always boots back to Audit Mode, so this is a completely safe way to do this.

Kari

   Tip

A tip for those who decide to give this a go and only format drives when installing: That script on that PDF-tutorial is really boring to type, you'll make typos quite easily. What I always do is to copy and paste that script to an email which I send to one of my web based email addresses. When then in Audit mode, I just open IE long enough to get that mail, copy paste it to Notepad and save.

Saves a lot of work, and guarantees there are no typos in script. Of course, if your second HD or drive is already formatted, you can copy it there before starting installation.

 

[mickey megabyte]

ok thanks for your reply.

why not just save the xml script as a local file?

 

[mickey megabyte]

thanks kari for the extra info.

i've just done a clean install on a nice new ssd and tried your method with connecting the second drive later in the install process, and it worked flawlessly.

i saved my modified xml script on a usb thumb drive, and all is groovy, and i now have my user profiles where i want them, on my trusty big spinner.

 

[Kari]

Thanks for the info, Mickey. Nice to know it works for others, too.

(Re: today thread. finnish independencedence day. I'm drunk, Mac OSZ sux!)

 

[Monumental]

Kari, I'm wanting to make use of this, but have a concern. I've already installed W7 on the new SSD and have reconnected my old HDD. I want to keep my Users folder and User Profiles that are already on the HDD. If I run your script and already have a Users folder on the drive I want as the default for User Profiles, will it overwrite the current User folder? Should I rename the current Users folder before running your script and then copy the contents over to the new folders? Will it leave the renamed Users folder untouched if I just rename it?

Am I best off just deleting the old ProgramData folder or similar to the Users folder, can I just rename it and copy the data over to the new one? Thanks.

 

[Kari]

I've reinstalled now a few times on a system where I had originally used this method. When Seven has first time booted to Audit Mode, I have deleted ProgramData and renamed Users on D: to Users.old. When installation is then complete, I have taken ownership of Users.old and moved files to newly created Users. No problems there, works well.

I have not tried to rename ProgramData and move files after installation to new ProgramData, nor have I tried to keep old Users and ProgramData i.e. letting a new installation use the folders from old installation. For ProgramData folder I think it is not a good thing to do, fresh install should start with an empty ProgramData folder, but keeping old Users folder might just work. This is however something I need to test before I can tell how it works.

Kari

 

[Monumental]

I've reinstalled now a few times on a system where I had originally used this method. When Seven has first time booted to Audit Mode, I have deleted ProgramData and renamed Users on D: to Users.old. When installation is then complete, I have taken ownership of Users.old and moved files to newly created Users. No problems there, works well.

I have not tried to rename ProgramData and move files after installation to new ProgramData, nor have I tried to keep old Users and ProgramData i.e. letting a new installation use the folders from old installation. For ProgramData folder I think it is not a good thing to do, fresh install should start with an empty ProgramData folder, but keeping old Users folder might just work. This is however something I need to test before I can tell how it works.

Kari

Thanks for the reply. I'll just delete the old ProgramData folder. I wasn't sure if it was worth keeping or not, so no problem there. And you've answered my question about the Users folder as well. I'll just rename it, follow your instructions, and then copy contents over.

How does deleting ProgramData affect the programs? Do you recommend a clean install of all programs or can some be copied over?

 

[Kari]

Before I have tested this, I would recommend a clean install and reinstalling applications. Also, remember that after reinstall the Users.old (or whatever you rename it) is locked and you have to take the full ownership before you can move the files.

Kari

EDIT: Also important to remember is that the drive where you want to create the Users and ProgramData must be connected and available when running the script in Audit Mode. Often when Seven is installed in SSD, users disconnect the other drives. When you then try to run the script but the destination drive for Users and ProgramData is not connected, you get an error message.

 

[Monumental]

Reposted from this thread http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...ll-windows-7-ssd-upgrade-existing-system.html

Ok, I thought this was all going to go smoothly.

I followed this User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

and before doing so renamed the Users folder and ProgramData on the D drive with the .old appendage.

After running that script and it auto-restarting I get the message 'BOOTMGR is missing'

I did the one time boot thing and tried to boot from the D drive. I got the initial Windows screen and then a blue screen...probably because it thinks the Users and ProgramData folders are missing? I unplugged the SSD and went into BIOS to ensure the HDD was the primary boot drive, restarted and got the same blue screen.

If I try to boot to the SSD- C drive, I keep getting the 'BOOTMGR is missing'

Any idea what's going on here?

 

[Kari]

Using the sysprep script described in this tutorial has nothing to with boot manager, nor does it modify any boot files. It's only function is to change the value of two Windows 7 environmental variables, %ProfilesDirectory% and %ProgramData%.

How did you install Seven? One possible reason for this issue could be that you first installed Seven to SSD when other drives were disconnected, then connected the SATA drive and (accidentally) marked it as active partition. Windows tries then boot from SATA where it can not find boot files and shows an error message.

Check Disk Management after connecting SATA drive, to ensure SSD is marked active and boot.

I'll ask some SSD geeks to look at this.

Kari

 

[Kari]

I checked your posts in that other thread you mentioned. Your Disk Management screenshot shows both SSD and SATA disks are marked as active and boot, so you should start looking what's wrong there.

Kari