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

---

• 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

 

[Britton30]

Thanks Kari, sorry to be a PITA and dumb.
My Os is windows Ult 64 bit, The drive I will move to is K: and the installer will be in drive D:
Is this right?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="[URL="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State"]Error[/URL]" xmlns:xsi="[URL]http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance[/URL]">
<FolderLocations>
<ProfilesDirectory>k:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>
<ProgramData>k:\ProgramData</ProgramData>
</FolderLocations>
</component>
</settings>
<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:D:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 ULTIMATE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

 

[Kari]

Yes, that seems to be correct.

 

[Britton30]

Thank you so much Kari, I do appreciate your help.

Hmm, after saving as xml it reverts to 13 lines, is that normal?
View attachment relocate[1].rar

 

[Kari]

It's just because of the XML format, it cuts one long line to two. The answer file is fine, go ahead

 

[Britton30]

Ahh, okie dokie, I guess I was doing it right...maybe. Thanks and I may get to it yet today.

 

[Britton30]

Kari, the xml file worked just fine! I had one small glitch and used a USB drive and had to put the Windows DVD in to access sysprep since I didn't want to try and re-write the answer file. I didn't know the proper context to point it to the file on the USB.
Thanks!

I would advise anyone doing this to print the PDF out to have handy. I had to first print to the XPS Writer and then print. The PDF printed two pages per sheet, too small to read.

 

[Kari]

Good to hear it worked, Britton.

 

[Britton30]

I was very happy with the outcome Kari!
In the cmd to start sysprep

cd \Windows\System32\Sysprep

is it possible to use a USB stick?

 

[Kari]

Sysprep must be run from inside Windows. It means it has to be run from system folder Windows\System32\Sysprep, so in most cases it must be run from C: drive.

 

[Britton30]

I see, I assumed the cd in the command was grabbing a file from the CD drive with the DVD in it.

 

[Kari]

Sorry, my mistake. coming from DOS era I often forget that those old commands are not clear to everyone

CD is short from Change Directory (directory = the name we used to use for Folder).

That command you referred to simply changes the default working directory (folder) to \Windows\System32\Sysprep.

\Windows = C:\Windows, you can mark drive root simply by typing a backslash, no drive letter needed if you jump to another directory (folder) on the current drive.

So, to speak "puters": That command translates to "Change working folder to C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep".

 

[Britton30]

OK thank you, I speak DOS as well as I do Finnish or German.
It make sense now.

 

[Britton30]

How can I move the ProgramData folder back to C:?
I have installed some programs to C:\Program Files (x86) and C:\Program Files which don't appear in my start menu while others do. I don't know if the data file is at fault or not. I even installed two programs to K: (data drive) which do appear in the start menu.

Should write caching remain enabled on the SSD?
Thanks.

 

[Kari]

First, location of ProgramData has most definitely nothing to do with your issue. Relocating ProgramData with sysprep even leaves the original ProgramData to system drive C: to be used by those apps that use absolute location C:\ProgramData instead of Windows environment variable %ProgramData% when installing. See this post for more information.

That being said, this post shows how to revert to original location.

About write caching on SSD I have no idea. Sorry.

Kari

 

[Britton30]

Thanks, I will leave as is since I don't know how to boot to audit mode nor "run the script" other than during install as in your tutorial. That particular script appears to be for both Users and ProgramData.

 

[Kari]

Sorry Britton, forgot to mention how to boot to Audit Mode.

• Close all programs
• Run Command Prompt as administrator
• Type or copy / paste this to command prompt:
  • C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe /audit /reboot
• hit Enter

Or

• Close all programs
• Browse to C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\
• Right click Sysprep.exe, select Run as administrator
• Select Clean Up and Boot options as in this screenshot, click OK:
  .
  

Windows reboots now to Audit Mode.

Kari

 

[Britton30]

that was a mistake, I can't leave audit mode, Windows is preparing your desktop on each restart. I chose enter OOBE and created a new account and the original account is an option to log into.
However about a half dozen installed prgrams are now missing. I didn't know how to run the script so I tried nothing.
Looks like a complete secure erase and clean reinstall...again.

 

[Kari]

Don't panic yet!

First, that's normal that when leaving Audit and rebooting to Oobe, it asks a new accountname and computer name, and does not accept your old username because that already exists in the system. You need to create a temporary user, then in Welcome screen select your old account, and finally in Windows delete the temporary account. All this is explained in post number 22 earlier in this thread.

Audit Mode and SysPrep do not delete or uninstall your installed programs. That is one thousand percent sure! Of course, if you did not read this thread before starting, you did not know that you should login to your old account instead of the temporary one Oobe boot makes you to create, and logged in to that temporary account and noticed that the Start Menu did not show all your apps. Naturally. As you certainly know, not all apps install to all users automatically. They are there but not visible in the Start Menu.

This NOT LOGGING IN to temporary account when sysprepping existing system and returning to Oobe is important. At the very beginning of this tutorial is information box telling to read post 22 if sysprepping existing Windows installation. This quoted infromation box can be found at very beginning of the post 1 in this thread:

   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.

To summarize this:

• Sysprepping in Audit Mode does not cause installed apps not showing in Start Menu. Absolutely not. The reason must be found elsewhere in your SW and / or HW setup and / or working methods
• Sysprepping in Audit Mode does not unistall your apps. Again, this is absolutely sure
• Running the answer file (script) given in this tutorial does nothing else than changes values of two of the environment variables of Windows 7. It does not touch, it simply can not touch, any of your installed applications

Kari

 

[Britton30]

Somehow I lost 1.8GB on the C: drive however, my program seem to be intact. All the taskbar shortcuts were missing and I simply restored them.
I think the problem here is that while you are very fluent in xml and Audit Mode, I am not. I have no clue how it works other than the info in the tutorial. I think you infer more intelligence on me than I deserve and I can't fill in the blanks you think I should know.
In THIS for example, is that the entire script to convert to a xml file or a modification of the larger one from the tutorial?

 

[Amicus]

Kari,

Very well done regarding your posts............very clear, and very easy to understand!

Background:
My nothing unusual basic setup as delivered:
New Laptop - HP Pavilion G6 running W7 Home Premium 64 bit, pre-installed by OEM on 1 TB SATA drive:

System 199 MB NTFS (System, Active, Primary Partition)
(C) 912.66 GB NTFS (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
Recovery (D) 14.70 GB NTFS (Primary Partition)
HP_TOOLS (E) 3.97 GB FAT32 (Primary Partition)

My initial alterations:
Straight out of the box, cleaned (de-bloated), no other software whatsoever installed yet, not connected to internet. Drive re., partitioned very smoothly with Partition Wizard (nice little tool):

System 199 MB NTFS (System, Active, Primary Partition)
(C) 100.00 GB NTFS (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Logical Drive)
Data (G) 406.33 GB NTFS (Logical Drive)
Multimedia (H 406.33 GB NTFS (Logical Drive)
Recovery (D) 14.70 GB NTFS (Primary Partition)
HP_TOOLS (E) 3.97 GB FAT32 (Primary Partition)

All now backed up and cloned.

Current Position:
Chose to move only the location of "Users" to Data (G), leaving ProgramData on (C), and therefore deleted the appropriate line re., ProgramData from the XML-script. Edited the other parts of the script as per Tutorial to suit my particular circumstances. Followed all of your instructions to the letter using all of your posts and the Tutorial (page 4 onwards).............all apparently went to plan.............no errors, correct boots etc., etc., etc., except...................."Users" still remain stubbornly on (C). Tried four times now, and each time with the same result.

With all of the above in mind, I very much suspect that this has absolutely nothing to do with any re-partitioning, and everything to do with the fact that it is an OEM pre-installed OS without any OS installation disks supplied (as is usual in such circumstances). I have made the usual 'one-off' set of recovery disks (4 disks in total) for future reinstallation if necessary, and I have therefore had to use those in lieu of an original OS disk.

Checking this through, I cannot locate "install.wim" anywhere at all on any of the recovery disks, or on any of the hard drive partitions, which would appear to make the "offlineImage cpi:source" part of the XML-script useless. Windows Explorer does not allow a detailed analysis of the contents of the recovery disks, or the Recovery (D) partition, only displaying the headline icons for the file contents...........don't know if I've explained that well enough, but anyway, you'll know exactly what I mean if you've ever explored a typical recovery disk set created via an OEM installation.

Any thoughts and / or ideas?
What can I do to make this a success?
Have you or anyone else experienced this problem and then successfully resolved it?

Bearing in mind the vast number of OEM pre-installed OS laptops being sold, there is probably an equally vast number of other owners out there with exactly the same problem, tearing their hair out wondering how to make your method work for them.

H E L P pleeeease!

Thanks,

Amicus