User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

ok thanks.

so there is no way to choose another folder for users profiles different from X\Users...?
(eg X:\MyPc2012\Users)

Neither with the manual method of this tutorial:
User Profile - Change Default Location
?

Kari said:

No, no need to create folders. Sysprep takes care of that. Folder names must be Users and ProgramData.

Kari

FWIW: I followed Kari's advice and did not try to have Sysprep move my Users/ProgramData folders during the Windows 7 installation to the same partition that holds my Vista Users folders.

Instead, I used a disk utility and cleaned up the drive that holds Vista (it has the OS on one partition ("c:") and my Users folders on another ("d:")). I created two additional partitions: a primary partition named "Windows 7" for the OS (with no drive letter assigned) and a logical (extended) partition named "Seven Data" which I assigned letter "e:".

I then followed Kari's standard tutorial and installed Windows 7 to the new primary partition. Obviously, when I got to the Sysprep stage, I edited the "relocate.xml" script to place the Users/ProgramData folders on partition "e:". Everything went very smoothly and I now have a dual boot system with Vista 32 bit and W7 64 bit.

As others have noted elsewhere, when you're booted into W7, W7 automatically assigns the W7 OS partition letter c and assigns Vista OS partition a different letter. Similarly, when you're booted into Vista, the Vista OS is "c:". (In my case, when I'm in Vista, it does not list the Windows 7 OS because I did not give it a letter.)

I do not know whether there is some way to put both the Vista folders and the W7 folders on the same partition. OTOH, I don't know why you'd need to. Insofar as you can put the folders on a logical partition (and there's no limit to how many of those you can have) it probably makes sense to keep everything separate.

Good luck.

Hi, I've been thinking about setting up my new system using this install method, but I have 1 small question before I do. Suppose I follow all the instructions, and successfully get windows running on my SSD, with the user profiles folders on my Raided 1.5TB Caviar Blacks. What would happen if the raided drives fail? I'm setting them up as RAID 0, so if either drive fails, everything on them will be absent when I boot the OS. Will the machine still boot? If I replaced the failed raid drives, will I be able to easily restore them from an offline backup, set Windows to use them for the user profile folders, and get the system back to the state it was in before the failure?

Melting Point said:

Hi, I've been thinking about setting up my new system using this install method, but I have 1 small question before I do. Suppose I follow all the instructions, and successfully get windows running on my SSD, with the user profiles folders on my Raided 1.5TB Caviar Blacks. What would happen if the raided drives fail? I'm setting them up as RAID 0, so if either drive fails, everything on them will be absent when I boot the OS. Will the machine still boot? If I replaced the failed raid drives, will I be able to easily restore them from an offline backup, set Windows to use them for the user profile folders, and get the system back to the state it was in before the failure?

I would think so. I've never run RAID 0, but assume you can do an image type backup. If so, then when your "D" array fails, you should be able to install new drives, restore the image and pick right back up. Obviously, I'd recommend you test it as soon as you've done the initial install.

Thanx Guys. I think I'll do what SHPWin7 suggested, and make an image backup of the RAID drive after install. At least that way, I should be guaranteed that it will at least boot.

Britton30, I was wondering if the OS would still boot, if the drive that contains the user profile is not longer there, and if it did, would it permanently reset the location of the user profile. Also, the RAID is for storage. 3TB of storages cost me less that a 256GB SSD. It doesn't need to be that fast.

Couple of things. First, Britton, RAID 0 is actually a bit of a misnomer. There is no "redundancy" (ie no mirroring). So, you get speed but you actually increase your data loss risk (because if one of drives go, you're screwed). That's why I've never used it. I want speed for my OS and programs and will use a smaller, faster (pricier) drive for that. For my data I'm all about protection over speed.
Melting, again, I think you'll be fine. I've restored images of my OS to a new drive and it still booted and found the D partition on another drive. I've also restored both images to a new drive and also cloned a drive split into 2 partitions per Kari and it worked.
Good luck.