User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

Britton30 · 29 Jun 2013

Ahh, OK, thanks Kari. Never thought of that.

Since I install from a thumb drive it can also be named as I wish to find the wim file?

Kari · 29 Jun 2013

Yes.

My procedure, not saying it is the only correct way but works for me:

Entering Audit Mode, I disconnect all external drives
Now using Disk Management I create partitions on internal disks and change their drive letters according to my own system as told here in Part 1
One by one I connect all external drives checking that they get the drive letter I want to and changing it if needed, even inserting a memory card to every card slot to do the same

Britton30 · 29 Jun 2013

Yup, I have a card reader too and it was fouling things up, so sometimes when the flash drive was inserted it was G other times F. This should help in the future.
Your methods may not be "correct" but do work well and reliably.

nonosto · 03 Jul 2013

Dear

I success to install users in D partition. I would like know the procedure to format and re install in C Windows, and save all my users folder with all link and date (spreadsheet, movie, picture ...).

Thank you

PS: Some of software like antivir, shortcut desktop and programmes doesnot exist.

ICIT2LOL · 04 Jul 2013

nonosto said:

Dear

I success to install users in D partition. I would like know the procedure to format and re install in C Windows, and save all my users folder with all link and date (spreadsheet, movie, picture ...).

Thank you

PS: Some of software like antivir, shortcut desktop and programmes doesnot exist.

If you read the tutorial nonosto it will tell you there are several sub tutorilas at the bottom for transferring the stuff you want to.

As for reinstalling the OS after you have saved the stuff you want and disconnected the other drive use this USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create you can see you can do it with a DVD as well.

7squid · 11 Jul 2013

Hey Kari/guys,

New user but have been following this forum for quite some time and have found it very useful, so good work and thanks to all. I'm assuming this is the correct place to post as it relates to an error I've received whilst using the relocation script.

I'm in the process of setting up a new 64-bit Win 7 Pro install onto an older, newly formatted SATA HDD as a backup machine and am moving the users, program files (incl. x86) and programdata folders to the D: partition of the drive. System spec is a Celeron D, 2GB DDR2 (for now), Seagate SATA I (?) HDD, Radeon 800GT, Asus P5B.

I'm at the stage of the install where Windows is asking for country/region the second time around, after I've run the script to move the users and programdata folders in audit mode. The script has worked fine in the past for my Home Premium retail CD when installing that version but this time I've removed the ei file from the files on the CD and used wintoflash to copy across to a bootable SD card, so I can install Pro with the relevant key (can't find the disc).

Anyway, the process is going fine as before, until the point where I open a cmd line and try to robocopy the programdata folder over to check it's moved correctly, whereupon the command prompt copies some files that evidently either didn't get moved or were just created, then gives the message "The requested operation cannot be performed on a file with a user-mapped section open". I have no idea why this is occurring, but it seems to be related to files in the Microsoft/Search/Caches folder with long alphanumeric strings for names.

I have disconnected the data drive, the license key IS valid but hasn't been needed at this stage of the install yet, so that's not an issue and I've pulled out all hubs, multi-card readers etc. so only the C:, D: and F: (USB) drives are seen by the PC. As I say, I've not had this issue before and the only difference this time is that I'm installing from USB.

I also thought of this question - if I'm moving all the relevant folders to D: and need to one day reinstall over C:, will the programs need to be reinstalled regardless, as it will be a new registry on C:? And if so, is it possible to either backup and restore the registry post-fresh reinstall over C:, or even to do the same but with individual reg keys to get the programs to work again without reloading them?

Sorry for such a long post - grateful if anyone can help with this.

Kari · 15 Jul 2013

Hi 7squid, welcome to the Seven Forums.

I do not understand that with RoboCopy? Please keep in your mind that after the relocation, the C: still have the original Programdata and Users folders. Although they remain almost empty, the folders should not be emptied and deleted manually as some programs and applications are not coded correctly, using absolute folder locations as C:\Programdata and C:\Users instead of environment variables. Read more here: User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

After reinstall you need of course do relocating again. If and when doing this, remember that the target drive cannot have any system folders from previous Windows installs, so if using the same drive as target as with previous Windows install you need to backup your personal files folders and wipe & format the drive before running the sysprep to relocate folders.

Kari

7squid · 15 Jul 2013

Hi Kari,

Thanks very much for coming back to me - the more I get into this, the more I find out.

Referring to your comment about poorly-coded apps using the absolute location, won't the existence of junction points (mklink /j "c:\programdata" "d:\programdata") actually redirect those apps? That's the way it seems to be working.

Interesting what you say about the D: drive needing to be clear prior to a rescue reinstall though. In this case, would it be better (although possibly longer-winded) to just delete the newly-reinstalled programdata and users folders from C: and just add the junction points redirecting to the older folders on the D: drive? How would this affect the registry and could you just restore a reg backup?

Kari · 15 Jul 2013

You asked about reinstalling, not repair (rescue) installing:

7squid said:

I also thought of this question - if I'm moving all the relevant folders to D: and need to one day reinstall over C:, will the programs need to be reinstalled regardless, as it will be a new registry on C:? And if so, is it possible to either backup and restore the registry post-fresh reinstall over C:, or even to do the same but with individual reg keys to get the programs to work again without reloading them?

Reinstall is a new installation; when relocating system folders by sysprepping, the target drive must not contain any system folders from any current or previous installations or the sysprep fails.

Repair installation (= in-place upgrade installation to the same version and edition) should work without any issues also when Programdata and Users are relocated on a non-default location.

I do not recommend, nor do I see any benefit using links and junctions together with sysprepped / relocated system folders.

Kari

7squid · 16 Jul 2013

Ah, sorry - my bad. Was talking generally and forgot there are two ways to reinstall. I did mean the completely new reinstall (but in my head I was repairing/rescuing an existing one by wiping the slate clean and starting again). Thanks for replying with both in mind though.

Interesting what you say about the D: drive needing to be clear prior to a rescue reinstall though. In this case, would it be better (although possibly longer-winded) to just delete the newly-reinstalled programdata and users folders from C: and just add the junction points redirecting to the older folders on the D: drive? How would this affect the registry and could you just restore a reg backup?

What were your views on this, though? I was coming at it from the angle of having sysprepped an installation, needing to reinstall but for whatever reason having no means of clearing the D: drive, so instead reinstalling normally but then replacing a sysprep & clean D: with the junctions & existing D:. Still a no?