User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation

Answering a question with a question: Why and how would it increase the boot time? If something it does quite the opposite; instead of seeking necessary files from one drive the task is divided between two drives.

jonapaloma said:

Kari said:

Hi Jonapaloma, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Simple answer is no.

Care to explain why?

Well the only way I know of safely tweaking 7 in my mind is this Optimize Windows 7

I would however also recommended you back the registry up in case you inadvertently alter it
Registry - Backup and Restore

plus this is a good tool too
Imaging with free Macrium - just in case I do a back up every week but you can set the time for it when you like.

jonapaloma said:

Doing this tweak to windows 7... Can it increase booting time?

Nope, it may reduce it but largely depends on how much you have it Startup. I have 3 systems installed with this method and boot times range from 28-50 seconds. I have the OS and some programs on SSDs, which is the main reason for doing this.

Monumental said:

I've done this on three different systems successfully. One using an mSATA SSD as the OS drive when Lenovo was only using it as a cache, which was really tricky!

My concern is, I haven't been very good about doing system images/backups. I backup files/images I really care about to a NAS, but as I'm hearing some strange noises from my PC and worried about drive failure, I'm looking to do more. So my question is, is there a way to undo this? I've got the SSD OS and HDD data setup. Is there a way to move the system User folders to the SSD so I can just image that one drive?

You have two options:

1. Create an image which includes both your system drive and the drive containing Users and ProgramData folders
   
   • Pro: no extra steps needed. Create the image and when needed restore it to a system which has necessary drives available, i.e. a system drive at least as big as the system drive in your image, and another drive at least as big as it is in the image
   • Con: The image can only be restored to a system with two or more drives or partitions
2. Run sysprep again with your original answer file, this time relocating Users and ProgramData back to C:, create an image, then relocate folders back to another drive. See this post, list item #2 for more information: User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation
   
   • Pro: A smaller image which can be restored to a one drive system
   • Con: Relocating folders back to C: and after imaging back to another drive takes some time

Kari

Ok so I'm trying a few forums right now. Basically trying to do the whole OS on the SSD and everything else possible on an HDD. Last time I tried regedit but my IE10 wouldn't work anymore and I still always had things slowly installing on the SSD- not a lot but slowly had been losing space. I'm afraid of that happening again. Right now I'm waiting to get a replacement HDD from WD (blah blah anyways). But I'm having issues with doing this all and not sure which things to do. I'm reading here to not move the Program Files (and x86 version) but other places to do a regedit to change those directories (which as I said before, caused IE and other odds and ends to not work). I'm a novice when it comes to computer-altering and would greatly appreciate help in knowing which way *for sure* is the way to go and how to do it. I'll be starting with a fresh install which makes it all easier (Both drives will be empty, I have everything backed up elsewhere, as hard files and will be reinstalling all programs and such afterwards). If I could guide for this it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I've missed anything that might help me but I've literally been at this for months now and done so much reading with limited success.

The complete guide in PDF format is here in this thread. I suggest reading through it a few time before attempting to do it.
It has worked for me 4 times now and my system runs and functions well.

Hi Levy, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Moving Program folders can cause issues I personally don't want to have. I will not recommend it, nor will I assist in any way in doing that.

That being said, here's what I suggest to you:

• Disconnect the HDD only leaving SSD connected
• Install Windows 7 normally to SSD
• When Windows is installed, shutdown the PC and connect HDD
• Boot to Windows
• Give this command in Command Prompt or Run dialog (WIN+R) and hit Enter:
  
  Code:

  %windir%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /audit /reboot

• Computer reboots now to Audit Mode
• Using Disk Management, format and partition your HDD as you wish
• Relocate Users and ProgramData folders by following this tutorial from top of the page 4

Kari