Moving User folder off SSD (including appdata)

madindehead · 30 May 2011 at 01:05

I was wondering, has anyone ever tried doing this: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/87555-user-profile-change-default-location.html to change the location of their entire User folder (including appdata etc)

I am getting an SSD soon, and I wanted to know if anyone has successfully done this?

Might give it a try on my current setup before moving over.

Just to add, I have moved my Documents folder etc before (using change location) but never all the appdata as well.

I have found a potentially better way to do all this, which also moves ProgramData off the main drive too, can be found here Turns out, it can be done during or after a Windows installation. Interesting for sure!

lightning512 · 30 May 2011 at 18:15

Yeah I have moved my entire user folder from c: to f:, haven't seen any ill effects yet and have been running like it for over a year now.

madindehead · 30 May 2011 at 23:44

Just managed to get mine to work, took a wee while, and some work arounds (deleting a registry key for update, and closing down WMPlayer Network Sharing).

SSD is arriving in the next day or two, or will be ace for when I have that!

shine · 30 May 2011 at 23:47

Yep, it's easy to do and without any I'll effects.

madindehead · 30 May 2011 at 23:50

Also moved my ProgramData. Also, managed to find I can get Chrome on Program Files instead of appdata, so that was good too

skanky · 2 Jun 2011 at 13:14

there is a unattended xml file i used (its at home, im at work) which you put onto the w7 install dvd (or onto usb if you've used the tool to install from usb stick) and it will install win7 and automatically put the whole of the users folder correctly onto a diff partition.

shout if you need it and i'll upload it somewhere.

lurkio · 2 Jun 2011 at 13:46

Skanky , would you please upload this somewhere when you get home

Thanks in advance

madindehead · 2 Jun 2011 at 21:11

Thanks for the offer skanky, but I already have it all moved and working

I moved it all after my Windows installation, as I wanted to make sure everything was on my SSD (had a problem last install with boot manager not being on the system drive).

Still, all worked VERY well. Loving having it on a different drive, and it doesn't really seem to affect performance much

If I had the money, a Velociraptor might be nice for my appdata, but can't afford it

skanky · 3 Jun 2011 at 09:31

lurkio said:
Skanky , would you please upload this somewhere when you get home

Thanks in advance

sorry i didnt see this, i will do it when i get in tonight (5pm)

madindehead: before i found this XML fix, i had to do it manually after logging in and it seemed to work fine but there was a lot of faffing about, the XML is so much more elegant if you're installing from USB as its easy to drop the file into the root.

personally, i ended up going back to all on C: drive due to space constraints and having too much one partition and not on the other.

skanky · 5 Jun 2011 at 20:51

couldnt find anywhere to upload, its easier to do this:

Code:

<?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="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <FolderLocations>
                <ProfilesDirectory>d:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>
                <ProgramData>d:\ProgramData</ProgramData>
            </FolderLocations>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:h:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

cut and paste it all into a file called unattend.xml and put it in the root of the install media, use the "win7 usb dvd iso download tool" to get the contents of the dvd onto a bootable usb stick, then just copy the file there.

madindehead · 6 Jun 2011 at 00:24

skanky said:
sorry i didnt see this, i will do it when i get in tonight (5pm)

madindehead: before i found this XML fix, i had to do it manually after logging in and it seemed to work fine but there was a lot of faffing about, the XML is so much more elegant if you're installing from USB as its easy to drop the file into the root.

personally, i ended up going back to all on C: drive due to space constraints and having too much one partition and not on the other.

Yeah, I do it using the .xml also

Using SYSPREP to move the data. Pretty fast