Move Users Folder Location in Windows 11

Kari · Aug 16, 2021

The thing is, that if the same answer file works as expected in some scenarios, and fails in other scenarios, it's clearly a case of false drive letter. In other words, Windows Setup does not find the drive where Users folder should be moved, or the drive cannot be used (as for instance a removable or external drive).

The only 100% sure ways to assure drive letters will be correctly assigned are 1.) using Diskpart to partition disks before running Windows Setup, and 2.) use an answer file to partition disks. See examples of the latter in this tutorial on our sister site Ten Forums, in its Part Three:

Create media for automated unattended install of Windows 10

How to create install media for completely automated unattended install of Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

Kari

johnlgalt · Aug 16, 2021

If you do this for every single drive. Which, the majority of my drives already have data and I don't want them altered from what they are now. As noted, I have 6 storage drives and the BD Burner. But knowing in setup which drive is going to be disk 0 and disk 1 and disk 2 and disk 3 (usually Disk 4 RAID doesn't show up because at that point I haven't even loaded drivers for the RAID) is something that I have to carefully ascertain. 3 of the drives are identical NVMe SSDs, and normally I know that 010 is the first, 020 is the second, and 030 is the third, and I try to make sure that 010 gets used as C, 020 as D and 030 as E - but E has data on it (like VMs) that I don't want erased, so only C and D get cleaned partitioned, with only single partitions each.

However, in Windows 10, disk 0 was the first NVMe drive. In clean installing Windows 11, Disk 0 became my non NVMe SSD, and if I just used a script that worked in Windows 10, it would have screwed everything up.

Same exact system. Clean installing 2 different OSs puts the drives in different order. It shouldn't - I have no idea why it did - but it did.

Code:

DISKPART> list vol

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     Z                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition    930 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 2                      FAT32  Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 3                      NTFS   Partition    510 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 4     D   Data         NTFS   Partition    931 GB  Healthy
  Volume 5     E   vStorage     NTFS   Partition    931 GB  Healthy
  Volume 6     F   Music        NTFS   Partition    894 GB  Healthy
  Volume 7     Y   RAID1        NTFS   Partition    930 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          931 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 1    Online          931 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 2    Online          931 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 3    Online          894 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 4    Online          930 GB      0 B        *

DISKPART>

Right now it shows my NVMe drives in order, as they should be. Same in Disk Management. And this is what Windows 10 showed me as well.

But when I ran the Windows 11 setup, in Diskpart Disk 3 was Disk 0, and disks 123 were disk 234. Which is the same thing shown in Disk Management in Audit Mode as well (which makes sense at any given moment both should say the same thing).

So, obviously, the drive letters, and actual Disk numbers (relative to Disk Management and Diskpart) changed. I manually set the drive letters for all drives except C:, which was already set to the correct drive. Both installation attempts. But the disk order didn't change until later.

I would have to do another clean install to show it again, but I need to finish work and finish setting up the system so I can fully image it. But I'll capture the screen shots showing the differences. I'm not sure how it managed this (unless my installation of AMD specific drivers for both after installation allowed the system to re-organize the Disk numbers, which could very well be true.

johnlgalt · Aug 16, 2021

And I'm not arguing with you saying that the drive letters are not the issue - they are.

But at some point this will not be an issue just for me - I suspect that this sort of behavior from the system will occur for others with multiple drives using different interfaces. At least with my old rig, it consistently listed the SATA II-connected drives before SATA III-connected drives, even after driver installs, so that made it easy to deal with. But this case may be one where, even though Windows can work with the drives without special drivers, they may need to be injected anyway to keep things consistent.

Or else, the answer file needs to be specifically developed while performing an install and booted to Audit Mode, so that you have an idea of the correct order of the drives. If I were to build the answer file right now with my current setup, and then use it during a clean install, it would be using the wrong drives. Can't afford that. And really don't feel like disconnecting the drives I don't format - particularly because the NVMe drive is under a heatsink, and it takes effort - have to remove the video card, then the heatsink, then then the drive, then re-insert the video card.....

Too many headaches.

Primality · Oct 30, 2021

I joined this forum literally just to post this, because I too have been using this tutorial for many years. I ran into this problem where oobeSystem would fail to apply the relocate.xml file. After many tries, much googling, and eventually stumbling onto this thread, I discovered the solution to my problem.

Something about using NVMe drives is causing this to fail for Windows 11, when it wouldn't fail for Windows 10. In my VM, I changed my 2 NVMe drives to SATA, and reran exactly the same test (I was literally using a snapshot to restore to for each try, when it failed I would just restore to pre-sysprep). That worked. In my case, I'm a systems engineer working on Intune and Autopilot, and I use a MacOS device, so I run Windows in a VM for work stuff.

I even tried removing the IDE ROM disk drive prior to this, and I got the same result, failed to OOBE. The key really is to use SATA disks instead of NVMe.

The kicker is that, in my case, I can just switch back to NVMe after the OOBE process is complete.

Tqworld · Dec 26, 2021

Hi all, due to time, I'm looking at doing a Windows 11 upgrade (instead of a clean install) on my current Kari-modded Win10. If I do the upgrade, will I need to repeat the steps to move the Users folder to my D drive or will it retain the Kari-mod previously used? Thanks in advance.

Kari · Dec 26, 2021

Tqworld said:
Hi all, due to time, I'm looking at doing a Windows 11 upgrade (instead of a clean install) on my current Kari-modded Win10. If I do the upgrade, will I need to repeat the steps to move the Users folder to my D drive or will it retain the Kari-mod previously used? Thanks in advance.

No worries, you can upgrade normally. Relocated user folders remain intact. No need to repeat the process.

Kari

Tqworld · Dec 26, 2021

Kari said:
No worries, you can upgrade normally. Relocated user folders remain intact. No need to repeat the process.

Kari

I really appreciate the fast response. Thank you, sir.

robotman · Mar 30, 2022

@Kari I've read your detailed guide on how to move the Users directory to a secondary drive, and ofc this thread and a couple others that you've responded to related to this topic. I am curious what your thoughts are on doing the same thing for the ProgramData directory? Do you personally prefer it staying in the C:\ directory? Maybe you could offer any insight on why one way or another may be better for certain circumstances?

I came across this Microsoft article that basically explains how moving either the "Users" or "ProgramData" directories would cause issues in versions of Windows prior to Win10. Reading it got me considering also moving ProgramData if it's possible via the same steps in your tutorial.

Upgrade to Windows versions that is before Windows 10 is blocked if Users and ProgramData directories are changed

jecondit · Apr 23, 2022

unifex said:
I am not sure I understand why people bother with this. I keep my personal files (i.e., any files that are not the OS or installed programs) on a separate drive. They are not in the /Users folders and I never noticed any problem. Any reason you need to put your files in the /Users folders?

OK,

Lets look at this idea from another view. You have or are building a computer that has 2 or more hard drives ( 3.5, 2.5, m.2) but 2 or ore drives. By moving the users folder as a whole to the 2nd drive, then you can put a smaller c drive in the computer, 256 to 512 gb to hold the windows OS and all programs you add. All your user files, all Public user files and any other users files will be on drive 2. This drive now can be as larger as your system will handle.
In my case, on my dell windows 10 PC I have a 1tb m.2 c drive, 2tb 2.5 ssd, e drive, 3tb 3.5 f drive, and a 3tb 3.5 g drive.
My c drive is 50% full, my e drive, user ( i have 3 user accounts) files only is 50% full, f drive ( is my user overflow for pictures and document folders) has only 650 gb free space. and the G drive is 95% free as this is a extra drive for now.

and then I have a 5tb and 1 tb seagate external drives that are both 90% full.

so some of us have lots of data to keep and have access too.

glasskuter · Apr 24, 2022

I find it much easier to move only my personal folders to my storage drive but leave the /users folder where it is. It's my personal folders that eat up so much of my disk space. My appdata is only about 4 gb which I can accept so I didn't want to mess with moving /users.

The way we use our computers is unique to each of us so there's really no 'one size fits all' in managing our storage.

hdmi · Apr 24, 2022

jecondit said:
By moving the users folder as a whole to the 2nd drive, then you can put a smaller c drive in the computer

You can choose to put a smaller C: drive in the computer REGARDLESS of where the users folder is at. So, the only real downside of deciding not to move it comes from the fact that, due to the smaller size of the C: drive, you might not be able to store enough data in the users folder although personally, I, think of the users folder more like an auxiliary storage location the usefulness of which is rather limited anyway to begin with. So, as a direct result from this, the amount of free storage space on my C: drive never really was a valid reason for me to consider moving the users folder.

My previous laptop had a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD and a 1TB 2.5 inch SATA HDD. My current one came with just a 512GB M.2 SATA SSD, which I have replaced with a 2TB Samsung 980 Pro. I also own a total of 37TB external HDD storage (pic below). The users folder never bothered me because, on Windows, the 'Save as' dialog window always saves the day.

MAID ─ Modest Array of Idle Disks:

ph3ll3r · Aug 22, 2022

I have the installation disk on the H drive not D. How does sysprep know how to find install.wim without a path?
Should ProgramData be moved as well or not?

Megahertz · Aug 22, 2022

ph3ll3r

I just did a Win 11 fresh install on a small M.2 drive and moved \Users to a HDD. Runs very good.
Don't relocate ProgramData. It isn't recommended.
Don't need the reference to the wim file (see code below)

The Relocate.xml should be like 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>
            </FolderLocations>
        </component>
    </settings>
</unattend>

The files on the zip file attached has been added a txt suffix to be edited and not executed by acident. Remove the txt suffix before you run the CMD.
You enter Audit mode during installation by Ctrl+Shift+F3
You enter Audit mode under Windows by running Audit.cmd
SSD.txt are tips to be done after you relocate \Users to another drive

johnlgalt · Aug 23, 2022

ph3ll3r said:
I have the installation disk on the H drive not D. How does sysprep know how to find install.wim without a path?

Should ProgramData be moved as well or not?

Expanding upon the reply to #2, From the tutorial located at Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10:

Microsoft does not recommend relocating, moving ProgramData, Program Files, Program Files (x86) and Windows folders. Too much is depending on information and data stored on these folders and relocating them might cause serious issues. However, there's simply nothing preventing us to move the Users folder and everything it contains, including the Temp and AppData folders.

In Windows 7 we used to move a lot more than \Users, but with the advent of Windows 10 (probably Windows 8, really) it be came a lot harder to do that without repercussions.

dmlrobot · Jan 3, 2023

I was able to successfully use the instructions in this thread to complete a Win 11 Home install with the Users folder located on my D: drive. However, I noticed that the C: drive still has a Users folder with an Administrator account in it. Is that supposed to be like that or did I do something wrong?

Kari · Jan 3, 2023

dmlrobot said:
I was able to successfully use the instructions in this thread to complete a Win 11 Home install with the Users folder located on my D: drive. However, I noticed that the C: drive still has a Users folder with an Administrator account in it. Is that supposed to be like that or did I do something wrong?

You did nothing wrong.

When you boot to Audit Mode, Windows signs you in using the built-in Administrator account from its default, original location C:\Users\Administrator. When you then sysprep, it moves all existing user profile related Windows internal environment variables from C:\Users to a new location, for instance E:\Users. In addition, all new user profiles created later will be stored in this new location.

The Administrator account will be moved, too. You can check it by opening the Users folder in its new location. The built-in admin profile will be there.

The thing is, that when existing user profiles are relocated, moved to new location, all respective user profile folders are deleted on old location C:\Users. However, as the built-in admin account was in use when you ran sysprep, its contents were relocated, but Windows could not remove the profile folder itself. That's why it remains in C:\Users even after successful relocation of the Users folder. If you now open C:\Users\Administrator in Explorer, you will see that it is completely empty. As it is no longer needed, you can remove it and the folder C:\Users.

Long story, short version: It's absolutely OK to delete folder C:\Users, when you have relocated user profiles to another location. All your existing user profile folders, as well as all users you create later, will be in the new location.

Kari

dmlrobot · Jan 3, 2023

Kari said:
You did nothing wrong.

When you boot to Audit Mode, Windows signs you in using the built-in Administrator account from its default, original location C:\Users\Administrator. When you then sysprep, it moves all existing user profile related Windows internal environment variables from C:\Users to a new location, for instance E:\Users. In addition, all new user profiles created later will be stored in this new location.

The Administrator account will be moved, too. You can check it by opening the Users folder in its new location. The built-in admin profile will be there.

The thing is, that when existing user profiles are relocated, moved to new location, all respective user profile folders are deleted on old location C:\Users. However, as the built-in admin account was in use when you ran sysprep, its contents were relocated, but Windows could not remove the profile folder itself. That's why it remains in C:\Users even after successful relocation of the Users folder. If you now open C:\Users\Administrator in Explorer, you will see that it is completely empty. As it is no longer needed, you can remove it and the folder C:\Users.

Long story, short version: It's absolutely OK to delete folder C:\Users, when you have relocated user profiles to another location. All your existing user profile folders, as well as all users you create later, will be in the new location.

Kari

Thanks for your detailed response...it was exactly as you described and I was able to get rid of the C:\Users directory. Threads like this make it so relative amateurs like myself can get things done!

Hessu · Feb 14, 2023

I encountered problems when I try to change the users folder location. So let's see what kind of hardware I have at my use:

MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 + Core i7-12700K + 32GB DDR4 3600M

PZ690AD4-12700K-32GBC-3600

For OS:

Kingston 1TB FURY Renegade PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD

For Programs:

Kingston 500GB FURY Renegade PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD with Heatsink, 3D TLC, 7300/3900 MB/s

For Users:

2 x Western Digital 2TB WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD -levy, M.2 2280, PCIe 4.0 x4, 5150/4850 MB/s RAID 1

For backups:

2 x WD Red Plus 8TB SATA 6Gb/s 3.5inch HDDRAID1

After assembly i open bios settings and try to greate RAID storages.

When ready, i start instalation process, it uses 1920 x 1080 resolution and everything was so small

that my eyesight was put to the test. First proplem was that the installer did not recognize the hard drives. I try F6flpy-x64 (Non-Intel® VMD) dirver from Intel.com but no no luck. After that i try RST_V19.1.0.1001_PV driver, I found it on asus' website. It Worked. After installation, I felt like I was on foreign soil.Everything was so small. I tried to solve the problem by changing the scaling and font size, the result was pretty terrible. Later I solved the problem by changing the resolution to 1600x900, strange because the Windos 7 looks great at 1920x1080 resolution.

After exploring for a while, I found disk management and noticed that no RAID drives had been created, but the drives were displayed separately. I used Windows Disk Management to create RAID 1 drives. I do not recommend. After that, I tried to move the Users folder with Kari's guide. The result can be described in one word; disaster.

I go to MSI sites and download latest Bios for my motherboard, version 7D25v1A. In Bios settings i try and try but Greating RAID arrays doiesn’t appears at all. So

I downloaded bios version 7D25v19. Now RAID creation happened smoothly.

In Windows reinstalation After giving Driver for disks, appears disk management options whre you can see 1 2tb disk and 1 8tb disk. Physically, there are two disk drives in each.

Now; i greate partitions and share disk letters as I explained at the beginning.

After instalation i try to run Kari’s tutorial, no succeed. Before i have used Windows 7 Pro english, now i now i'm installing finnish version windows 11 pro. So I quickly learned command prompt doesn’t recognise Administrator but the Järjestelmänvalvoja.

However, in the answerfile it is not necessary to change the "userfolder" to installation language that in Finnish is "käyttäjät". Didn’t test it, so im not sure what happens if you change it.

After many re instaltion,error log reading and Googling, i finaly got a tip for user ”Primality”. I was rily ready to give up and let Microsoft decide for my computer. But I decided to try one more time. So re instalation again, in disk management window i delete all other disk volumes but not 8 tb HDD RAID 1 volume.

When instalation goes to audit mode i open diskmanagement, i cance driveletter 8 tb volume to E:

Ansverfile was all ready in root E:\ I have chance it so than profile directory was E: anyway now there wasn’t D: at all. I opened the command prompt and locate c:\windows\system32 now i run command net stop wmpnetworksvc. This makes me a little confused: I received a message like this ”Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service service not started,more help is available by typing net helpmsg 3521” before i belive this is some kind of problem. I even solve it once. Then I noticed in Kari's guide that there is the same announcement. So I continued to %windir%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /reboot /unattend:E:\relocate.xml . Note that d: has been changed to E:.

To my astonishment, sysprep started just like Kari's tutorial in the video. Instalation continues like charm i greate user and logged in. Users folder was located to E:\ except that it was named in Finnish ”Käyttäjät”. Inside there was folowing folders ”hessu” ” Järjestelmänvalvoja” ja ”Jukinen” (Public). I open ”hessu” and loocate to Desktop folder open it and greate I created a few folders and txt file on the desktop, they immediately appeared in the folder.Success!

I then installed Macrium Reflect Free (free for per person) on c drive, make image for my c:. I tested it, success! Now I dared to continue. I open disk management activated 500gb m.2 disk for letter D: . After this i activated 2 tb m.2 disk. I give it nex free letter. Now, how to move User folder here and chanse letter to E:? First i try just copy but as everyone who has tried this knows; a doomed enterprise. Nex i decide to use Macrium Reflect, free version does not support folder image option, but I downloaded the 30-day trial version where this is possible. I made a disk image of the Users folder. Not even Macrium was able to copy all the files that Edge files couldn't capture. What a surprise. Any way, i run image to 2 tb disk. Now in Diskmanagement i selct E: drive and ”chance drive letter and bath for E:” It doesent matter whatever letter you choise, but to me it was F: (if you have usb drives of optical drives, remove them or cahnce them if F: is in use). Now beacause User folder is in current E: drive, windows can not make chanses before restart. E is now free to use so i give it to my 2Tb NVMe M.2 drive. Again: Can be done when restarting. If you haven't moved the Users folder to the intended E: drive and reboot, you're in trouble.

So restart…. And… done! I have now successfully moved the users folder to the E: drive!

This is a long story, but hopefully it will help someone else. special thanks to Kari and the user "Primality".

daikii · Apr 16, 2023

Hello,

I just want to add a precision to make it work.

I have been trying for hours to reinstall Win11 with Kari's technique, but each time I had errors during the reboot.
The solution was that the D: drive must not have the Bitlocker activated otherwise it is impossible to install and that even if you unlock it when you are in "audit mode".

it would be interesting to try to leave the D: with bitlocker active and to add the following commands when in auditmode

Code:

Suspend-BitLocker -MountPoint "C:" -RebootCount 10

or else

Code:

manage-bde -unlock X: -recoverypassword xxx-xxx-xxx

unfortunately I haven't tried these solutions, I just disabled the bitlocker on my D drive:

Hope this helps others.

Damien

JeepWillys58 · Jun 3, 2023

Kari said:
I use that method to relocate the Users folder and all user profiles to drive E:, as I have always done since early Vista days. Works like a charm in W11, absolutely no issues.

View attachment 1629

Kari

Hello my dear friend @Kari

Since I discovered your tutorial I have been using it without any worries, on all my machines and those of friends who ask me for help and it works perfectly.

I saved the tutorial in a file, I saved the video link to be sure, I also downloaded the video and I keep it in my personal library of Valid Tutorials to make sure that even if something happens to youtube I have the video saved.

I consider him as one of those beings with a high soul who is always ready to extend a hand and help others and for that he has and will always have my appreciation.

A big hug and I hope you, all yours and everyone here and at the tenforums are very well and healthy always!

Gos Bless You All!

Best Regards,
@JeepWillys58