Moving C:\Users to drive root (U:\)

barman58 · Jun 14, 2022

I have over the years had some issues with manually moved user folders, so I have come to use a simpler system,.

I do not use @Kari 's method which works fine for most situations and I have no issues with

What I do is create a data tree on my secondary drive, or should I say one of my secondary drives, as I use multiple drives (Partitions and discrete drives)

I then create a base location, as I have had issues with moving standard user folders to the drive root.

As for moving the folders I utilise the Location option that is in the properties of all the user folders that are considered safe to move and have never had any issues as the move is reversible at any time on a folder level.

I also tend to create partitions to hold some of the standard user folders that can grow large so have a partition for images, videos, and audio, and the other user folders are in a "data" partition this system has worked since Windows Vista and usually is unaffected by major upgrades as it uses the internal Microsoft systems

spapakons · Jun 14, 2022

I have a 8TB external disk to move ny downloads and free my SSD. I also have a 4TB external disk for my videos. This way I have between 80GB and 100GB free on my SSD.

barman58 · Jun 14, 2022

I use a 1TB NVME for the System I have 2x8GB for data storage and I also run a 500GB SSD that I use to house the the temporary application files and catalogues for my Image processing applications which speeds up use of the software, by giving dual data streams

Kari · Jun 14, 2022

vincecombustion said:
Can anyone confirm that C:\Users can be renamed to the root of another drive? or does the "Users" folder have to exist?

The Sysprep method requires a folder called Users, which must be located on the root of an partition on an internal disk. User profiles can be completely moved / relocated to X:\Users or F:\Users, but not to X:\ or F:\.

barman58 said:
I have over the years had some issues with manually moved user folders, so I have come to use a simpler system,.

do not use @Kari's method which works fine for most situations and I have no issues with

I hope this is a case of missing "I" at beginning of sentence, not a recommendation to not use Sysprep method

Kari

Megahertz · Jun 14, 2022

dbartenstein said:
I've got a 2TB SSD data drive in addition to my 256GB SSD system drive.... Speed and space!

Today a SSD cost almost the same as a HDD till 1 TB.
When I bought my M.2 SSD in 2016 it cost US$120, or US$1 per GB and I already had the HDD. It was the right choice and still is if you have a HDD.
Just added a 120G SSD to an old laptop and installed the HDD on a caddy to replace the ODD. It cost me US$25 and the old laptop is almost as fast as a new one.

dbartenstein · Jun 14, 2022

Megahertz said:
Today a SSD cost almost the same as a HDD till 1 TB.
When I bought my M.2 SSD in 2016 it cost US$120, or US$1 per GB and I already had the HDD. It was the right choice and still is if you have a HDD.
Just added a 120G SSD to an old laptop and installed the HDD on a caddy to replace the ODD. It cost me US$25 and the old laptop is almost as fast as a new one.

Ah, When I got mine about a year ago, it just had the 25GG SSD.... Adding the 2TB SSD was a no-brainer for me

barman58 · Jun 15, 2022

Kari said:
I hope this is a case of missing "I" at beginning of sentence, not a recommendation to not use Sysprep method

Kari

All corrected :wink:

\Sorry @Kari :)

spapakons · Jun 15, 2022

For you reading this thread, you can either follow the guides mentioned or do it the easy way. Just create your user folders on another drive, such as Downloads, Videos etc and move all your large files from the SSD to the new location. It doesn't have to be done automatically. It is simple copy-paste.

Megahertz · Jun 15, 2022

spapakons said:
For you reading this thread, you can either follow the guides mentioned or do it the easy way. Just create your user folders on another drive, such as Downloads, Videos etc and move all your large files from the SSD to the new location. It doesn't have to be done automatically. It is simple copy-paste.

There is a great advantage on moving C:\Users to D:\Users. Not only all profile will be on a separate drive but also any new user created will also be under D:\Users.
Having all the profile under D:\Users also means that everything related to the user (Documents, Appdata, temporary files etc) will also be under D:\Users resulting that C: will remain with only the OS, ProgramData and programs.
I'm been using Sysprep in all computers I set them up. In most cases C: partition is a SSD and D: is a HDD.

cereberus · Jun 15, 2022

Megahertz said:
There is a great advantage on moving C:\Users to D:\Users. Not only all profile will be on a separate drive but also any new user created will also be under D:\Users.
Having all the profile under D:\Users also means that everything related to the user (Documents, Appdata, temporary files etc) will also be under D:\Users.
I'm been using Sysprep in all computers I set them up. Most cases C: partition is a SSD and D: is a HDD.

Downside is if you do an image backup, you need to include D drive as well.

Megahertz · Jun 15, 2022

cereberus said:
Downside is if you do an image backup, you need to include D drive as well.

Yes, but if you need to do a clean install, all your data will remain on D:

spapakons · Jun 16, 2022

Megahertz said:
Yes, but if you need to do a clean install, all your data will remain on D:

Before a clean installation you either copy-paste all your user data on another disk or you install on the Windows partition without format so all your data go to Windows.old folder where you can retrieve them. No big deal. I frequently use the Windows.old method with great success.

barman58 · Jun 16, 2022

Windows.old is a last resort recovery option and should never be relied upon for first line protection against data loss. I does not replace a traditional Backup or disk Image. The very cause of an upgrade failure can also corrupt the Windows.old and make recovery impossible.

spapakons · Jun 16, 2022

You have a point. Of course if the original disk is damaged, it is best to backup and replace it. I use Windows.old when the disk is OK but I want to start fresh. Or I have already cloned the disk on a new SSD and want to ignore the current OS (usually Windows 7 or an old and faulty Windows 10 system) and clean install Windows 10 or 11.