Solved When to move USER folder upgrading to Win11

I'm about to upgrade my Win10 machine to Win11.
Ive recently upgraded my PC and it's now Win11 ready and windows update is offering to download and install.

I also want to move my USERS folder to a separate SSD.
I believe the guide on tenforums below will also work for win11.

Before I hit the go button, what is the best/safest way to move my USERS folder.
1. Use method 2 in Win10 before upgrading
2. Use method 1 during the upgrade (is that even possible?)
3. Use method 2 once Win11 is installed

Is there any pitfalls to look out for?

Before you do anything make a full system backup.

The tutorial you referenced is not what you should use as Microsoft does not recommend moving the entire user folder away from C: as it contains very important system files in the appdata folder. You should move your personal folders instead. Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos

If it were me, I would relocate my personal folders to a secondary drive while still on Windows 10.
Here are the tutorials for each folder. The process is the same for all of them. I condensed all this information in the tutorials into my own quick guide for accomplishing this that I have included after the tutorials. It might be easier to follow than jumping around in so many tutorials..




MY Ouick Guide HOW TO CHANGE LOCATION OF PERSONAL FOLDER TO A NEW STORAGE LOCATION SUCH AS A SECONDARY DRIVE

NOTE: If you currently have your personal folders protected by Onedrive, then you will need to temporarily turn off onedrive protection for all your folders until after you move your files.
Use option 2 here Turn On or Off OneDrive PC Folder Backup Protection in Windows 10

Open File Explorer.
Click on This PC from the left pane.
Navigate to your storage drive
Create new folders named Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos

Browse back to your user folder C:\users\yourusername

Right-click the folder you want to move and select the Properties options.

Click the Location tab.

Click the Move button and select the corresponding folder on the target drive that you created in step1.

Click the Select Folder button. In the explorer window that pops up, browse to the drive where you created the folders and select the newly created equivalent folder to the folder you are moving. Click Select Folder again, Click Move. OK or Apply and you'll see a prompt asking whether you want to move files from the existing folder to the new location. In general, you should say yes

Verify that your files are now in the folder on your secondary drive.

Repeat this process for any other folders you want to move to your secondary drive.
You can turn onedrive protection back on if you use onedrive.

Thanks for your reply.

Yep, I've done a system backup.

The method you describe is what I have been doing, but I was thinking it would be good to also get the 'appdata' folder onto a separate drive.

Just wondering why you have a preference for doing it before upgrading to win11. I believe you can still do the same thing in win11.

Also I have some other folders that allow you to move their location, namely 3D Objects, Contacts, Favorites & Saved Games
Are these used by win10/win11 or are they a relic of previous win7/win8 install.

jel said:

1. Use method 2 in Win10 before upgrading
2. Use method 1 during the upgrade (is that even possible?)
3. Use method 2 once Win11 is installed

Click to expand...

You can forget your #2 [method 1] as there is no suitable stage during the update procedure.
Personally, for your #1 or #3, I'd split the update job into two halves by downloading the ISO then doing the update by running an In-place upgrade / Repair install from that ISO.
Post #901 of Kari's tutorial states that In-place upgrades / Repair installs take place without incident so it shouldn't make any difference whether you choose #1 or #3 for the moving job as long as you have made a system image before starting.
Doing it before the update [i.e. #1] would mean that you were using the same OS as the other contributors to Kari's tutorial thread should you need to ask any questions.

You haven't said why you want to do this.

jel said:

I was thinking it would be good to also get the 'appdata' folder onto a separate drive

Click to expand...

Sorry but that just begs the question. Why do you think it would be good?
As glaskuter says, you could consider 'relocating' each individual user folder instead.
You could also consider just using your additional SSD for your own files without relocating anything.


Best of luck,
Denis

jel said:

Just wondering why you have a preference for doing it before upgrading to win11. I believe you can still do the same thing in win11.

Click to expand...

You certainly can do it in 11. The reason I would do it in 10 is twofold. I'm kind of OCD about having all my ducks in a row going into any upgrade ,everything backed up with my files where I want them., all my junk files cleaned out. Also, if the files are already moved the upgrade is shorter and window.old is smaller. That's just me. Do your upgrade and then move your files if that's your preference.
I agree with @Try3 on using an iso to do an inplace upgrade. I never do one through windows update.

Now that you ask the question, I'm wondering if I'm looking to do it for reasons that aren't valid anymore.

Part of the thinking was to shrink the size of the C: drive, but with the amount of storage available these days that isn't as much of an issue.
Another was to reduce clutter in the C: drive, but I'm guessing with modern NVMe storage, that's not a problem either.

I'd still like to get my user data away from the C: drive and onto a different SSD so I'll probably stick with the 'move location' method.

jel,

Something was nagging away at the back of my mind so I've just added to my previous post.

Try3 said:

Doing it before the update [i.e. #1] would mean that you were using the same OS as the other contributors to Kari's tutorial thread should you need to ask any questions.

Click to expand...

I think it's a very important consideration.

Added - our posts keep crossing. I only saw your last one when I posted this.

I am still wondering why you want to bother moving your profile to another disk.
I do not know what benefit you hope to gain.

Do note that you do not actually have to relocate anything.

• You can just use your additional disk for your files and your applications will fall into line.
• I relocate mine but it's really only Desktop, Downloads, [Win10] Screenshots that are particularly worthwhile.

Denis

Thanks to @glasskuter & @Try3 for your help.

I've ended up doing the upgrade from the Windows Update, then using the method suggested by @glasskuter to move my user folders to a separate SSD.

Currently everything appears up and running .

Whilst I'm still not recommending it, you might be interested in
Move Users Folder Location - ElevenForum
It contains a statement by Kari that the TenForums procedure we mentioned earlier is valid in Windows 11.

All the best,
Denis