Moving Vista Users directory
Last week I was busy moving all of the Users directory. I tried this solution and it looked promising … until (as stated) windows got an update. Then my Vista tried to update each time it started or did a shutdown. The updates always failed. The solution I found for this is to make a symbolic link from c:\users to (your drive):\users and then restore the entries in ProfileList to their original settings.
More info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link
Hints:
- I renamed the users dir using the command prompt in admin mode.
- You must use the correct switch (/D) when making the link.
Ingimundur G. Nielsson is discussing. 
Ingimundur G. Nielsson 11:40 op26/09/2007 Permalink |
Hi there Roger. I can’t thank you enough for this information since it saved me the headache of reinstalling Vista and dropping the idea of storing the User profiles on another partition. I have been unable to install the KB938979 update, which caused my computer to reboot a few times since each time it tried.Then I found your comment on Josuha Mouch’s site and I tried the SymLink fix, and the Update finally installs successfully
Thanks again… Ingimundur
Jonathan 20:23 op03/01/2008 Permalink |
Would it simply work to use the vista unattend function to setup users in “d:\users” and then symbolic link the c:\users folder to d:\users?
Thierry 19:33 op03/02/2008 Permalink |
Hi, this sounds really helpful because I too wanted to change the locations of the users folder and I had 2 solutions: registry edit (Josuha Mouch’ site) or junction command. But only one question remains: will I get performance drop or something because the system have to use a “shortcut” instead of a direct link (as in the registry edit)?A respond would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Roger Hendriks - Fenêtre 21:45 op04/02/2008 Permalink |
Hi Thierry,I did a lot of concurrent file access like recording movies, playing them and watching photo’s all on a external harddisk with a symbolic link. No problems what so ever.
Thierry 00:32 op05/02/2008 Permalink |
Hi, thanks for the answer. Im going to try this.Also, I’m going to try and make an unattend file (will post it) so that when you reinstall Vista, it directly change the C:\Users to D:\Users (in few days but I’ll try in a month or so).The unattend file seems to be pretty much the equivalent to registry edit, but easier (basically, you just reinstall) and no search&replace.But for others, the symbolic link seems to be the easiest option. Can you just confirm that:- in the Start Menu, Documents and other links redirect correctly?- you can drag and drop and the files will be redirected correctly?Thanks again for the respond.
Roger Hendriks - Fenêtre 00:28 op07/02/2008 Permalink |
Hi,You don’t notice a thing, everything works perfect.What I did is relocation the whole users directory. No prob. I haven’t tried the Programdata yet.I had A LOT of trouble hacking the registry because Vista notices this and all updates where rejected on restart! That was about 7 months ago.Good luck.
Anonymous 19:28 op22/02/2008 Permalink |
Hello Roger.I quiet new to vista and really want to move the c:\users\ to an other partition. Could you please tell me exactly what you did. Do I only need to move the c:\users to eg. d:\users and rename the old c:\users to something like c:\~users and add a symbolic link to d:\users or do I also need follow some (or all) steps from the blog posted by Joshua Mouch ?Regards and thanksS
Roger Hendriks - Fenêtre 21:48 op03/03/2008 Permalink |
Hello S,I copied the dir, rename the original to oldusers 2bsure and made a symblic link from c:\users to d:\users. After a week i removed the oldusers.
Anonymous 23:51 op03/03/2008 Permalink |
Roger, thank you very much for your help to the community. Last evening I tried what I believe is basically your approach (set forth in the following: http://caskater4.blogspot.com/2007/09/moving-your-data-where-you-want-in.html). I did not succeed. Perhaps you can help:Specfically, I did the following:1) while logged in to my normal user account I backed up “C:\Users” using a NTI BackupNOW (I tried using Acronis True Image but I seemed to get hung)2)While logged in to my normal user account I restored the “C:\Users” backup to “D:\Users” (where D is my would-be data partition). 3) I shut down and restarted with the Windows Installation disc and worked my way to the command prompt4) Using the command prompt I executed the following commands:<> rmdir /S /Q C:\Usersrmdir “C:\Documents and Settings”mklink /J C:\Users D:\Usersmklink /J “C:\Documents and Settings” D:\Users <>5) I hit the restart button.I was taken to the normal login screen with my user name listed. Unfortunately, after I logged in with my normal password I received a message that I was running under a temp account. Sure enough my user settings didn’t seem to be there. I logged off and tried to login again. This time, it immediately logged back out (i.e. I didn’t even get to the desktop). I’m wondering whether the problem is in part the fact that my backup didn’t grab everything. A poster from the thread I cited at the top suggests using robocopy from the command prompt to copy the “C:\Users” director. That would seem to ensure you get everything. In any case, any help here would be very, very welcome.SHP
austinjreid 16:23 op08/04/2008 Permalink |
Hi Roger,Can you clarify what switch you used on the mklink command? /J or /D ? Thanks!Aus.
Thierry 23:43 op08/04/2008 Permalink |
Hi, I have been sucessfully able to make a symbolic link from C:\Users\[username] to D:\ .The reason why I didn’t link the whole folder is that there no important files in the Default or Public folders. Also, you will have less problem when copying the files (file is currently used, etc.) Here’s what I did:1- In another user account, copy the [username] folder from C:\ to your destination. Rename the Administrator folder on C:\2- Open cmdNow Im going to make a symbolic link from C:\Users\Administrator to D:\Administrator3- in CMD, go to C:\Users4- type: mklink /d Administrator D:\Administrator5- Hit Enter> mklink is the command> /d is for a directory> Administrator is the name of the symbolic link (or shortcut if you prefer)> D:\Administrator is the targetNow under Explorer, you should see a hidden shortcut called “Administrator”. Its the symbolic link. Every target to C:\Users\Administrator will be redirected to D:\Administrator.————-I created sucessfully a unattend.xml for installation redirect the User Folder somewhere else but my concern is that if the target for the User Folder (eg D:\) already have a user folder, it might get wipped out or moved because the Users folder is part of the important folders for Vista Installation. So I just deleted the unattend file.
Roger Hendriks - Fenêtre 20:52 op11/04/2008 Permalink |
Indeeed it’s the /D
If you do a dir in the COS prompt is says:[SYMLINKD]
Anonymous 02:22 op06/05/2008 Permalink |
How did you rename the existing C:\Users folder? Vista does not give the option to do so from the Explorer shell. Did you boot the recovery console?