How to move user profile in Windows 7 to another directory / drive

[XnypherZ]

Sir. how do i move documents and setting to another drive windows xp?

[MakeMikael]

Thanks so much for this guide!!!! helped me out great 5/5!

[akolozvary]

@MakeMikael You're welcome :)

[MakeMikael]

@akolozvary BUT there is a little problem... it wont let me install windows 7 service pack 1 :( so now im trying to make my own windows 7 iso file, where the sp1 is slipstreamed :P i really hope it works :)

[bountyhunter552]

I haven't done this when I first installed win7. It's been a month or so, and I have only about 7gb left of my ssd drive, would still be possible to do this?

[akolozvary]

@bountyhunter552 I tried configuring it after Windows7 was installed a long time ago after reading some articles on it. I don't know if I did anything wrong, but when I did, I lost everything on my desktop, start menu, and all file association (couldn't open anything). Tried a few things to fix it, but ended up formatting and configuring it during installation of Windows7.

Maybe someone else here can confirm whether or not this can work well after Windows7 is already installed.

[bountyhunter552]

@akolozvary Thanks

[Metakrom]

interesting video! I was wondering how to migrate a local machine account to a domain account. What would be the commands to use? The drive would be the same C: When manually copying over program data, I get files that won't copy which leads to programs failing when logged on to Domain. Could you make a video for that? Many thanks in advance! (I'm experimenting with AD and win7 account migration and would like to keep programs that i use on local machine account)

[industab]

When you have done this- does it make PC slower ? Windows booting speed, programs opening tiime etc.

[KillingDeath8]

also no everything is fucked up, nothing works, i try and delete something and nothing happens.....

[KillingDeath8]

Now when I boot I can't use anything, also I cant run things as admin and yea really nothing works, I cant change profiles nothing

[abehamz]

All else failed. This clearly works. Much appreciated.

[akolozvary]

@abehamz No problem. Glad it helped you.

[xExclusiveGaming]

Good Video. Helped me with building my computer and having my OS on a SSD while other files on a HDD.

[nimalr84]

hey thanks. been looking for it and finally! thanks a lot.

[DukeTwicep]

Um, akolozvary, why did you go into regedit after creating the hard symbolic links? You only have to edit the paths in regedit if you used the D switch for mklink, according to the lifehacker article "Move the Users Directory in Windows 7" on this. The lifehacker guide was made so that you Wouldn't have to use any registery editing.

[jameztoob]

This worked perfectly. It's an ultra-clean way to separate the OS on your SSD, and your data on a mechanical drive. Thanks!

[NickOvchinnikov]

What if I never do back and delete and link ProgramData?? what will happen

[CRITicLawl]

Wow thank you for this phenomenal tutorial! Been wracking my brains for the last couple days trying to figure out how to do it. Been working with the robocopy, but it wasn't working for anything but a clean install. Utilizing these same steps, is it possible to also move program files and x86 folder to a different partition? Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[gbHaiL]

could i do this without re-installing w7?

[fshop68]

Very useful for me

Thanks

[paul2no]

Thank you! This is a first instructions what really work.

[slizza90]

Can the user folder be moved and program data folder kept on c: without problem?

[FernandoBassobr]

I followed the steps described here and everything worked fine. Thanks

a lot.

I just have one question: when I reinstall windows, should I just skip the 'robocopy "C:\Users" "D:\Users" step?

[nimalr84]

@FernandoBassobr yes ship the robocopy if u are going to use the same drives again.

[RFrancisMurillo]

Can you redo this video, using Snagit or some other video capture? The content was appreciated, but the shaking of the hand held camera was distracting.

Thanks anyway.

[HaoSci]

@RFrancisMurillo The problem is he hadn't even installed the operating system yet. Therefore, he couldn't install video capture softwares. However, he could have put the video camera on a stand or some place so the camera wouldn't be so shaky.

[spearmintmonkey]

How do you do this if the OS is already installed?

[jonaiken]

Would everything still work the same if this wasn't a fresh install? I did my first build a couple of months ago. Decided to add a ssd and now its getting full. I realize that it would take much longer to copy the files to the new location, but in theory it should still work. Is this a correct assumption/

[akolozvary]

@jonaiken Hi. Sorry about the late reply. I tried doing this without doing a fresh install of Windows 7 on my first try...it failed to locate the new folder paths after a reboot. My desktop was empty, start menu contents were gone, file associate was lost, etc...I didn't spend much time investigating a fix, so I did a fresh install and recorded the steps above. Not sure if there is a good method to doing this on a already installed copy of Windows. If you find a solution, please post a link.

[akolozvary]

@ravi20tewari I might replace the audio with a quick guide/instructions in the near future. For now, I completed the annotations on the video with instructions. Since I was quick thru the video, prepare to pause thru each step to read the instructions. It was my first time going thru this and didn't prepare the video as well as I should have with timing.

[akolozvary]

@ravi20tewari As far as the user profile and programdata folder location change...Windows 7 seems fine. The only issue I noticed was that Windows 7 automatic updates failed. Manual updates however work just fine. I haven't tried Auto updates again to see if it has fixed itself. I prefer manually updating Windows though, so this is no biggie for me.

If you have any questions, let me know.