Windows 10: Changing location of my user files and folders, win 10

I've performed a clean install of win 10 1903 - Build 18632.295. (Too terrified to click the "Oh NO!" button to update it further.) Before I do that, I need to move my all of my personal data, user folders (not the dreaded appdata junk) to a new 2tb internal hard drive.



Here's my system:



All drivers up-to-date, Intel i5-6500, 16 gb RAM, 64-bit, Asrock h170x/3.1 mb, Samsung 970 evo plus 500 gb nvme m.s ssd boot drive plus PCI adapter, 2-Seasonic Barracuda 2 tb hard drives - 1 will be the new Data drive, Samsung 500 gb hard drive, all internal, plus 2- WD 4tb My Book external hard drives (all show as "Healthy") and a new Brother printer-since MS murdered my previous, perfectly good printer.



Most of the drives (3 new to accommodate this emergency-not-of-my-making) are full. Of the 13.275 tb combined capacity, there are 3.726 tb of free space spread among those drives. They're so full with emergency backups since, beginning in March 2018, windows 10 updates, Office 365 updates and more than 20 on-board microsoft techs and 2 visits to local store techs created and tried to correct problems. Now I have 5 Desktops (Computer Names) and 6 User names containing my 25 years' of files, pics, business records, emails---you know.



Boy, I sure hope WinMerge is going to be my savior as I find where the techs saved my stuff as they ran willy, nilly through my it, renaming drives, even changing backup files on my external drive!



Having followed Greg Carmack's "Clean Install" (win 10) instructions - it's on my new 500 gb nvme m.2 ssd, I'm ready to move my data to an internal, 2 tb hard drive. I'm prepared to use Greg's suggested method (Windows for Dummies). Greg, thank you so much!



Because I'm scared to death of losing/wrecking any more of my data, I have several questions:



1. I've read scary things about how file access permissions are "very, very complicated" (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-move-user-files-to-a-different-partition-in/f7154df5-877f-4df7-aa71-ea0c499db624) and that, "...for all that is holy, do extensive research on this before you begin..." I've been researching, but I just don't know what I'm looking for. I'm the only user of my desktop that I built Oct 2016.



So, very specifically if you can, what should I do to prevent file access permissions from being problematic as I move my User Folders to my new hard drive? It's common, currently to get "denied" when I try to open things.



2. All of this 'activity' (techs from 6 different countries wiped my drive and gave it their best shots, multiple times, at reinstalling win 10 and my stuff with varying success) caused me to lose the actual and real file attributes (dates, especially). Real giant bummer. (It didn't help that one of my windows 10 plagues was that suddenly, I was living life in the future. I'm looking forward to Oct. 2, 2019 as this is the latest of the 'future' dates that Windows assigned as save dates.) This likely will be a parameter when I compare all the current C drive versions to backups and choose which version to save or delete as I peruse each of my duplicated million or so files. I'm sure looking forward to it.


What do I need to do to preserve the original file attributes when I move my data to the new Data Drive?



3. Office 365 (I won't say a word) is going to be upgraded to Office Pro 2013 (on a local account) as soon as I move my data to the hard drive. I expect a very awful experience. To make it as sweet as possible:



What do I need to do with my .pst and .ost backups before, while and after I move the location of my data to my new hard drive?



I edited out as much anger as I could, I apologize to you for it, but it poured out here because I've promised myself to never, ever speak to a microsoft rep ever again so this is the closest I can come. I've been livin' this 'dream' for over a year and I'm off my rocker...I really do thank you in advance for wading thru it and I'll be thankful for any advice you can give. Really, really thankful! Really.


P.S. I am unable to access my email, so I'll just keep checking back. Thanks once more!

:)

 

Vista Ultimate - 'User' Folder Location

No tried that.

Can copy the entire folder to D; but Windows still points to C as the location. Can change personal folders location to a folder on D;, but this still leaves hidden files etc on C;. Thus meaning there are 2 Users folders. Have managed to change the Public folder location to D;, with some registry tweaks, but this doesnt seem to work for the entire folder.

any more suggestions

 

W10 Storage settings and user folder structure. How to change location


Hi,
I just build up a new pc and changed from W7 to new era of W10 *Smile Was not that easy and pleasant experience as I thought.
I have huge storage capability with this new pc but since I'm using very fast Intel 512Gb 600p M.2 SSD as C drive, I also want to make sure that all of my self created data will be stored to another disk, let's call it D.
After extensive research, I found out that there are so many different guides how to change user folder locations for the following user folders (music, downloads, documents,pictures and videos) as well for changing the Windows 10 storage settings. All those guides are a bit confusing to me since I'm not ICT pro...

I already know that one can change the individual user folders (mentioned above) by just changing its location from folder preferencies. Here is a pic where we can see that I have already changed the location for the following user folders; pictures, downloads, music, document, favourites, and saved games). User folders Search, links, onedrive, desktop and contacts are still in C drive.




I have not yet made any changes to W10 Storage settings as they remain default (C drive). If I have understood right by changing the storage settings in Windows it would lead to situation that W0 creates another library but user folders would still remain on C disk as default. This would lead to situation that user would have multiple storage locations. Am I correct?
From the picture 1, we can already see one of the problems as Adobe Creative Cloud has already created its own folder to user folder in C location. This is exactly what I want to avoid. If I would go ahead and now install all the adobe media creation softwares, like Premiere Pro CC, it would also create some additional folders under user folder, useally under Documents. Adobe creates render and preview files that can be huge in terms of space. So I quess my question is that would I be able to avoid that by making changes to W10 Storage settings (pic2)?



The third solution would be the one that Kari has presented in this forum but that seems to be very technical and there is also a lots of debate if that should be used or not. For non-professional PC user, it is very hard to choose what to believe and what not. Which advice or guide is correct and what is not. Users Folder - Move Location in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums[1]=User%20Accounts
This tutorial by Kari includes very technical skills and I'm not sure if I'm up to it *Huh

This is what one another tutorials stated: "Although, this is a good option to help you save space in your local storage, it can get a little confusing for some users. Using this new feature will not change the location for the folders listed under "This PC" in the File Explorer. Many users can end up saving and moving files in two different locations without knowing.". This tutorial can be found here: How to manage file storage more efficiently in Windows 10 | Windows Central

Could someone kindly advice step-by-step in layman terms, how should I proceed and change my W10 in a way that also future programs that use NON-HIDDEN user folders to save data, would be stored to another drive, instead of C.
(I don't mind if some code is written to hidden appdata etc folders under user folder. Those are not useally large files...)

Any clear, step-by-step advice would be greatly appriated.

Hyvää Itsenäisyyspäivää Kari!

Best regards,

 

Vista Ultimate - 'User' Folder Location

Already done it through that method, but I want the whole users folder on D (including hidden files etc) there isn't a "move location" for those). My only thought is that it has to be done somewhere in registry.