Windows 10: Move user folder loc'n: pls confirm - pgms will store data on d:\ HDD

Dell laptop, Win10Pro, c:\ SSD 100GB, d:\ HDD 900GB

Before I follow Kari's step-by-step tutorial:

I just want someone to confirm that after I have run Kari's tutorial all (or almost all) programs will, in future, store data only on d:\ on a go-forward basis.

Thanks


:)

 

Microsoft Visual C and D and all the rest of the alphabet

If you need to create more space on C:\ and have a lot of data in your User folder there are a few options

for moving files.

- You can change the locations for the User or sub-folders within the User folder to D:\

I don't favour moving the whole User folder as things can get messy. Some software can have issues

when it does not find the User folder in C:\ , particularly if the folders/files were created in C:\ when you installed

the software. The AppData folder in particular would be a high risk, but I would be wary of moving anything

created by a software/game in the User or it's sub-folders.

With things such as video, photos and music, and other personal data it's safe enough.

How to manage file storage more efficiently in Windows 10

- You can also just move the files in those folders to new folders on D:\ and add those new locations to your Library.

(I don't use the Library, so I just make a new shortcut to those folders, and pin them the the jump list.)

"I want to take everything off of 'C' and put it on 'D'"

- Windows has to be on C:\ . Even if it were able to run from D:\ you cannot simply move it to D:\ as the

new file path would bork just about everything.

- There is no simple way to move software installs form C:\ as you have to deal with Registry keys as well.

Do you have a D:\ partition on the same HDD as C:\, or another HDD that is labelled D:\ ?

If D:\ is on the same HDD as C:\ you may be able to shrink D:\ and expand C:\ into that space.

You may need to use a partitioning software to do this as Windows HDD management may not allow

you to create free space between C:\ and D:\ ( unless you delete D:\ . In which case you can expand C:\

into that free space)

If you want to move Windows to another HDD you have a couple of options.

- If there is no data on the second HDD you can clone C:\ to the new HDD in one big partition.

When the cloning operation is finished and you switch to the new HDD as the primary boot drive ( via BIOS )

this new partition will automatically be changed to C:\

- If D:\ does have data that you need to preserve you can create a new partition (shrink D:\ if there is no free space),

and clone C:\ to that new partition.

A 120GB partition for C:\ should be adequate for most Users as you can still use the other partition for storage of

your excess user data. The main issue here is C:\ is not likely to be created at the beginning of the HDD, which

can impact on Windows performance somewhat.

It would be best to backup any data on D:\ (which should always be done anyway, as HDD do fail without warning

now and then ) to another source and reformat the whole HDD before cloning C:\ to that drive.

I use AOEMI for cloneing/migrating Windows to another HDD, but Macrium Reflect is well regarded on

these forums. Macrium may be the better options for partition management

(I've not use this option on AOEMI, so don't know how well it works )

Free Partition Manager - AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

- Clear as mud ? You can find well presented tutorials at the sites below (as well as The site linked to above)

Windows 10 Tutorials

windows10 Articles - How-To Geek

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Configure Windows 10 for 2 HDD

I received a new DELL XPS from the factory with 2 HDD as follows: OS C:/ (200Gb SSD) and DATA D:/ (1.8TB)

By default all of the data folders (Documents, Pictures, Music, Video, OneDrive etc) are in the folder path C:/User/xxx and my D:/ drive is empty.

I quickly exceeded C:/ Storage copying old files onto my new PC.

DELL support used some PC for Dummies articles to move them under same folder path on D:/ (Using Folder Properties > Location and changing path from C: to D: which worked ok) but....

They couldn't move Desktop (ok) or Public Folders (not ok as I store some data there for sharing).

Then after moving OneDrive from C:/ to D:/ something automatically created a new 'OneDrive" folder back under C:/User/xxx/OneDrive...so now I am concerned that Windows10 expects to use C:/User/xxx for a whole host of default tasks and I will have perennial
problems. Appreciate any insight if this is unfounded or KBs to help - thanks.

p.s. Why is it my problem, shouldn't this ship ex factory configured correctly???

 

Could you post a link to said tutorial please? Thanks!

 

Of course ... how could I have forgotten to include a link in my original post!?!?!? Sorry for the omission.

Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10

 

Microsoft does NOT recommend moving C:\Program Files, and C:\Program Files (x86) or C:\Program Data you should just move. your User Files (ie) Documents, Pictures, Music. etc This will save a lot of space on your C:\ Drive.
If that is what you want, there is an easy method. Open your D:\ Data storage drive. Create a new folder called User or whatever. Open this folder and create new folders for Documents, Pictures, Music and everything else in the C:\User\[UserName] directory. Now open this directory on the C: drive and right click each user folder (ie) Documents etc. Choose Properties\Location and choose Move browse to the folder of the same name on the D:\ drive . It will say it is moving all files to this new location., press OK. Do this for all user files. Now when you click the shortcut on the desktop it will lead to the D: drive. When you save a Document, Picture etc to the Shortcuts that were on your C: drive, they will now save to the appropriate on the D:\ Drive.

 

Oh, that's a very simple and straightforward way to go about things. Thank you for suggesting this method. I'll give it a try over the weekend.

 

It looks as if that's true to a significant extent, as moving Users moves %appdata% and the default Documents, Videos folders where programs create data by default.

However, that does not include
C:\ProgramData
(normally hidden).

 

That seems to working just fine. Thank you for the suggestion!

I'm not going to mark this as "solved" for a day or two as there are a few things I want to check out first.

Regards


EDIT: to Dalchina - Folders AppData (hidden), Dropbox (not hidden), MicrosoftEdgeBackups (hidden), OneDrive (not hidden) and Roaming (not hidden) did not have a tab for Location so I guess there's too much hardcoded in Win10 to allow them to be moved.

 

Some of those are under Users...