Moving C:\Documents and Settings to another partition

[Jeff]

Is it possible to safely move XP's C:\Documents and Settings (or at least
its Applications folder) to my data partition (E without messing up
Windows XP SP2?

I had to restore my C: partition from an image backup and therefore lost my
MS Office and other program settings.

Jeff

 

[Shane]

No trouble moving the Applications folder to another drive.

--

Shane




------------------------------------

The Sugitive

Ch. 1: http://tinyurl.com/bcevp
Ch. 2: http://tinyurl.com/ag92o
Ch. 3: Coming to an URL near you soon!

 

[Guest]

Guys I made a boo-boo. I have multiple computers in my house. We had a hard
disk sector go back last month. I bought a new machine (no operating system)
and installed one of my exisiting Win XP Pro CD's. It installed, system runs
fine but I cannot upgrade to SP2. I am about to run to Best Buy to purchase
another OS and my question is this - when I buy the Win XP Pro, insert the CD
and select R for Repair can I simply input the Product Key and not disturb
anything else on my hard disk? Can I then upgrade to SP2 from there?? HELP!

 

[Jeff]

How do I move it and have XP know its new location?

I ask because I have TweakUI and noticed that although it has options to
move "special folders" to other locations it does not include "Documents and
Settings" or its hidden "Applications" folder.

Jeff

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

The only time that you can reliably move Documents and Settings is at installtion, with an Unattended Installation.

 

[Jeff]

Thanks. That's a shame. I'll leave it be.

Jeff

The only time that you can reliably move Documents and Settings is at
installtion, with an Unattended Installation.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart
Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

An error message informs you that you cannot move or rename the Documents
and Settings folder:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314843/


nLite:
http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


How do I move it and have XP know its new location?

I ask because I have TweakUI and noticed that although it has options to
move "special folders" to other locations it does not include "Documents and
Settings" or its hidden "Applications" folder.

Jeff

 

[Ken Shabby]

Haven't looked into it in detail yet, but I've always used Xteq x-setup
(6.6 - the last free one) to move Applications Data. It apparently works
well (although I leave the original in situ and just *copy* it over to the
new drive - I do it because I multi-boot and want to share certain settings
between OSes, for instance Outlook, Spambayes).

I don't know if you can still find x-setup 6.6, but if you post back I'll
look at what exactly the plugin does to achieve it.

--

Shane




------------------------------------

The Sugitive

Ch. 1: http://tinyurl.com/bcevp
Ch. 2: http://tinyurl.com/ag92o
Ch. 3: Coming to an URL near you soon!

 

[Jeff]

Thanks Shane. I would appreciate knowing more about whether x-setup 6.6 can
do it safely and I'll search for it.

It apparently works well (although I leave the original in situ and just
*copy* it over to the new drive ) ...

Is the "copied" Applications folder used by Windows XP or does it still
write new info to the original folder and the copied one just acts as a
backup for restore purposes?

Thanks.

Jeff

 

[Jeff]

I found this by searching Goggle. Does it sound safe for XP SP2?
.............
Although not a direct answer to the question, proper setup can help guard
against such a problem. By partitioning a single physical drive into two
logical drives, you can place all of your data on the second partition,
leaving only Windows and other program files on the first partition.

Of course, Windows 2000 and Windows XP both store user information in the
Documents and Settings folder, which is place on the C: drive by default. By
moving the Documents and Settings folder to the second partition, usually
the D: drive, you can keep your data segregated from Windows so that you can
reformat the C: drive without worrying about losing your data (this does not
reduce the need to maintain a separate offsite backup).

Here's how to change your Documents and Settings folder to another location:

1. Boot to Safe Mode and sign on as Administrator.

2. Create the folders D:\Documents and Settings and D:\Documents and
Settings\username. (Replace "username" with your Windows XP username.)

3. In a Command window, go to the C:\Documents and Settings\username folder
and type this command to copy all the folders and files to the new location:

xcopy /e /c /h /k /o /x " newpathname"

Replace "newpathname" with "D:\Documents and Settings\username" or wherever
else you want to put your documents and settings. If you are moving it to a
FAT32 partition, leave out "/o /x". (You can type "xcopy /?" to see what the
switches mean.)

4. Run Regedit and change the value of
My Computer\Hkey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\
WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\userSID\ProfileImagePath

to the path of the new folder. Replace "userSID" with the user's SID -- look
at the current value of ProfileImagePath to tell which is which.

Obviously, back up your Registry before making this change, and don't try it
if you are not familiar with editing your Registry.

Once you've got your Documents and Settings folder on D:, you can back up
all your documents and configuration settings (for programs and Windows
itself) by backing up all the files on D:. And you won't waste backup space
copying program files, which you can always reinstall from
CDs................Jeff

 

[Ken Shabby]

C:\Documents and Settings\Shane\Application Data

Thanks Shane. I would appreciate knowing more about whether x-setup 6.6
can do it safely and I'll search for it.


Is the "copied" Applications folder used by Windows XP or does it still
write new info to the original folder and the copied one just acts as a
backup for restore purposes?

Last time I changed the location (from c:\Documents and
Settings\Shane\Application Data) was a few days ago - apparently, in fact,
Jan 2nd. I just searched all files in the folder and arranged by date and
have one thing - and one alone - dated later than Jan 2nd, being the Quick
Launch folder, which has been modified today. I'm not sure why that is.
Opening my Quick Launch folder shows the address to be the D: drive location
I moved Application Data to.

Actually I do find Quick Launch opens marginally less fast than in the
original location - but I have a comparatively low amount of RAM for XP.
Otherwise I haven't seen any issues (yet).


Shane

 

[Ken Shabby]

I found this by searching Goggle. Does it sound safe for XP SP2?
............
Although not a direct answer to the question, proper setup can help guard
against such a problem. By partitioning a single physical drive into two
logical drives, you can place all of your data on the second partition,
leaving only Windows and other program files on the first partition.

Of course, Windows 2000 and Windows XP both store user information in the
Documents and Settings folder, which is place on the C: drive by default.
By
moving the Documents and Settings folder to the second partition, usually
the D: drive, you can keep your data segregated from Windows so that you
can
reformat the C: drive without worrying about losing your data (this does
not
reduce the need to maintain a separate offsite backup).

Here's how to change your Documents and Settings folder to another
location:

1. Boot to Safe Mode and sign on as Administrator.

2. Create the folders D:\Documents and Settings and D:\Documents and
Settings\username. (Replace "username" with your Windows XP username.)

3. In a Command window, go to the C:\Documents and Settings\username
folder
and type this command to copy all the folders and files to the new
location:

xcopy /e /c /h /k /o /x " newpathname"

Replace "newpathname" with "D:\Documents and Settings\username" or
wherever
else you want to put your documents and settings. If you are moving it to
a
FAT32 partition, leave out "/o /x". (You can type "xcopy /?" to see what
the
switches mean.)

4. Run Regedit and change the value of
My Computer\Hkey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\
WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\userSID\ProfileImagePath

to the path of the new folder. Replace "userSID" with the user's SID --
look
at the current value of ProfileImagePath to tell which is which.

Obviously, back up your Registry before making this change, and don't try
it
if you are not familiar with editing your Registry.

Once you've got your Documents and Settings folder on D:, you can back up
all your documents and configuration settings (for programs and Windows
itself) by backing up all the files on D:. And you won't waste backup
space
copying program files, which you can always reinstall from
CDs................Jeff

Interesting, Jeff. I must try that. I'll do a clean installation and see how
it goes.


--

Shane




------------------------------------

The Sugitive

Ch. 1: http://tinyurl.com/bcevp
Ch. 2: http://tinyurl.com/ag92o
Ch. 3: Coming to an URL near you soon!

------------------------------------

 

[Jeff]

C:\Documents and Settings\Shane\Application Data


Last time I changed the location (from c:\Documents and
Settings\Shane\Application Data) was a few days ago - apparently, in
fact, Jan 2nd. I just searched all files in the folder and arranged
by date and have one thing - and one alone - dated later than Jan
2nd, being the Quick Launch folder, which has been modified today.
I'm not sure why that is. Opening my Quick Launch folder shows the
address to be the D: drive location I moved Application Data to.

Actually I do find Quick Launch opens marginally less fast than in the
original location - but I have a comparatively low amount of RAM for
XP. Otherwise I haven't seen any issues (yet).

Thanks Shane. I found, downloaded and installed x-setup 6.6. Where is the
screen that moves the c:\Documents and Settings\Jeff\Application Data
folder? I can't seem to find it in the Classic view.

Jeff

 

[Ken Shabby]

Thanks Shane. I found, downloaded and installed x-setup 6.6. Where is the

screen that moves the c:\Documents and Settings\Jeff\Application Data
folder? I can't seem to find it in the Classic view.

No prob, Jeff.

System | File System | Folders | Data | General Folders #1


--
Shane


------------------------------------
The Sugitive

Ch. 1: http://tinyurl.com/bcevp
Ch. 2: http://tinyurl.com/ag92o
Ch. 3: Coming to an URL near you soon!
------------------------------------