HowTo: Locate Documents & Settings on a different drive?

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I've been looking unsuccessfully for information on how to set WinXP Pro so
that Documents and Settings are on a hard drive other than the drive where XP
is installed. Does anyone know where I could find a resource page for this?
 
Thank you. Unfortunately, the linked article is for performing the action in
Windows server, not XP Pro. But it may work anyway. Also, it gives me some
terminology to use for a further search.

It does seem to me that Microsoft might consider making this process easier,
assuming it is akin to that described in the article. Configuring the system
to keep data and user settings on a separate drive should be a trivial task.

Thanks again.
 
It's works with all Windows NT (also Windows XP).

If you want to do this, you have to :
- Create a temporary admin user on the workstation
- Open the registry and modify the key ProfilesDirectory in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
- Modify the key ProfileImagePath in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-19 and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-20
- Copy All Users and Default User from C:\Documents and Settings to the new
directory
- Logoff and logon with the temporary admin
- Modify the key ProfileImagePath for all the users in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-21-******
- Copy the users profile folders from C:\Documents and Settings to the new
directory
- Logoff and logon with an admin user and delete the temporary user and
C:\Documents and Settings

I hope this brief will be usefull for you
Jérôme GUERS

PS : my english is not very fluent. I hope you have understand me...
 
Log into each User. Start, Right Click on My Documents Folder. Change Target
Location to the Drive and Folder you want the files to be located.
You can move existing documents over. You can move some of the existing
folders over as well, but not all, unless you go into the registery and
edit. If your just looking to to have data, favorites,etc. than this works
well for me.
 
I've been looking unsuccessfully for information on how to set WinXP Pro so
that Documents and Settings are on a hard drive other than the drive where XP
is installed. Does anyone know where I could find a resource page for this?
Click to expand...

You will find that, while Microsoft gives you information about how to
change this after installation, it is not supported. The recommended
method is by doing it during the installation by using an answer file.
Search on 'unattend.txt' to find information about this. (It is the
default file name for the answer file.) Some of the info you will find
will be about Win2k but the info still works with WinXP.

Here is a copy of my standard UNATTEND.TXT file:
(It is the ProfilesDir entry that is doing what you requested. You could
even chose a different folder name but that would really confuse any
technicians working on the PC in the future and may confuse some software
with the folder name hard coded. Fortunately, I have not encountered a
single program that did not behave properly with the Documents and
Settings folder placed on a separate drive in this manner.)
===============================

[Unattended]
FileSystem = LeaveAlone
OEMSkipEULA = Yes
TargetPath = Windows
UnattendMode = DefaultHide

[GuiUnattended]
OEMSkipWelcome = 1
ProfilesDir = "D:\Documents and Settings"
TimeZone = "020"

Home_Page = about:blank Quick_Link...d find this list I would really appreciate it.
 
The article you are looking for is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q314843/
I am still researching to find a working solution. e.g in line 7. if your
logged in as a different administrator account why not just drag the folders
of the administrator account, you were working in, to the new folder. Looks
like a leftover from Windows Server.
I have noted that if you log into each user area the registry has other
entries for Documents and Settings where the path will need changing.
Check HKEY_VolatileEnvironment
Value on one line for HOMEDRIVE is C: and next line for value HOMEPATH is
Documents and Settings. It appears that the C: should be changed to the new
path.
I am still investigating this one. Will let you know if it works.
Another approach could be to find out how you can produce an unattend.txt
file to pick up the settings from an existing installation of XP Pro. You
could then edit the GUI Profile to point to the new path for Documents and
Settings.
 
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