Move Program Files to New Drive

[Steve House]

I've added a 120 gig hard drive as the D: drive to my XP Pro machine to
supplement, but not replacing, the original dinky 15 gig C: drive. I'd like
to move the Program Files folder with Office XP etc from C: to the higher
capacity D: to free up space on C:, keeping the OS, utilities, swap file,
etc, on C: without having to uninstall and reinstall the moved programs.
Any thoughts on how to go about it?


Steve

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You'll have to uninstall the programs from the current drive,
then proceed to reinstall them using the original installation
CDs, pointing the installation to your new drive. Create a
new "Program Files" folder on the target drive first.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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| I've added a 120 gig hard drive as the D: drive to my XP Pro machine to
| supplement, but not replacing, the original dinky 15 gig C: drive. I'd like
| to move the Program Files folder with Office XP etc from C: to the higher
| capacity D: to free up space on C:, keeping the OS, utilities, swap file,
| etc, on C: without having to uninstall and reinstall the moved programs.
| Any thoughts on how to go about it?
|
|
| Steve

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

I've added a 120 gig hard drive as the D: drive to my XP Pro machine
to supplement, but not replacing, the original dinky 15 gig C: drive.
I'd like to move the Program Files folder with Office XP etc from C:
to the higher capacity D: to free up space on C:, keeping the OS,
utilities, swap file, etc, on C: without having to uninstall and
reinstall the moved programs. Any thoughts on how to go about

it?


In general, moving program files is very difficult, if not
impossible. That's because, for all programs but an occasional
trivial one, there are references to where it's located all over
the place, in the registry and elsewhere. So if you move a
program, the references are all wrong.

There are programs that purport to search for and change these
references, such as the freeware COA2, but in my experience these
are not always completely successful. You can try COA2 if you
like, but the best approach is to uninstall and reinstall.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I've added a 120 gig hard drive as the D: drive to my XP Pro machine to
supplement, but not replacing, the original dinky 15 gig C: drive. I'd like
to move the Program Files folder with Office XP etc from C: to the higher
capacity D: to free up space on C:, keeping the OS, utilities, swap file,
etc, on C: without having to uninstall and reinstall the moved programs.

Don't try to move an existing Program Files folder. There will be far
too many references in the registry that use the explicit name (and even
the 8.3 C:\PROGRA~1)

You could uninstall Office and reinstall, putting its folder on the new
drive. But what I would do is move the main page file there, leaving a
notional initial 2 max 50 on C as well, so that the system does not sulk
over not being able to have one, and move your data files, especially

My Documents - Open a window on
C:\Documents and Settings\<looged in user>\ to show it; another on the
other drive, - in a folder for that user if you do it for each of
several - and right drag across, taking Move here.

Temporary Internet files - in Internet options, click the Settings
button, Move Folder

Data folder for things like Outlook Express (for that in Tools - Options
- Maintenance, click Store Folder)

With those moved, 15 GB should be plenty big enough for system *and*
programs