User profile moving with Sysprep questions

I previously did a clean install of Windows 7 & moved the User profile along with ProgramData (and manually installed programs to the same drive for those that allowed it & I felt wouldn't benefit from being on a SATA SSD).

I notice that the method for doing this in Windows 10 says that you should not have any Windows Folders on the target drive (Users folder especially), and that only the Users folder can be moved as Windows isn't happy with ProgramData etc being moved.

I'm currently having issues updating Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 10 Pro, the upgrade was done previously onto a new SSD & it worked ok until it started BSODing & then stopped booting, so I put the previous Win 7 image back on the drive again to update it to try & save me having to reinstall programs. But because of these issues I'm now thinking it's going to be easier to remove Windows 7 from the equation since the backup of that install is now BSODing on me as well, and just do a clean install of Win 10 Pro.

So my thought on doing this was:

1. Use a Ubuntu Live USB to rename the current User Profile created by Windows 7
2. Wipe the System Drive and do a clean install of Windows 10 using Sysprep to move the User profile location before creating any users
3. Then boot back to normal Windows 10 setup & create a user account.
4. Find a way to clone all permissions from the Windows 10 created Users folder to the one created by Windows 7.
5. Boot to the Ubuntu Live USB again & rename the Win10 Users folder to something different then rename the Windows 7 created Users folder to what it should be.

Will this method actually work providing the permissions are correctly set?

SergeantSteve said:

So my thought on doing this was:
Use a Ubuntu Live USB to rename the current User Profile created by Windows 7
- You don't need to use Ubuntu. Once you're in Audit mode, go to the data driver and rename Users to Users_old. Delete everything else related to win 7 (programdata etc).

Wipe the System Drive and do a clean install of Windows 10 using Sysprep to move the User profile location before creating any users
- Ok
Then boot back to normal Windows 10 setup & create a user account.
- Ok Exit audit mode, boot normally and create a User profile. Use same name you did under win 7 so you will have permissions to access your data on Users_old

Find a way to clone all permissions from the Windows 10 created Users folder to the one created by Windows 7.
- Don't need if you use same user name in Win 10 that you were using in win 7

Boot to the Ubuntu Live USB again & rename the Win10 Users folder to something different then rename the Windows 7 created Users folder to what it should be.
No. You can't use Win 7 settings on win 10.
You should only move your data from D:\Users_old (win 7) to D:\Users (Win 10). Once data is moved, delete D:\Users_old

Will this method actually work providing the permissions are correctly set?

See above.
Attached is the script files modified by Kari to move Users folder. They are a little different from the tutorial.
Make sure, once in audit mode, that the data drive has D: assigned to it.

Ok. So if I don't need to copy the permissions from the Win10 Users folder to the Win7 Users folder, and I don't rename the old user profile folder, from what directory do I copy the User data from? Do I copy the named account folder or the data from inside each folder? What's the best way of copying 434GB of Data without renaming the folders?

Also with regards to turning off the machine after it reboots to the settings screen, what's the method for doing that without just holding the power button? What's your best method for taking a system image?

Since it's not recommended to move ProgramData and it's not listed in the code in the Tutorial, is it necessary to include it in the XML directing it to C drive? Surely if it's not explicitly stated it would be put on C drive anyway? I notice that on my Windows 7 install that ProgramData exists on C and E (D drive is the DVD drive), and there is more data on C drive than there is on E. I have programs installed on E drive so is it recommended to have a ProgramData folder there created from the xml file or is that automatically created?

Post a Explorer image of your drives as I did.
What kind and size of drive you have for C: and D: ?

If data is on the same partition, you don't copy, you move.

C drive is a 256GB Samsung 860 Pro (formally an 840 Pro as I wanted to upgrade to Win 10 on a new drive & still have a backup to drop in if need be), E drive is a WD Caviar Black 2TB.

I'll post screenshots tomorrow when I get home from work. When I moved the User Profile in Windows 7 I also moved ProgramData, I don't recall there being a warning at the time that it shouldn't be moved but my memory of exactly what was written over on SevenForums over 5 years ago isn't exactly great.

In Win 7 you could move ProgramData to another drive. In Win 10 you can't.
On post # 2 is attached Relocate Users.zip with Kari tutorial and the needed script files.

This is what you should do.
- Read the Relocate-users_W10.pdf (Kari tutorial) and make sure you understand what to do.
- Detach the 2T WD (SATA or power cable) leaving on only the SSD you want to have Win 10 on it.
- Boot from the Win 10 installation drive. If you have UEFI BIOS, boot the Win 10 installation drive as UEFI.
- Go to install, delete ALL partitions on the SSD and begin to install win 10.
- When installation reaches the Settings screen after reboot , press CTRL + SHIFT + F3.
Windows reboots now entering a so called Audit Mode using the built-in administrator account. When Windows Desktop will be shown you'll notice the System Preparation Tool dialog in the middle of your screen. Close it for now by pressing the Cancel button.
- Shutdown and attach the 2T WD and boot. When Windows Desktop will be shown you'll notice the System Preparation Tool dialog in the middle of your screen. Close it for now by pressing the Cancel button.
- Open disk manager. If ODD (CD-DVD drive) is D: , change ODD drive letter to X: and then set 2T WD to D:
- Open explorer and rename D:\Users (win 7) to D:\Users_old and delete D:\ProgramData (win 7)
- Copy Relocate.xml.txt to D:\ and rename it to Relocate.xml
- Copy Sysprep.cmd.txt to C:\ and rename it to Sysprep.cmd
- Run Sysprep.cmd. The command tells system to run the Sysprep from Windows\System32\Sysprep folder reading instructions from the unattended answer file D:\relocate.xml, and finally reboot when ready.
- Back to audit mode, on the Sytem preparation tool, hit ok. It will reboot and continue on OOBE. Create a user with same name you had on Win 7.
- Once win 10 create the user and finish installation, move all your data from D:\Users_old\NAME (win 7) to D:\Users\NAME (win 10). When done, delete D:\Users_old.

If you want to optimize the SSD, read the SSD.txt.