Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10  

Risto said:

Hi again Kari,
I'm fully aware that you have mentioned numerous times that relocating the user folder will and have not caused any issues in Windows environment nor with any updates. Would you have any idea why Microsoft advises against doing this in many different Q&A's. They claim that relocating the user folder will cause problems with updates, security and other warnings are told.

Sorry for a delayed reply.

Those warnings date from era of Vista. There's nothing in today's Windows 10 preventing relocating the Users folder. Both updates and upgrades work perfectly. Studying possible update / upgrade errors, there's almost always an underlying culprit which has nothing to do with the fact that Users folder is not located on C: drive.

Johng1010 said:

Hi All
I am running windows 10 Home
Version 1709 (OS Build 16229.192)
I have been running this on a HDD
I have now installed onto a SSD
I have created a user on the SSD with the same name as a user on HDD
Is it possible to have the SSD user use the existing user profile on the HDD?
Any answer appreciated

I am not sure I fully understand your question. Assuming that you mean you have made a new clean install on SSD, then no, you cannot use the same Users folder already on HDD which belongs to another installation.

You should copy your data (docs, pics, videos, music and so on) from the old Users folder to another drive, then format the partition on HDD containing the old Users folder. When done, you can then sysprep installation on SSD and move Users folder to that partition.

legaleagle said:

Hi, I used this tutorial a long time ago to locate my user folders on a drive different to the W10 installation. For the first time I'm having problems that W10 won't upgrade to V.1709. It goes through the motions and then at about 45% of the installation it restarts and a message says it is restoring the previous version of windows. I have tried almost everything short of reinstalling windows. I saw on a Microsoft site that moving the users folder can affect updates and I wonder if it is this.

I just upgraded last night to Windows Insider build 17604 without an issue, my Users folder being on E: drive. It's impossible to tell why your upgrade fails without you telling about the error codes you got, but the reason is not relocated Users folder.

Kari

HC1Gunner said:

System running well, but do to different demands on my system, my G: drive where my User folder resides has become too small (250GB). I like to replace the drive with a 1 TB drive. my question is...

Can I just clone the G:drive to the new 1 TB drive, call it G after the swap?

Theoretically, it should work. I must admit I have never done that, I will test that scenario later this week.

Thinking about it, about the fact that if you boot to Windows before the new drive has got letter G and the old G: is no longer present, Windows would fail to boot. You would get to sign-in screen but system could not proceed from there because G: where Users folder is located would be missing. On the other hand, if you boot with duplicate Users folders on two different partitions / disks, it might also cause issues.

This is how I would do it. Lot's of steps but trust me, this only takes a few minutes plus time required to clone old disk:

1.) Clone old disk to new HDD / SSD using your preferred imaging / cloning software.

2.) Shutdown PC

3.) Remove old disk (optional, see steps 7 & 8 below).

4.) Create a WinPE USB boot device (tutorial, process is fast and easy).

5.) Boot from WinPE USB, do not let Windows boot from hard disk!

6.) WinPE boots automatically to Command Prompt. Run Windows Disk Partitioning tool by typing diskpart and pressing Enter.

7.) Enter command list vol to get a list of all volumes. Check the list, find the drive letter for partition containing Users folder on old disk if you did not remove it in step 3. above, and drive letter for same partition on cloned new disk. Notice that when booting to WinPE, drive letters might be different than when booting normally, drive G: might be shown as drive F: or something else. In any case, whatever drive letters are shown, change them.

8.) If the old disk was not removed in step 3, select it by entering command sel vol X where X is its volume number. Change its drive letter to any unused letter with command assign letter=Y where Y is the new drive letter.

9.) Now select the cloned partition on new disk with command sel vol X where X is its volume number. Assign it the letter G with command assign letter=G

10.) Type exit and press Enter to quit Diskpart.

That's it. remove WinPE USB, reset / restart PC booting normally to Windows.

In screenshot an example of this process, changing drive letters in WinPE Command Prompt. Screenshot is taken from a normal admin Command Prompt but the looks and commands are exactly the same in WinPE. In example in screenshot I wanted to find out volume number for my Recovery partition and change it to W:


Please notice, I would never even dream about starting this process before I had made a complete system image containing the disk where Windows partition is located and disk containing partition where Users folder is located.

Kari

HC1Gunner said:

I not disagreeing, and I'm going to follow your directions to the "T" when I get my new drive. But if I clone the drive, and you shut down your system, swap the drives, other than the the size difference, how would this be a problem for Windows, or cause problems. I'm just wondering?

First, just to be sure I want to repeat what I told you in my previous post: I have not tested this, the instructions are based on a theory. Anyway, it should work.

OK, your question: when you clone old G: drive to a new disk, the new partition cannot get letter G: because the old disk is still present. Because it is extremely important that the Users folder can be found by system, you need to be absolutely sure that the new partition on new disk containing your cloned Users folder is G:.

The WinPE boot > DISKPART procedure will do exactly that, change drive letter to correct one.

Kari

wewinjiggy said:

Hello everyone! I need help. I previously relocated my user folder to a different drive. But unfortunately, that drive recently failed and is now with our Creator. How do I create a new user folder for my main profile, like how it originally was before I relocated to another drive? I was thinking to just do a fresh install since its not really a problem at all. But I just thought to ask first if there's an easier way to do it. Thanks in advance.

If the drive where Users folder was relocated is dead, a new, fresh clean install is the best you can do.