Move Users Folder Location in Windows 10  

logicearth said:

OPS said:

The only problem I have, however, is that the "AppData" folder which is in each User folder, would move to the alternate disc too. This would mean that, if I ever had to revert to a previous system disk image, the "AppData" folder, on the D drive would not necessarily correspond to the programs installed on the C drive. Would this cause problems?.

The contents of AppData is just configuration data, a place for applications to dump their stuff. It doesn't matter what it contains as far as Windows cares.

It isn't quite that simple I don't think.

Just a trivial example OneDrive contains hard coded paths for your onedrive folder in a .ini file in %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\settings\Personal. If the path says D:\Users\<users>\OneDrive but Windows is using C:\Users\<user>OneDrive because you restored a backup made prior to relocating folders then it will either not work or (if the folder still exists on D as well) it replicate the wrong things.

So you could certainly restore back an image of C (from when you had user folders on C) and it will work as your C drive would be consistent - everything would be on C drive as it was before. Everything on D (including appdata) would remain on disk but not be used. If you then moved appdata from D to C (to save downloading your emails again for example) it would almost certainly break.

If you have relocated user folders from C to D you can generally restore just C back to an image you made after you relocated and this works fine - I've done this dozens of times. It might not always work though - you could have data in Users folder for programs that don't exist on your backup (because you installed a program after making backup) or missing data (because you uninstalled a program after making the backup). Probably neither would matter - you'd just install or uninstall the program again.

Note it isn't just appdata - programs scatter information in My Documents, their own directories in User folder (I have .cisco, .metadata, .oracle_jre_usage, .vec, .virtualbox in root of my users folder) and who knows where else.

The only way to be 100% sure is to backup and restore both C and D in tandem so you have a consistent environment but like I said individually restoring an image of C (assuming the image was created after relocating users folder) has always worked for me.

Kari said:

No, it should be the install.wim file and that's the cause for your issue.

If you create the Windows 10 install media as USB Flash drive in Media Creation Tool, the compressed and encrypted ESD file is used instead of the WIM file. You need to have an install media with the WIM file instead; easiest way to get it is to use the Media Creation Tool again, this time selecting the ISO image option. The ISO image created with the tool uses the WIM file. For Media Creation Tool, see tutorial: Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 Forums

Step 1, select Create installation media for another PC:
Attachment 28723

Step 2, select your language, edition and bit version. Be sure to select the same bit version as you are installing; you cannot use a 32 bit install.wim in sysprepping a 64 bit Windows and vice versa:
Attachment 28724

Step 3, select ISO file and let it be created. There's no need to burn the ISO to disk or flash drive if you already have an install media to use, the ISO will only needed when sysprepping :
Attachment 28725

When you have the ISO, do like this:

• Install Windows 10 clean, boot to Audit Mode, create the answer file (this tutorial, Method One Steps 1 & 2)
  
• Before sysprepping (Method One, Step 3), mount the ISO file as virtual DVD drive by double clicking it. Check the drive letter given for it by Windows, let's say the virtual drive gets letter F > use this CPI source in answer file:
  Code:

  cpi:source="wim:F:\sources\install.wim#Windows 10 PRO"

• Sysprep as told in tutorial

Should work now.

Kari

Tried creating with ISO with Mediacreationtool.exe ... After mounting ISO, I checked inside sources folder, and it's install.esd now...In fact... it's called "ESD-ISO" once mounted...
There is no install.wim?!?! HELP!?

Mediacreationtool.exe direct download: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209
From the webpage: Windows 10 "Download tool now" button.

logicearth said:

The contents of AppData is just configuration data, a place for applications to dump their stuff. It doesn't matter what it contains as far as Windows cares.

Is that right? I was under the assumption that that directory contained lots of settings information regarding the personalised way that you have set up various programs. I always back it up when I backup my data, but, to be honest, I never really know quite what to do with those backed up files when I'm in the position of, say, having just done a reinstall of Windows (which I do every few months or so, to keep my system slick [in fact, it is to avoid doing this so often, that I want to do regular system disk images, which is why I asked the question on the thread in the first place]).
So you think that it's not worth worrying too much about these files?

OPS

lx07 said:

Note it isn't just appdata - programs scatter information in My Documents, their own directories in User folder (I have .cisco, .metadata, .oracle_jre_usage, .vec, .virtualbox in root of my users folder) and who knows where else.

The only way to be 100% sure is to backup and restore both C and D in tandem so you have a consistent environment but like I said individually restoring an image of C (assuming the image was created after relocating users folder) has always worked for me.

Okay, thanks for that. So, contrary to logicearth's opinion, you feel that it would be necessary to "backup and restore both C and D in tandem".

I think you're absolutely right about programs scattering information all over the place – very annoying, especially as it's practically impossible to tell how important that information is.

OPS

Thank you for posting this.
I am in the process of building a new PC w/ the specs as listed. I have a 512GB Samsung SSD 950 Pro to put in & since this was not available in a 1 TB version & the mb has no 2nd M.2 slot (and to keep cost down), I have a 500GB Samsung SSD 850EVO as the Data drive. I thought about a RAID setup, but I don't know if the M.2 NVMe drive can be RAIDED well with the SATA drive, so will use the scheme I just described. So you can see, I was quite happy to be able to move the entire Users folder to the SATA drive.
Since it is suggested that I have the SATA drives unplugged while I am installing Windows, I am not quite sure what letter it will assign the SATA drive when I plug it in (D: I hope). I do know how to use the "Manage Computer" (at least in Win7) to assign letters, but since the moving of the Users folder must be completed during setup, not quite sure if it will work out. (keeping fingers crossed)

On another note, I noticed several people commenting that they were hoping to MOVE the Program Files folders to D. That really is not needed to accomplish what they want to do. All they need to do is CREATE an additional Program Files folder on the D drive & install as many programs as possible there. Some will insist on residing on the C drive, so it is good to still have the folder there anyways. But at least that way most of the programs can be located on the larger D drive if they desire. I have done this on a previous Win7 setup BTW.