Moving Documents and Settings folder onto second hard disk?

I run an enterprise network and have My Documents redirection enabled for everyone, across the network to a file server. So long as you have the network capacity to handle your needs, it works great. With the typical Word, Excel, and other relatively small files, it works great. If you have extremely large files in your My Documents, like videos and things of that nature that are several hundred MB or more, you probably won't be too satisfied with the results.

You don't want to move the entire Documents and Settings folder, as that contains your whole user profile. It is possible to implement roaming user profiles, but in a two PC network, it certainly isn't worth the hassle (and would only create some major headaches for you).

To change the location of a SPECIAL folder AND simultaneously move the files, the folder(s) to the new location and select "Move Here"

SPECIAL FOLDERS
===============
CD Burning
Desktop
Document Templates
Favorites
Installation Path
My Documents
My Music
My Video
Programs
Send To
Shared Documents
Shared Music
Shared Pictures
Shared Video
StartMenu
StartUp

for google searches: the original question was how to move the documents and settings folder and was not answered.

To move the entire Documents and settings folders is relatively simple ... just a little fiddly

Just moving My Documents is easy enough ... the problem is - when you only move my documents onto another drive or partition and then find yourself in a crash and burn situation ... you preserve your data but lose your settings cookies, favourites ... in fact everything that makes your machine yours.

So you have three options ....
1 Installing from new
2 Modify a single user
3 Modify the whole shooting match

When starting fresh
first you need to use sysprep to create an answer file (renamed to winnt.sif) once you have it - open in notepad and in the
[GuiUnattended] section add the line ProfilesDir="d:\documents and settings"

Then either burn a new install disc with winnt.sif added to the i386 folder .... of copy it to a floppy ... boot from CD ... as soon as you see press any key to boot ... hit a key and IMMEDIATELY push the floppy into the drive.

Remember when you start - create and format two partitions - if you don't the install still runs ... but windows won't boot up.

If you already have a working system ....
Start by searching out Microsoft's KB236621 document - this pretty much covers the theory.
Your buggest problem is the prospect of modifying well over 100 entries.

Visit http://bladesdev.com/
and download RegReplace - it's shareware.
tick the "value names" and "value contents" options
then search for;
c:\Documents and Settings\......
as well as
%USERPROFILE%\......
and replace with d:\documents and settings\

reboot .... and away you go

Becareful when you replace %USERPROFILE%\......

It shouldn't be simply replaced by d:\documents and settings\

as %USERPROFILE% contains the user name for each user ... should replace by

d:\documents and settings\%USERNAME%\

Also will need to replace entries containing
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settintgs
by
d:\Documents and Settings

good luck :)

Hello,

I have 2 drives c and g. My c is getting full. Can I use part of g drive as an extension of c somehow???
please can you advice URGENTLY and ASAP. At least email back to say how or if you not sure etc...

Thanks

What if i can't find a KB236621 file?
Plz tell all in all the different steps.
[simply anglish plz because i am dutch]

greetings,
Steven

why does this site popup everytime I hit ctrl+enter in flash 8?

> What if i can't find a KB236621 file?

klik hier:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/236621

I am interested in inserting tressy jean austin's document on MSN. Can you help me?

thank you very much for having this site chock full of information... I couldn't remember the single most important value to change to have the documents and settings folder on another drive, but I got it now! thank you much

"PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMONE HELP ME, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE..
IM PREPARED TO PAY FOR THE HELP AT THIS STAGE.. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SOMONE TAKE ME OUT OF THIS NIGHTMAREISH HELL THATS BEING GOING ON FOR OVER 2 MONTS NOW!!!!!! H E L P

2 months ago, i put a new hd into my pc... i slaved the old drive so the old drive is now D: ... by the way im running xp pro sp2.
I reinstalled windows onto the new drive C:
But the old drive D: still has the windows installed onto it.
There are 3 folders on the old drive i want to delete and send to the bottomless pits of hell..

Windows
Programe Files
Documents and Settings

Windows REFUSES to delete these folders.. accses denied ..etc

I AM loged into an admin account, so i should be able to delete these stupid folders.

I used third party things, like File Unlocker.. with no luck at all

I emailed mircosoft about 10 times regarding this,, either gettting no replyes, or usless replys... I physicly wrote 2 letters to microsoft.. no reply... ive looked at 100`s upon 100`s of forums online, trying 100`s of differnt methods of deleting these folders... NO LUCK

this is now into the 2nd month of this nightmare. i cant work out how to do this, im angry, in perticular with mircosoft, im fed up, and i dont know what to do short of formatting the drive (witch for other reasons is out of the question)

the last thing i tryed was this (as directed by somone at mircosoft)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

sounds simple enough, tho.. if u read it carfully ull soon find out that the information there is not right....
meaning: they state on steps 2 and 3
2: 2. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).

3: 3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.

so first of all, step 2, "click OK on the Security message (if one appears)."
i have never never never seen a "security message" doing this in all my countless years using windows
secondly, stop 3, "Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab." ...
..what the hell are you talking about mircosoft?? click on "advanced".. where the hell are you seeing these options? Owners tab?? are you on the same planet mircosoft?... Are you using some future version of windows as an example here???

PLEASE.. i need some help with this asap.. as im about to littlery chuck this pc out the dam window.

Best Regards
Pangaea

Ps. sorry for the spelling and attitude, but as u now relise, after 2 months of this, im left very very angery and fed up with the whole thing... all i dam well want to do is delete 3 folders on MY OWN pc,.. how dam complicated must this be???"

Pangaea

Make a working folder on your desktop. Copy all the folders from the second drive you want to keep to this folder. Then reformat the second drive. Then move the folders back. You may have to do this in safe mode.

Good luck
Leon

Pangaea,

There is a great utility out there called "Linux" (tounge in check ;). Just insert a Live CD from OpenSuSE, Simply MEPIS, or Knoppix. Boot up in Linux and go to the File Manager (Dolphin or Konqueror in root or superuser mode). Find out those files on the D drive that Windows will not let you touch and proceed to delete them. If you ever want to find out what is really going on in System folders, pop in Linux and browse to your heart's content.

Pangaea

When you click the security tab the advanced button is on the bottom of the dialog box, rigth below the Permissions for that folder.

Good information, thanks

i got a new 32'' monitor and i can't get a full size screen picture on my pogo games what can i do 2 change this.

I am downloading recipies for baking cakes and decorating cookies. The files contain videos. I want the target to be Iomega Disk G not the recent documents folder. It will take up too much space on my hard drive. Please tell me how to do this. I am a novice at the computer. Please be specific.

For Windows 2000 see Microsoft's KB236621:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/236621/

For Windows XP see Microsoft's KB314843:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314843/

I've written an easy to follow paper on moving Documents and Settings to a new drive: http://www.dynode.net/~rjw/?pid=2

PLEASE HELP!!! I followed the instructions Whitey gave to move my documents and settings folder and now my comp is all messed up!!! I can still boot, but all my personal data has been moved so the comp cant see it!!! PLEASE HELP ME UNDO THIS! I know in retrospect I should have made the undo file! ='(

PS I really don't understand any of how this all works! I just wanted to move my data off my C drive! But I'll gladly leave my documents and settings files there if that's what it will take to fix my comp!

I'm in the process of attempting to move the entire "Documents and Settings" folder to one of several partitions on the primary slave drive (Windows XP-Pro XP2 is on primary master drive).

I carefully followed Micro$oft's KB314843, manually changing many dozens, maybe close to a hundred, Registry entries (mostly values, but in some cases names had to be changed instead). But there remain a few keys to change (?), about which I'm not clear. For example (keys):

\REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-19 \Device\HarddiskVolume2
\Documents and Settings\ ...

(How can I find out what Volume_ to put in place
of "Volume2" since my target volume is not stated
anywhere else in the Registry in a similar
fashion? From other Registry entries, I know that
Windows is installed on "Volume2". However, entries such as "Volume3" or "Volume4", etc.
do not appear anywhere in the Registry, yet my
system has more than nine volumes spread over
two physical drives!)

ProfilesDirectory REG_EXPAND_SZ
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings

ProfileImagePath ... ...
ProfileImagePath ... ...

(For the above three or more keys, how to find the correct symbolic name for the relocated target volume, NOT the SystemDrive?)

Hoping not to wind up with a non-bootable
system after the Registry surgery, I've been
looking through "Chapter 10: Storage Management"
in the 935+ page book "Microsoft Windows
Internals", 4th Edition, by Mark Russinovich
and David Solomon (2005 Microsoft Press;
ISBN-13=978-0-7356-1917-3), and it would appear
that I have to run the "!devobj" kernel
debugger command and the "!vpb" command in order
to find out what Volume names and numbers
have been assigned to the various hard disk
volumes by the hardware enumerator and/or the
volume-mounting process, etc., etc.!

Yet, these additional snags were not mentioned
at all in the Microsoft KB314843 document.

I did find some "VolumeSerialNumber" entries
in the Registry associated with a key called
"Bitbucket" beneath which are eleven folders
labeled respectively with the following small letters: c,d,e,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n. Those entries
for "VolumeSerialNumber" are mostly long hexadecimal strings. Windows did assign the following drive letters to HD volumes and removable drives:
C,D,G,H; I,J,K,L,M; A,E,F,O,P.

Mr. Dave Taylor, am I "going off the deep
end?" Thanks for any insight you might have.

--Robert G.

Hello boys, I wanted chiedervi a information. Later on to a modernization with the cd of restoration I find myself all' inside of the folder " DOCUMENTS AND SETTING" of windows xp home edition various cartelle but that where I have all my documents, rows and programs are not that which work all' inside of the software as I can make? anticipatamente you I ringrazio all for l' aid. tank you Andrea

Help! I'm out of hard disk space and am attempting to move files from "documents and settings" to an external drive. I can move them alright, but when I go to delete the original, Windows XP makes another copy as soon as I delete it. These are just word processing files, nothing critical, but I'm unable to free up space, in fact it seems to be consuming more! Help me stop the insanity!

Bob, I have to admit that I have no idea what would be doing that. Do you have a data protection app running? I mean, something must be replicating the files. I would look closely at all the helper apps you have running and even try booting in safe mode then copying files to see what happens. Please come back and let us know what you figure out!

Hey guys, did you ever consider scheduling regular backup of your documents and settings folder to another drive, instead od going through the assle of relocating its folder on C?
I was planning to do it as well, but what I read recently on that topic makes me think using a backup program for that is far more simple, and doesn't cost much place on a drive...
Good luck...
Ed

Moving 'My documents' is relatively easy as mentioned previously in this post but I think moving the whole documents and settings is probably not a good idea unless you really know what you are doing. To move 'My documents' proceed as follows.
1. Create a folder called My documents in the new location.
2. Make sure that start menu shows the 2 column XP menu (not the classic).
3. Use RIGHT mouse button to click on 'My documents' here and select properties
4. In the target tab of the box that appears select Move
5. Navigate to the folder created in step 1, click OK and then allow windows to move the files to the new location.
Good luck !