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I have been searching the forums for ways to move the C:\Users and C:\ProgramData folder to another drive for data security and what little performance gains it may give. The two most common methods I see are:

  1. moving the folders using robocopy and creating symbolic links to the new folder
  2. moving the folder and editing the registry to point to the new folder D:\Users instead of C:\Users.

None of the posts I found have discussed the benefits and drawbacks of each though. Sym links seems to be the easier method, but I would think the registry edit would be the better method.

I have used the sym links on my last machine and it worked fine, almost all of the time. There were a few softwares that just would not run and there were a few seemingly random quirks of the machine.

Which method would be least likely to cause other issues and least likely to cause some software to not work. Which would be the best for performance?

I found a couple topics for previous versions of windows, but not sure they still apply.

Moving users folder on Windows Vista/7 to another partition

what are the commands to redirect a subfolder of C:\ProgramData to D:\ProgramData

David_M16
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    I opt for moving + junction or directory link back. Never had a problem. Ever. Never tried to do the whole Users folder but done individual profiles MANY MANY times. – Señor CMasMas Apr 03 '23 at 18:38
  • You ask about performance, your best bet is to get a high quality samsung m.2 ssd and your done. 6000mb/s with a pcie 4.0 m.2 SSD. Even a regular SATA ssd at 600mb/s is going to mostly negate any performance gains. ProgramData isn't that big and isn't accessed enough (in mb/s) to justify moving it. I would just junction mklink /j downloads,documents, and some of the other "My ..." folders and call it a day. – cybernard Apr 04 '23 at 18:27

1 Answers1

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The USERS folder as you have defined in your question is the whole folder. This includes C:\Users\name\AppData\Local, and this should NOT be moved to another drive.

(1) People who have relocated AppData have had to reinstall their OS.Do not relocate AppData.

(2) For Program Data, see what might need to stay on Drive C. You need to look at it all.

The only really safe folders to relocate is the Documents folder within your USERS folder.

Good rule of thumb: Right click on the folder and select Properties. If there is a Location tab, you can relocate that folder. If no location tab, do not move it.

Best advice: Get a properly larger main disk and keep Windows on Drive C. That will work better in the long term.

John
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