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I'd like to move the contents of the Windows profile directory (C:\Users by default) to another hard drive (U:\).

So I'd end up with directories like:

U:\Administrator\...
U:\Default\...
U:\Jon-Eric\...
U:\Public\...

What's the best way to do this?

Jon-Eric
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2 Answers2

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copy profiles to u:

change

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ProfilesDirectory

value for future profiles and corresponding ProfileImagePath values for each of your existing (and relocated) profiles.

or just add this to startup:

subst u: "C:\Documents and Settings" :)

links approach is good too. http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html this tool seems best in convenience to operate with them.

Konstantin Salavatov
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The best way would probably be to make a link after you move it. A lot of applications search for your profile folder under C:\users and moving it somewhere without making an association to it will give you a headache. After moving it over to U:\<username> create a directory symbolic link to it:

MKLINK /J C:\Users\ U:
John T
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    I believe /d is a 'light' link, you may wish to try `mklink /J C:\Users\ U:\`, which would also save a little time when you add new user accounts – Phoshi Dec 01 '09 at 08:56
  • Even better, added. – John T Jan 06 '10 at 04:09
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    Warning: This seemed to work, but it [caused Volume Shadow Copy (and consequently, backups) to fail](http://superuser.com/questions/91960) until the link was removed. – Jon-Eric Aug 30 '10 at 22:36