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I am running Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit if it makes any difference),

and I would like to safely migrate C:\Users\paul to D:\Users\paul.

My (home) network is a mix of Windows, and *nix boxes, and I don't have a Windows domain of any vintage, or even a Samba server running.

I have searched the WWW for a solution - and encountered many dodgy registry hacks with "no warranty" disclaimers attached.

(The thing is, I am kinda of attached to that data and I don't want to loose it just yet. Yes, I have taken a backup.)

Rather than look on SuperUser.com, I checked out ServerFault.com. (Cos that is where the professional sys admins hang out right?)

From SF I learnt that Folder Redirection might offer a solution.

However, Microsoft TechNet suggests that I might need to use the Group Policy Management Console. (Now the article applies to Windows Server 2008 - so I guess this might be something to do with Windows domains right?)

Now, I really don't want to mess with Windows domains, or "anytime upgrades" to Win 7 Professional. So finally here is my question:

On Windows 7 Home Premium 64, without any Windows domains or Samba servers running, is there a safe way to migrate C:\Users\paul to D:\Users\paul?

(Logging off of the machine for a few hours is completely OK.)

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  • ... and if you had read the FAQ you would know that SF is the wrong site to post such questions.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Apr 27, 2011 at 0:37
  • Just out of curiosity, why would you want to put your users directory on a different drive? This is bound to cause you all kinds of problems down the road as most everything assumes that the users directory is on the same drive as the Windows installation.
    – Reality Extractor
    Commented Apr 27, 2011 at 0:48
  • @Reality - there's lots of reasons. A common one is that people are often installing Windows to SSD's with limited space, and want to move their 100Gb of movies to a normal HDD. I've been doing this for 10 years now and never had a problem, as apps use environment variables for locating your data. Otherwise, the move from documents and settings to users would have killed every app on the planet.
    – Mark Henderson
    Commented Apr 27, 2011 at 1:01
  • @Mark Henderson - I have just read the Super User question that you linked - several contradictory answers - broken registry hacks and similar. I was hoping to get a response from someone who knew how to do this properly ...
    – Paul Delhanty
    Commented Apr 27, 2011 at 1:59
  • @John Gardeniers - which is why I posted on SF. Is this site your personal property?
    – Paul Delhanty
    Commented Apr 27, 2011 at 2:00

1 Answer 1

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I'm not really sure if this will work for you, but I use it to integrate my Fedora and Windows (to make them share Chrome settings, for example). It's still a bit of a hack, but... Use NTFS symbolic link, pointing from C:\Users\paul to D:\Users\paul (remember to use mklink with /D switch). It can be even used over the network, so there'll no problem when you decide to export everything to server or SMB share.

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