How To | Move Windows Users Folder to Another Drive or Partition

Do you have an SSD drive and struggle with storage capacity from all the documents and media files you own?

Well this tutorial will solve that!!

This can all be done via two registry tweaks that will relocate the default location for new users in Windows onto a different drive or partition. Once you've logged into the new account successfully, you can then copy the files and folders from your old user's profile to the new one.

HDD's are very cheap nowadays and storage capacity is a lot larger than that of SSD's so it makes sense for us to use a SSD to boot into Windows and load programs off, and keep our personal files on a separate drive without the need to create shortcuts and browse through long paths for files and folders.

For those who are getting problems and being locked out of your account I will advise to enable the built-in Administrator account, logging into at least once so that the profile resides on the C:\ (%SystemDrive%) and then do the registry tweak(s). If you lock yourself out you will still have the built-in admin account to gain access to everything.

From your currently logged-in Administrator account open up Command Prompt with elevated privileges. You can do this by pressing the Start+R to bring the run window up, typing `cmd` and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER together at the same time.

To enable the built-in admin account type the following command:
net user Administrator /active:yes

Then set a password by using the following command:
net user Administrator *

Login into the account so that profile can be setup on the C:\ drive. Then make the registry tweaks at `Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList` changing `ProfilesDirectory` and `Public` registry keys to contain the drive letter of the other drive or partition.

For those who are saying you can't move the whole profile over, I will tell you now it's impossible to do without causing issues. That's because the hidden files and folders such as AppData can't be moved/copied. If you copy these over to the new profile it will simply break! However, your actual documents in the standard folders such as `Downloads`, `Documents`, `Pictures`, `Music` etc can be copied/move over.

If you open File Explorer, go to the `View` tab and on the right side click on the`Options` button, click on the `View` tab and uncheck `Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)` and check `Show hidden files, folders and drives`. Any files such as NTSUER.dat or the AppData folder need to be skipped.

Note of warning, you will lose configuration settings to apps/software/games as these are contained in the AppData folder. My suggestion is to either find the exact files that store the settings for that specified program and copy over to your new profile in hope it doesn't break, export the settings and re-import them, or failing that make a note of them and/or take screenshots and set it back up.

[TheSurgeNetworkTV]

For those who are getting problems and being locked out of your account I will advise to enable the built-in Administrator account, logging into at least once so that the profile resides on the C:\ (%SystemDrive%) and then do the registry tweak(s). If you lock yourself out you will still have the built-in admin account to gain access to everything.

From your currently logged-in Administrator account open up Command Prompt with elevated privileges. You can do this by pressing the Start+R to bring the run window up, typing `cmd` and then pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER together at the same time.

To enable the built-in admin account type the following command:
net user Administrator /active:yes

Then set a password by using the following command:
net user Administrator *

Login into the account so that profile can be setup on the C:\ drive. Then make the registry tweaks at changing `ProfilesDirectory` and `Public` registry keys to contain the drive letter of the other drive or partition.

For those who are saying you can't move the whole profile over, I will tell you now it's impossible to do without causing issues. That's because the hidden files and folders such as AppData can't be moved/copied. If you copy these over to the new profile it will simply break! However, your actual documents in the standard folders such as `Downloads`, `Documents`, `Pictures`, `Music` etc can be copied/move over.

If you open File Explorer, go to the `View` tab and on the right side click on the`Options` button, click on the `View` tab and uncheck `Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)` and check `Show hidden files, folders and drives`. Any files such as NTSUER.dat or the AppData folder need to be skipped.

Note of warning, you will lose configuration settings to apps/software/games as these are contained in the AppData folder. My suggestion is to either find the exact files that store the settings for that specified program and copy over to your new profile in hope it doesn't break, export the settings and re-import them, or failing that make a note of them and/or take screenshots and set it back up.

[ayyubalzahem]

It’s 2024 and this tutorial works perfectly with windows 11. Thank you for your clear and direct tutorial.

[CarlosDaMora]

I tried to do it and it worked perfectly, BUT this may cause some problems installing some software (my case, AutoCAD), to solve it, it is necessary to change some other registry entries: use Crt+F to find all "Shell Folders" directories and change ALL data beginning with "C:\users\public\" to "D:\users\public\" . This will prevent future problems.

[HarmonyHideout]

Thanks man this was very helpful, I have been looking for a way to do this for months and all I found was paid programs to switch programs to save space. Appreciate you

[vladimirpopa_]

Exactly what I was looking for. As soon as the PC arrives and I install Windows on the SSD, I'll give it a go and pass it to the HDD :) Cheers!

[davidlmh]

This is one of the few videos that truly moves the folders, thanks!

[martingbekle]

Help when I try to login in to user 1 it said The User Profile Service failed the sign-in. User profile cannot be loaded.

[o_o-]

I just got a new laptop, and I can't swap my current 512gb m.2 for my 2tb m.2 otherwise the PC won't boot up. So 2tb one has to take up a different slot.
You just helped me change my default download location.

[ardwych]

Surge, This really needs a revision. I'd advise taking it down and fixing the title, twice.

You call this 'How to How to [sic] Move A User Profile ...' - but this incorporates the New Revised Method of teleportation, not the traditional Star Trek method: you're duplicating, creating a new user and destroying the old.
The traditional (Star Trek) method of teleportation is to MOVE.

The trouble with your method is that you can't use the existing username (since it already exists) and so you must create a new username.
You can't then easily rename the new username to the old one because it just changes appearances, retaining the folder names of the new username underneath (fiddle with those folder names and you'll be set upon by dragons).
A tacky setup then.

How about re-titling this video to something like 'How To Set Up And Copy An Old User Profile To A New Disk'?
That'd be closer to the truth, and save a lot of people seven and a half minutes.

[vinrocks]

exactly what I was looking for, thanks man!

[messiatemycheese]

Well this video locked me out of my windows installation and switched my C and D drive around. Couldn’t have gone worse 0/10 experience.

[milesbeler]

Worked like a charm! I hadn't though of approaching the problem by just moving the data to a new account!

[TheSurgeNetworkTV]

When you move your documents from the old location to new one, don't CTRL+A (select all) your entire Users folder as you will copy hidden files and folders that are for your old user profile, and this will corrupt the new profile if you replace with different ones.

The best thing to do is to CTRL+click each folder and then cut and paste to new location. That way you are selective copying.

[hajokerkhof]

Great video! It makes disk intensive apps like Autodesk Inventor on my IntelNuc (core I3) even faster. Thanks!

[luispereiro]

Hi Surge. Initially I thought this was a great idea and would resolve my issue of having a small SSD and creating profiles on my 2nd HD. However, I did further research and learned that maybe this isn't a good idea and can cause future issues with system upgrades, updates, and other system errors. I read this information on Microsoft and 3rd party sites advising against it and to only use this tactic in a test environment. They suggest only moving the Quick Access folders to a separate drive. Have you read this documentation as well? Is your process a work around for that?

[joshignacio]

Youre a life saver. I just did it rn. Thanks a lot!

[TheSurgeNetworkTV]

I'm getting this video done this week.

What's taking so long is I'm using SysPrep and the CopyProfile function to slim down the Windows build so that there is no bloatware and annoyances for you all. However, the function that's supposed to this is broken, not recommended by Microsoft anymore, and I've come across so many hiccups, leaving it in place would unfair for everyone watching the video to have to deal with them too.

To cut a long story short I'm modifying the registry and then making a script which will do this automatically for everyone, if you choose to use the script(s).

Else otherwise the new method with SysPrep I will be showcasing soon works amazing on clean builds.

Stay tuned

Sonic

[farrukhshahkhan]

It works and error-free process. Thank you so much

[vi.]

Shift + Delete, thats a new one to me, thank you!

[josenandorossipr]

Great Video, simple and best solution I found on Youtube. Stick to window user solutions and forget about Call of Duty. Yet, programs don't migrate from one user account to other!