How to move user profile in Windows 7 to another directory / drive

How to move user profile in Windows 7 to another directory / drive.

1. After installing windows 7 you will be greeted with a user creation prompt press shift+f10 and you should get a cmd window up like in the image belowcmduser

2. Copy the Users Profiles, Program Files And ProgramData Folders onto the Partition you want to use

robocopy "C:\Users" "D:\Users" /E /COPYALL /XJ
robocopy "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files" /E /COPYALL /XJ
robocopy "C:\ProgramData" "D:\ProgramData" /E /COPYALL /XJ

3. Delete the old folders and create links
For Program Files:

rmdir "C:\Program Files" /S /Q
mklink /J "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files"

For the User Profiles:

rmdir "C:\users" /S /Q
mklink /J "C:\users" "D:\users"

and lastly ProgramData:

rmdir "C:\ProgramData" /S /Q
mklink /J "C:\ProgramData "D:\ProgramData"

If you have any permissions issues while deleting C:\ProgramData don't worry about them just try to delete it and make the links again after first reboot
4. Now open regedit simply by typing regedit on the cmd window
5. To change the program files path navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and edit the ProgramFilesDir and CommonFilesDir as needed
regeditproc
6. For the user profiles you'll need to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and again edit the paths as needed
regeditprof
7. Exit Regedit and the cmd window
8. Continue to create your user
9. Reboot your machine and you should be good to go

My PC Specs:
Intel i920, CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB PC3 12800, BFG GeForce GTX 285
EVGA X58 Classified, 2x Intel X25-E Extreme SSD, 2x WD Black, Windows 7 x64

I've built the machine a while back. Got the first generation SSD drives. Since they're only 60gigs combined, I've quickly noticed that Windows takes up a LOT of space under the user profile directory and apps data. I was surprised to see that there's no easy solution to this...and surprised that no one has showed a quick HOW TO GUIDE on how to move the directories the proper way.

In this video tutorial, I will show you how to move the user profile and apps data folder to a different drive. I did this right after a fresh Windows 7 install. This seems to be the best method from what I've found online.

I used an iPhone 4 to capture and edit the video.

[Breddouson]

MY GOD. Have tried thousands various tutorials to do this shit. They haven't worked at all. Finally I found solution. Thank you very much!

[SkylineLvr]

Figured it out. Had to restart in safe mode to do it. Thanks for the guide.

[CRITicLawl]

Wow thank you for this phenomenal tutorial! Been wracking my brains for the last couple days trying to figure out how to do it. Been working with the robocopy, but it wasn't working for anything but a clean install. Utilizing these same steps, is it possible to also move program files and x86 folder to a different partition? Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[FernandoBasso]

I followed the steps described here and everything worked fine. Thanks
a lot.

I just have one question: when I reinstall windows, should I just skip the 'robocopy "C:\Users" "D:\Users" step?

[MakeTheGOD]

Thanks so much for this guide!!!! helped me out great 5/5!

[paulno]

Thank you! This is a first instructions what really work.

[AGeekDad]

Sure. I'll reply again when I do. I just got a new external harddrive to backup my hard drives. Hoping to reinstall windows over the weekend. Will keep you updated.

[nimalr]

hey thanks. been looking for it and finally! thanks a lot.

[AGeekDad]

Haven't had time to back up my harddrive as I had hoped. Almost done though. Might finish this weekend...If I do, I'll definitely make another video. I have Windows 8 now and will test to see if the same process works on the next operating system.

[Metakrom]

interesting video! I was wondering how to migrate a local machine account to a domain account. What would be the commands to use? The drive would be the same C: When manually copying over program data, I get files that won't copy which leads to programs failing when logged on to Domain. Could you make a video for that? Many thanks in advance! (I'm experimenting with AD and win7 account migration and would like to keep programs that i use on local machine account)

[AGeekDad]

@ravi20tewari As far as the user profile and programdata folder location change...Windows 7 seems fine. The only issue I noticed was that Windows 7 automatic updates failed. Manual updates however work just fine. I haven't tried Auto updates again to see if it has fixed itself. I prefer manually updating Windows though, so this is no biggie for me.

If you have any questions, let me know.

[AGeekDad]

@abehamz No problem. Glad it helped you.

[industab]

When you have done this- does it make PC slower ? Windows booting speed, programs opening tiime etc.

[steveshanks]

This worked fine for me 2 years ago... big, fat SSD to install now and I'm wondering if you have experienced backing this out, returning these system folders back to C:, no junctions. Note, Win 10 will not install with the current environment set up this way.

[HaoSci]

@RFrancisMurillo The problem is he hadn't even installed the operating system yet. Therefore, he couldn't install video capture softwares. However, he could have put the video camera on a stand or some place so the camera wouldn't be so shaky.

[nimalr]

@FernandoBassobr yes ship the robocopy if u are going to use the same drives again.

[tarenrug]

Will this work without re-installing windows?If you already have a user account, when you copy all the user info over in cmd will it copy the actual user documents and app data ect.As well as this can, on regedit if I just changed the directory of The User folder then will it change the directory of all the users(guest/public)?Or do I have to change them separately.Also will it know that it goes inside the already copied user folder when I change the directory of the user to the new drive.Thanks

[JonAikenTT]

Would everything still work the same if this wasn't a fresh install? I did my first build a couple of months ago. Decided to add a ssd and now its getting full. I realize that it would take much longer to copy the files to the new location, but in theory it should still work. Is this a correct assumption/

[vbatth]

so what about "Program Files" and Program Files (x86)" are those linked with the "programData" command? and when you install a new program you would have to install it to the "E:" drive in your case. But how would you do that if you cant see the ProgramData folder?

[SMFBDoccool]

Can you make a big popup in the beginning of the video that links to the new one