Creating directory junctions that keeps existing files.

Hi all,

I got an excellent deal on an SSD (it's hard to beat free ;D ). It's incredibly small is the only problem, however. Only 32GB's. Anyways I installed windows on it, and before I've even entered the setup, I went back into the install CD, open command prompt and robocopied the Users and Program Files (x86) to my 2TB HDD. But now I have a problem...

In windows 7 you could have easily moved the 'Program Files' and 'ProgramData' directories over to another HDD and it would have worked just fine. However, the metro protection crap on Windows 8 forbids you from doing this... Well I mean you could, but it would result in no windows updates (updates will always fail) and Metro apps will fail to start and will not install. So I HAVE to keep the existing files inside the program files/programdata located on the boot drive.

If I had a larger SSD, this wouldn't really be a problem, however because mine is so small, there no room for any new information on that drive once windows is installed. However, I still want to receive updates and use metro apps. So my question is...

Does anyone know how to keep existing files on a partition, but then create a link to a different Volumw that any new directories will be written to?

Thanks everyone! It's greatly appreciated! Even if it's not possible, an answer telling me so would be awesome

Have a look at this and see if it might help, http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4275-user-profiles-relocate-another-partition-disk.html
Or maybe this, User Folders - Change Default Location - Windows 7 Help Forums
Another option may be to set the SSD drive up as a cache drive and install Windows to the spinner drive.

alphanumeric said:

Have a look at this and see if it might help, http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4275-user-profiles-relocate-another-partition-disk.html
Or maybe this, User Folders - Change Default Location - Windows 7 Help Forums
Another option may be to set the SSD drive up as a cache drive and install Windows to the spinner drive.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the above links don't work for Windows 8 as Microsoft has locked down the operating system. You cannot move any directories (eg. Program Files, Program Files (x86), ProgramData, User folders) without having an amassment of issues. I actually followed your advise and setup the SDD as a cache drive, but I still wanted the insane bootspeeds so I also manually copied over the EFI partition to the SSD.

However, Windows 8 does not play nice when it comes to having seperate paritions on an SSD cache drive and therefore, even though I set everything to use the SSD as cache - it refuses to because of stupid 200MB efi partition... oh Microsoft...

What you can do (I did) is relocate My Documents, My Pictures, Desktop, Downloads.
Just go to the original location, choose Properties, choose Location, and relocate. Works fine on my W 8.1.

SwampFox56 said:

alphanumeric said:

Have a look at this and see if it might help, http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4275-user-profiles-relocate-another-partition-disk.html
Or maybe this, User Folders - Change Default Location - Windows 7 Help Forums
Another option may be to set the SSD drive up as a cache drive and install Windows to the spinner drive.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the above links don't work for Windows 8 as Microsoft has locked down the operating system. You cannot move any directories (eg. Program Files, Program Files (x86), ProgramData, User folders) without having an amassment of issues. I actually followed your advise and setup the SDD as a cache drive, but I still wanted the insane bootspeeds so I also manually copied over the EFI partition to the SSD.

However, Windows 8 does not play nice when it comes to having seperate paritions on an SSD cache drive and therefore, even though I set everything to use the SSD as cache - it refuses to because of stupid 200MB efi partition... oh Microsoft...

Click to expand...

The second link works, I have all my user folders on a separate partition on all 4 of my PC's.

Also, why do you have an EFI partition on your SSD? I run two SSD drives in my laptop and the EFI partition is only on the Boot drive. My second Data drive only has one partition on it.

You could try to move the Non Microsoft contents (third party software) under "Program Files" And "Program Data" to another HD and create a junction link for it. Use Link Shell Extension to make the job easy.

maybe turn program files, appdata...etc into mount points when installtion?

Free is only good if what you get is useful. A 32GB OS boot drive is not. Bottom line you need a larger SSD.

I ran with a 120GB SSD for a couple years and now have a 250GB SSD. Both worked well.

32GB is just too small.