Solved Copying userdir from SSD to HDD (permissions/sparse files)

IRJustman

New Member
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2
Hi, all.

New user, but I doubt I'll participate much. I am not a fan of the web forum format in general.

But I will insofar as I have an issue I'm trying to resolve.

I have a new WinEightPointOnePro install going here, running on an SSD in a smallish partition (about 60GBs' worth of a 120GB so I can install and boot another OS in the remaining space), and I would like to move my normal user directory onto an HDD. Mindful of the need to have an account with space on that drive, I have created a local administrative account that will remain on the SSD in cases of emergencies.

The issues I've run into is that when I copied the files over, it does not keep permissions of the original directory on the SSD, even when I tried to disable inheritance on the parent directory I intend to put it in, which I will call H:\Users. Second, the files grow from a few megabytes to at least a gigabyte. I suspect that some of the files in my original user directory tree are sparse files. Most copy programs, including Windows' own core tools when used with defaults, seem to ignore this fact and expand those sparse files out to their full size anyway. Not cool. Also, I tried using RoboCopy's "cloning" function, /MIR, but it takes whatever links/junctions in my user directory tree and expands them out. Again, not cool.

That said, is there a good way, whether via core Windows utilities or with third-party utilities, that can copy my userdir over in a completely intact state, maintaining both permissions and sparse files' "being sparse"? WIMP (Window Icon Mouse Pointer) and CLI tools will be given equal consideration; I use both, based on my needs and how easy one is over the other for a given case.

Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows
Turns out that the files that I thought were "sparse" were hidden and some of the tools used couldn't see those hidden directories.

No need for any help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows
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