User Profiles - Relocate to another Partition or Disk

How to Relocate User Profiles to another Partition or Disk in Windows 8​

   Information

The method described in this tutorial allows relocating user profiles and folders already while installing Windows 8, before any user accounts are created, as well as after installation on an already installed system.

The advantage of this method is that it changes some internal Windows 8 environment variables, being a “Do it once and forget” procedure. Changing the variables takes care of all existing and future user profiles, locating them when created to selected drive or partition. The method is fail proof and reversible.

When Windows 8 is installed, 5 or 6 system folders are created depending on chosen bit-version:

• PerfLogs (Performance Logs), where Windows stores performance and reliability logs
• Program Files, where applications and software are installed. Windows x86 (32-bit) stores all applications here, Windows x64 (64-bit) only native 64-bit applications
• Program Files (x86), exists only in Windows x64. All non-x64 applications are stored here
• Windows, which contains core operating system files and drivers
• ProgramData, where some applications store application and user specific settings and configuration files.
• Users. This is the “home” of all user profiles. When a new user account is created and this new user logs in first time, Windows creates a set of user specific folders (Users\Username)

Microsoft does not recommend relocating, moving ProgramData, Program Files, Program Files (x86) and Windows folders. Too much is depending on information and data stored on these folders. However, there's simply nothing preventing us to move the Users folder. In this tutorial we show how to move (relocate) the Users folder by changing an internal Windows Environment Variable.

Moving Users folder can save a lot of space on system disk. Pictures, mp3’s videos, documents and so on, a user folder with its subfolders can be tens, sometimes hundreds of gigabytes.

Personally, when installing Windows 8 I always use Audit Mode to relocate Users folder, leaving system drive only for Windows and applications.

   Note

Screenshots from pre-release version Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Actual Windows 8 has different colors but the functions are the same, tutorial can be used as it is.

   Warning

An upgraded Windows cannot be sysprepped. As this method is based in sysprepping, this tutorial is valid only for Windows setups which have not been upgraded.

This means that if you have for instance in-place upgraded Vista or Seven to Eight you cannot sysprep and this tutorial cannot be used in your case. The same applies if you have upgraded Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro or Windows 8 to 8.1.

Notice that a repair install is also an upgrade install, so if you have ever done a repair install (= in-place upgrade to same edition), you cannot sysprep.

When sysprepping an existing Windows setup, it only works if the Windows 8 was installed clean and has never been upgraded or repaired using repair install, or if it is the original pre-installed Windows 8

Although I have repeatedly told that relocating ProgramData will cause Windows Store and Apps as well as PC Settings not to function, people keep doing it using the method described in this tutorial.

DO NOT RELOCATE PROGRAMDATA! YOUR WINDOWS STORE AND APPS WILL NOT WORK IF PROGRAMDATA IS MOVED FROM ITS DEFAULT LOCATION.

1.Audit Mode

1.1. Boot to Audit Mode when installing Windows 8


(If you have already installed Windows 8, continue from step 1.2.)

Start Windows 8 installation normally.

When installation after a reboot or two is completed and Windows 8 comes to Personalize page (see screenshot below) press CTRL + SHIFT + F3 (press and hold down CTRL and SHIFT, press F3 still holding CTRL and SHIFT down, release all three keys).




DO NOT ENTER PC NAME HERE OR CLICK NEXT! Just press CTRL + SHIFT + F3.

Your computer reboots now. Don’t panic, it’s just doing what it really should do. Windows 8 starts now in so called Audit Mode, using built-in administrator account to let you to modify Windows before any user profiles and user specific folders are created.

Continue from step 2.


1.2. Boot to Audit Mode from existing Windows 8 installation

First you need to open Command Prompt using built-in administrative account: hover pointer over bottom left corner of the desktop, right click to open Start Menu , select Command Prompt (Admin):



Command Prompt window opens. Type this to command prompt:

[B]C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe /audit /reboot[/B]

Hit Enter.Windows reboots now to Audit Mode, "thinking" it's been started first time. Text Preparing can be seen on screen.

If you are interested to know more about Audit Mode, here are some links for you to read:

• TechNet: Understanding Audit Mode
• TechNet: Customize Windows in Audit Mode

2. Audit Mode

Windows has now booted in Audit Mode using built-in administrator account, and you should see Metro interface. Click Desktop to enter classic Windows desktop:



To start, click Cancel to close System Preparation Tool:



If you don’t have a second internal hard disk or you have not created and formatted an extra partition on your system disk, you need first to create one. Notice that the drive or partition don't have to be empty, but especially if relocating on an existing installation it must be big enough to allow Users folder to be moved there. When we sysprep with answer file on next step these two folders are physically moved to new location.

If you already have a formatted second HD or partition, you are ready to go.


2.1. Creating an answer file (script) for System Preparation Tool

Audit Mode lets us to start Windows without creating any user accounts. At the moment we are using the built-in administrator account. Your own accounts are created later.

We are going to use System Preparation Tool (sysprep) to run an XML-script (so called Answer file) which modifies the Windows registry and settings as we want to, relocating Users folder to another partition, E: in this example, by changing a so called Windows Environment Variable. You can of course use any internal drive you want to.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine readable form.
To make changes to Windows registry, we will now create a script in XML and run it with sysprep.

Open Windows Notepad text editor (press Win + R, type Notepad, hit Enter). Type the following script, or copy it from here and paste to Notepad (please do not forget to read the notes below code lines 4, 6 and 11 regarding said lines):

1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   
2. <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
   
3. <settings pass="oobeSystem">
   
4. <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm=[noparse]"http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"[/noparse]>
   
      Note

   (If you are installing Windows x64 (64-bit), value prosessorArchitecture should be amd64​, also on Intel processors. For x86 (32-bit) it should be x86.)
   

5. <FolderLocations>
   
6. <ProfilesDirectory>e:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>
   
      Note

   In this example the new location of Users would be E:\Users. Change the drive letter according your needs.

7. </FolderLocations>
   
8. </component>
   
9. </settings>
   
10. [noparse]<cpifflineImage[/noparse] cpi:source="wim:F:/sources/install.wim#Windows 8" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
    
       Note

    (Change the drive letter in wim:F: to that of your CD/DVD drive, USB stick or virtual drive containing your Windows 8 installation media (DVD/ISO). Notice that installation media has to be available to system when running sysprep. Change Windows version accordingly, Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.1 Pro.
    

11. </unattend>
    

(Please leave the row numbers out when typing or copying the above code. Answer file generated with Windows System Image Manager).

If you are installing Windows 8 PRO x64 from CD/DVD/USB F: and relocating Users to E: you don’t have to change anything, you can use the script as it is.

Select Save As from Notepad’s File menu. Select Save as type: All Files. Name the file as you want, add .xml extension to the filename. Save the script to the root of any drive:



Alternatively you can download the answer file here: View attachment relocate.rar

2.2. Using System Preparation Tool

Open the Start Menu (Win + X), select Command Prompt (Admin).

First stop the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (WMPNetworkSvc) by giving the following command:

net stop WMPNetworkSvc

When the service has stopped, type the following to the command prompt and press Enter to move to the right folder:

cd c:\Windows\System32\Sysprep

Now type the following and press Enter (notice the name and path of the script we created above, change it if needed. I saved answer file on E so the path is E:\relocate.xml):

Sysprep.exe /audit /reboot /unattend:E:\relocate.xml

You should now see System Preparation Tool dialog telling it is working on our script:



Let it run, don’t touch mouse or keyboard now. When System Preparation Tool is ready, Windows must and will reboot. It reboots back to Audit Mode.


2.3. Exiting Audit Mode

To continue Windows installation we have to exit Audit Mode and reboot. After reboot you’ll land back on Metro interface. Click Desktop to enter classic Windows desktop, click OK on System Preparation Tool dialog to boot normally in OOBE i.e. normal mode.

Before clicking OK, check that System Cleanup Action is set to OOBE, and Shutdown Options set to Reboot:





3. Finalizing installation

Finalize Windows installation.

If you did this from an existing Windows installation, you will notice that for your Windows this is as if it were the first time Windows was booted i.e you are back on OOBE boot, inserting product key and personalizing Windows. It also means that you have to enter so called initial user. In this case Windows does not accept any of the users created earlier, whether local or Microsoft accounts; instead you need to create a new user.

An example from this PC I am using now: I had already created two users and installed software when I decided to do sysprep to relocate Users. I had a local account for me and an Microsoft account using my email address. After finalizing sysprep, I needed to create a third user Test because system does not let me to use either Kari (local account) or Kari (Microsoft account) usernames because those accounts already existed on this PC.

So I created user Test (local), then from Welcome screen logged in as Kari (Microsoft account) and simply deleted the new Test account which I had just created. An extra step, small annoyance but there's nothing to do to avoid it.

When Windows finally boots first time to Start Screen you will see that Users folder is now located on the new drive or partition with all its subfolders.

When you check your system drive [noparse](C still [/noparse]contains Users folder. The old, original Users on C: can contain some Windows Store information that may not be moved, so let the old Users folder stay on C:. It will no longer grow, all new user data will be stored on a new location, but it is essential it remains on C:. You can hide it if you want, you are never again going to need it.

Notice that Users folder is not created on or moved to new location when you return to Audit Mode after running sysprep. Relocation will first happen when you exit Audit Mode and boot to OOBE (Welcome) mode to continue installation. If done on an existing system the first OOBE boot after sysprepping can take quite a long time, depending on how big those folders are that sysprep is physically moving to new location.

Remember also that when you create a new user profile the user folders are not created before the new user logs in first time.

That’s it, folks! Welcome to the Windows 8:






Now create a system image and you wont have to ever again remember jumplists and links everytime you restore the system to earlier point or system image. User account folders are now permanently moved to another drive, all new user profiles are automatically created on this new location and your system drive won’t be full so soon.

Thanks for reading.

Written and published on 02[SUP]nd[/SUP] of March 2012
Edited and updated on 6[SUP]th[/SUP] of February 2013
Edited, answer file's validity checked on 14[SUP]th[/SUP] of April 2013
Added instructions for Windows 8.1 Pro preview on 29th of June 2013

Kari

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Customize Default User Profile in Audit Mode
• How to Change the Default Location of User Folders in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Restore the Default Location of User Folders in Windows 7 and Windows 8

 

[gassman]

sysprep issue - done

Worked like a charm... one pesky little added hyphen shut the whole thing down. Thanks for your help.

 

[Kari]

Good to hear you got it sorted. It could only be misspelling or drive letter, judging by your error messages.

Kari

 

[ndg]

Hi Kari

Thanks for he tutorial. I found that using symbolic links (which worked so well in Windows 7) do not work with Windows 8 (or at least not for me. I have found your method works every time. Unfortunately I have had to use it way to often. I have not been able to get a stable Windows 8 install and have reinstalled/restored the system backup probably 4 times since February this year (admittedly the first was due to a failed SSD).

One disadvantage to this method is that Windows 8 will not do a refresh if the users have been moved off the boot drive.

Enough rambling and on to my question; Could the moving of users to another disk cause profile errors?
My biggest problem has been the error: "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded". When this happens I am unable to log into my profile (a non-administrator) and the administrator profile does not appear so I cannot even try to log in as administrator. I have tried the solutions suggested both in other threads on eightforums as well as on the Microsoft forums. So far the only solution I have found is to either restore by original installation (Yes I followed your suggestion and created an image) or to perform a complete reinstall.


Your thoughts on the mater will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kari]

Hi Ndg, welcome to the Eight Forums.

As far as I know there's no correlation between non-default location of user profile folders and profile errors. As the change is made in Windows environment variables changing Windows defaults, Windows sees no difference. For instance I can remember having user profile error and needing to recreate my user profile only once, years ago with Windows 7 where user profile folder were not moved.

A shot in the dark but have you changed default group policies? If the "Do not log users on with temporary profiles" is enabled it increase the risk to get user profile errors.

Kari

 

[ndg]

I did not think the non-standard location was really the cause, but I need to start somewhwere.

Sadly I have done nothing so obvious as to mess with policies. When this last happened (last night) I was installing blu ray burning software. Windows froze at the end of the installation. After a hard reset, I had the profile issue.

Oh, well, that's what backups are for.

Thank you for the time and trouble you take to assist others with WIndows.

 

[Kari]

Of all user folders, the AppData and its subfolders are the most important and most volatile. Your profile becoming damaged could have been due the installation crash while writing to AppData\Local or AppData\Roaming.

You could try searching the Event Viewer for event ID 4625, failed logon, and see if you find more hints (Tutorial: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...onitor-user-account-activity-windows-8-a.html).

Kari

 

[ndg]

Unfortunately I got the error "Windows cannot complete the isntallation in safe mode. To continue installing Windows, restart the computer". Inevitably, on restarting not in safe mode I got the error I would normally get:

"Windows could not complete the isntallation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the isntallation"

I am in the process of backing up the USERDATA partition I have, the next attempt will be without a J:\Users directory existing.

bertieb, you are doing the right thing. I have found that this method of moving the users to another disk does not work if the \Users\ folder already exists in the new location.

 

[ndg]

Of all user folders, the AppData and its subfolders are the most important and most volatile. Your profile becoming damaged could have been due the installation crash while writing to AppData\Local or AppData\Roaming.

You could try searching the Event Viewer for event ID 4625, failed logon, and see if you find more hints (Tutorial: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...onitor-user-account-activity-windows-8-a.html).

Kari

Thanks

I will see what I can find when I get home tonight.

 

[ndg]

You could try searching the Event Viewer for event ID 4625, failed logon, and see if you find more hints (Tutorial: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...onitor-user-account-activity-windows-8-a.html). Kari

Thanks I will see what I can find when I get home tonight.

When I got things running again I did not find anything for event ID 4625. However, your comments did inspire me (some would call it a duh moment) to boot off the install disc and use system restore to roll back to prior to the bluray software install. All is back to normal and I was able to install the bluray software using the administrator account. Nic

 

[Kari]

That was good to hear! I had some kind of shortcut in my brain, system restore should have been first thing for me to suggest .

 

[Steveyg777]

Problems trying to use this method

Hi there,

This method sounds great!... except it doesn't work for me (YET hopefully anyway). I have installed Win 7 64 bit, upgraded to Win 8 Pro 64 bit and installed some applications and set things up how i like them a bit. When i type the commands to run Audit mode from Sysprep it says

"sysprep cannot run on a computer that has been ugraded to a new version of Windows. You can only run sysprep on a custom (clean) install version of Windows"

I don't know what to do, have i missed something or is there a way that i can fool windows into letting me boot to audit mode???

thanks,

Steve

 

[Kari]

Hi there,

This method sounds great!... except it doesn't work for me (YET hopefully anyway). I have installed Win 7 64 bit, upgraded to Win 8 Pro 64 bit and installed some applications and set things up how i like them a bit. When i type the commands to run Audit mode from Sysprep it says

"sysprep cannot run on a computer that has been ugraded to a new version of Windows. You can only run sysprep on a custom (clean) install version of Windows"

I don't know what to do, have i missed something or is there a way that i can fool windows into letting me boot to audit mode???

thanks,

Steve

You have not missed anything, it's me who forgot to mention in the tutorial that an upgraded Windows cannot be sysprepped. I added this warning now to tutorial:

   Warning

An upgraded Windows cannot be sysprepped. As this method is based in sysprepping, this tutorial is valid only for Windows setups which have not been upgraded.

This means that if you have for instance in-place upgraded Vista or Seven to Eight you cannot sysprep and this tutorial cannot be used in your case. The same applies if you have upgraded Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro.

Notice that a repair install is also an upgrade install, so if you have ever done a repair install (= in-place upgrade to same edition), you cannot sysprep.

Kari

 

[Steveyg777]

Thanks for notifying me [although it's not what i want to hear! lol]

Is there not any other method you would recommend that is solid???

i saw guides mentioning copying the directories and using symbolic links/Junction links. I also saw someone mention using an app that can do it easily at http://www.faronics.com/downloads/download-files/?product=IGS

BTW What is the difference between symbolic links and junction links? and which am i best using for Win 8??? [i read somewhere that junction links are old but i see guides still saying to use them in their examples]

Thanks

Steve

 

[Kari]

About the difference between junctions and symbolic links, see these articles:

• Hard Links and Junctions (Windows)
• Creating Symbolic Links (Windows)

This method is the one I recommend when sysprepping is not possible: User Folders - Change Default Location - Windows 7 Help Forums.

Kari

 

[Vadikan]

There are two major differences between symbolic links and junctions. The latter can't link to files (folders only) and network volumes (doesn't support UNC paths).

 

[Kari]

Tutorial updated for 8.1. Pro Preview

The tutorial is now updated to include Windows 8.1 Pro Preview.

All changes can be seen in step 2.2.2, everything else works with 8.1. exactly as it would work with 8 and 8 Pro.

Kari

 

[nonosto]

Dear

I success to install users in D partition. I would like know the procedure to format and re install in C Windows, and save all my users folder with all link and date (spreadsheet, movie, picture ...).

I noticed that, when I download an .exe with IE to install any programms always the extension is "_exe", I must change it manually. But with Mozilla no problem.

Any idea?

Thank you

 

[duxuforest]

If i´ve already followed this tutorial for windows 8 and want to upgrade to windows 8.1 when it´s released, will i need to do this again?

 

[Kari]

Hi Duxuforest, welcome to the Eight Forums.

If you upgrade keeping your apps and files, no you don't have to do this again. If you do a clean install, then yes. In the latter case first backup your user files to an external drive, then wipe the drive where the Users main folder is located before proceeding.

 

[teknon]

Change the drive letter in wim:F: to that of your CD/DVD drive, USB stick or virtual drive containing your Windows 8 installation media (DVD/ISO). Notice that installation media has to be available to system when running sysprep.

So if my PC came preinstalled with Windows 8 and no installation disk, what would I change the letter to? I believe the installation media would be on a partition in the main drive C so would I simply write it out as wim:C:? I just want to clarify before execution of the process so I don't mess anything up.