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

 

[moiremusic]

I'm in trouble. I followed this until I realized you needed an installation disk, then I backed out of Audit Mode and restarted. Now my computer boots up asking for my product key and to Personalize the computer with colors and wireless settings, instead of my normal login. What have I done? Please help.

 

[moiremusic]

Phew! Turns out it was asking me to create a new user account. Not sure why, but I couldn't get to a sign-in. Had to create a local account, then switch user accounts back to my old one once I could get to the Start screen. My old account was there. I should never mess with this stuff.

 

[milindsmart]

I created only one user (MS account) after executing this procedure, moving the users folder on to a different partition. Worked flawlessly, about 2 weeks ago.

Now recently tried to create one more user. It takes a long time without much hard disk activity, much to my concern. Then finally the desktop loads with NO icons, start screen, buttons on taskbar, time, tray, just NOTHING. I tried deleting and recreating with the same result.

I opened the Users folder and saw why. There was only one folder in the new user folder : AppData. No Documents, Pictures, Downloads, nothing whatsoever.

I don't know how it got messed up, since my first user went great. Can you give me some ideas? Registry entries? Creating another symlinked User folder for this? Please help.

 

[sebyku]

Hello all. All was good today, I received my ssd, did your tutorial. Worked perfect. Moved all in my F partition. After I installed visual studio 2013 with hyper V activated all goes down. After a restart when I insert my password I get: The user profile service failed the sign in. User profile cannot be loaded.

What can I do in this situation?

 

[paulg]

Hi Kari and everyone else,

My boss just got a new laptop, and I was trying to help him move his user folders from the C drive to the D drive using this guide. (Yes, I know, rookie mistake trying to do this on my boss's laptop!)


I followed the guide and all was well up until I got to drafting the script for the sysprep. As the installation of Windows 8 is on a recovery partition, I wasn't sure what drive letter to use. Some googling revealed speficying C should work, and I figured that in a worst case scenario, I'd just recover from the recovery partition as there is nothing on the computer yet.


The script ran, the laptop loaded up into Audit mode without issue, and when I then restarted into OOBE, I received an error saying that the file couldn't be found and therefore the install had failed.


Fair enough, I thought, hopefully it will just continue to load into windows.


No dice, unfortunately. I'm now stuck with the system saying:


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


Pressing F9 doesn't get me into the recovery console. I can get to the BIOS with F2, but can't see any useful options.


Edit: Holding F9 gets me into 'Recovery': Your PC needs to be repaired. A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed. Error code: 0xc000000f...'

I've contacted Asus and played with BIOS options under their instructions and it hasn't helped. I can get to a recovery option on a Win8 boot USB I made, but it wont let me refresh, saying the HDD is locked, and when I try and repair the system it fails.


Whilst I fully expect comments on how silly I was in doing this on a whim, I would also appreciate any thoughts on how to rectify it.


Thanks so much,


Paul

 

[blueraven07]

Metro Apps and Lowercase Drive Letters

Many thanks to Steelgate,
Started to notice issues with Metro Apps immediately after the procedure and this snapped everything back into working order. This may be worth mentioning in the tutorial.

If you are having issues with your METRO Apps or Tiles working correctly after moving your folders from your SSD, READ ON!

I wanted to share this possible solution since I followed Kari's tutorial to move only the USERS folder to D drive (HDD).

If all the other ideas don't work...try this: I have my users folder on a SSD, so if you don't have a SSD use C:

Add the All_Application_Packages userID to this folder's security (right click on it, properties, security tab, etc)

d:\Users\Brent\AppData\Local\Packages

And give the folder ALL but FULL control, which is read, list, create, write, etc. (don't worry about special permissions)
This is the trick that made all my Apps work again, after performing the folder move yesterday with SYSPREP and having the apps start failing after awhile.

Hope it works for you, your mileage may vary, and I'm not sure how long the setting will last.

Also worth mentioning: When setting the <ProfilesDirectory>e:\Users</ProfilesDirectory> in my .xml file, I used a lowercase drive letter as shown in the tutorial. There were no technical issues with that, but I did find it slightly annoying that all my user folders show a lowercase drive letter in their address. Food for thought!

Thanks again for the tutorial!

 

[anthonyfleck]

​Hoping one of the Forum Gods can help here,

Im one of those that did a clean install of W8 Pro and moved Users and Program Data to my /D drive without any problems and apps working just fine. Updates are also no problem, however I cannot do the MS Store 8.1 upgrade as we all know by now with this setup.
Since it is working smoothly, Im wondering if I can repeat the process and do a clean install of 8.1 from an ISO file and also move BOTH Users and Program Data over to D the way I did with W8 Pro which was accomplished following the original instructions on page 1 posted by Kari(topic of this thread). After completing that, I then had to follow Anthony Flecks instructions(page 9 of this thread) in order to get my apps working.

The only new addition to this method is obtaining the proper setup files from MSFT to do a clean install of 8.1

So in order:

First
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/34102-how-download-windows-8-1-clean-install.html

Second:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4275-user-profiles-relocate-another-partition-disk.html

Last(from Anthony Fleck, page 9 of this thread):

1) WinKey+R to launch the run dialog
2) regedit (press ctrl+shift+enter to run in elevated mode)
3) HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx
4) Right click on Appx and edit permissions
5) Click Advanced
6) At the top it says Owner: xxxxx Change
7) Click Change
8) Add yourself as an owner
9) Apply new settings, Ok
10) Give yourself permissions as Full Control
11) Apply, Ok
12) Right click PackageRepositoryRoot registry key and click Modify
13) Change the C:\ to your new drive. In my case it looks like this: D:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository
14) Click Ok
15) Restart Windows

Any feedback on this is much appreciated

Hello,

I have attempted this once and haven't had any luck. I am about to try it a second time, I believe I made a mistake the first time, but I will post again after I finish. If anyone has had any luck moving the ProgramData folder while doing a CLEAN install of Windows 8.1 Pro, please let us know. Be back to edit/post again soon.

[edit]

So after a second attempt I have successfully moved both the user profiles and the ProgramData folder to a separate drive. I followed the tutorial by Kari, added the <ProgramData> section into the folders to be moved, then followed my registry edit again. I am not exactly sure what I did incorrectly the first time, but the second time it worked out. At first it seemed as if it didn't work after the restart, all my Metro tiles had little "x"'s beside them but it updated after a few moments. Everything works

 

[lobaba]

Hi Kari and everyone else,

My boss just got a new laptop, and I was trying to help him move his user folders from the C drive to the D drive using this guide. (Yes, I know, rookie mistake trying to do this on my boss's laptop!)


I followed the guide and all was well up until I got to drafting the script for the sysprep. As the installation of Windows 8 is on a recovery partition, I wasn't sure what drive letter to use. Some googling revealed speficying C should work, and I figured that in a worst case scenario, I'd just recover from the recovery partition as there is nothing on the computer yet.


The script ran, the laptop loaded up into Audit mode without issue, and when I then restarted into OOBE, I received an error saying that the file couldn't be found and therefore the install had failed.


Fair enough, I thought, hopefully it will just continue to load into windows.


No dice, unfortunately. I'm now stuck with the system saying:


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


Pressing F9 doesn't get me into the recovery console. I can get to the BIOS with F2, but can't see any useful options.


Edit: Holding F9 gets me into 'Recovery': Your PC needs to be repaired. A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed. Error code: 0xc000000f...'

I've contacted Asus and played with BIOS options under their instructions and it hasn't helped. I can get to a recovery option on a Win8 boot USB I made, but it wont let me refresh, saying the HDD is locked, and when I try and repair the system it fails.


Whilst I fully expect comments on how silly I was in doing this on a whim, I would also appreciate any thoughts on how to rectify it.


Thanks so much,


Paul

just happened to me as well as I wanted to moved the user profiles to my microsd card on a T100 asus transformer book, followed the following instructions which helped to restore access to the laptop but unfortunately did not move the profile over.

When prompted with error unable to complete installation:
Hit SHIFT-F10 to bring up command prompt.

type MMC
Click File -> Add/Remove Snap-in... (Or CTRL+M)
Select Computer Management (Double click and Finish on Local Computer)
Click OK
Double click Computer Management (Local) -> System Tools -> Local Users and Groups -> Users -> Double Click Administrator -> Uncheck Account is disabled -> OK
Now right click Administrator -> Set Password... -> Set a decent password to get started.

Now, restart. Should be good to go.

If this doesn't work try next step:
SHIFT-F10 to bring up command prompt.
type: CD C:\windows\system32\oobe
type msoobe
enter
Make a generic account and password. hit finish (if it requests a product key and you have one, enter it now. if OEM/No key required, just finish). Set time/date. Finish.
Restart.
Should be good to go.

sign out of generic account, login to your original account, delete generic account

 

[Kari]

Geeks, I very seriously recommend to leave the ProgramData folder to its original place.

I have tested various scenarios and always, sooner or later, got issues when Programdata is moved. It is of course up to every user to decide what to do with Windows, but as the author of this tutorial I will recommend only moving the Users which works flawlessly and leave the PrograData to C:.

I will not test any more with relocated Programdata, nor will I answer any questions regarding it.

Kari

 

[anthonyfleck]

I agree with Kari, that leaving the ProgramData folder is the best choice. This is also recommended by Microsoft on their help page.

But I just love to push the limits of things I haven't ran into problems yet, but it's only been a couple days. On my last install of Windows 8, I went a year without issues when I moved the ProgramData folder. Not disagreeing with Kari though, it's entirely possible different scenarios will experience problems.

 

[wwitte002]

Hi all
Ive tried completing these steps that seem to help everyone, but I am stuck. After the final reboot, the users folder remains unchanged. I dont get any errors during the process. Ive tried using the actual download xml file, just changed the drive letter to d: as thats my second hdd.
Any troubleshooting ideas?
I'm using a fujitsu ultrabook that came with windows 8 pre installed. I changed the secure boot to N also.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[Kari]

Hi Wwitte, welcome to the Eight Forums.

There are two possible explanations.

Explanation 1:
One or more parameters on answer file are wrong.

Solution:
Check the Notes after the lines 4, 6 and 10 in step 2.1 in this tutorial.

​

Explanation 2:
You are still in Audit Mode. When you give the sysprep command as told in step 2.2.1 in this tutorial, the Windows returns to Audit Mode. The folder Users has not been moved yet, the system has only prepared the move. The move (relocation) itself only happens when you boot normally after exiting the Audit Mode.

Solution:
Exit the Audit Mode as told in step 2.3. After the so called OOBE boot the Users folder has been moved.

If all the parameters are correct as told in Explanation 1 above, and if you are using a valid original Microsoft Windows 8 / 8.1 install media, it works.

Kari

 

[Seb]

Hi Kari,

I am using your way of having separated partitions for programs and data since one year and I am quite fine. Only now I'd really like to get the windows store working again. Do you now of a way to get both, two partitions and the store working? Perhaps there are any new explorations in this case?

Best regard
Seb

 

[ScottThePilgrim]

Kari,

Sorry if you've already answered this (could you direct me to where you have, if so), but I want to upgrade to W8.1 and I need to unrelocate (or rerelocate, depending on how you look at it) my User folders.
My problem seems to be editing the .xml script that tells Windows to relocate to my second HDD.
Is there a better way to do this? Something I'm missing?

An answer would be really appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[Kari]

Hi Kari,

I am using your way of having separated partitions for programs and data since one year and I am quite fine. Only now I'd really like to get the windows store working again. Do you now of a way to get both, two partitions and the store working? Perhaps there are any new explorations in this case?

Best regard
Seb

You have to move the ProgramData folder back to C:, the Users folder can remain on another drive. Run sysprep again, exactly as told in the tutorial but edit the information between the <FolderLocations> tags (lines 5 to 7) so that it looks like this:

[COLOR=#000000]<FolderLocations>
[/COLOR]<ProgramData>[COLOR=#000000]C[/COLOR]:\ProgramData</ProgramData>
[COLOR=#000000]</FolderLocations>[/COLOR]

Kari,

Sorry if you've already answered this (could you direct me to where you have, if so), but I want to upgrade to W8.1 and I need to unrelocate (or rerelocate, depending on how you look at it) my User folders.
My problem seems to be editing the .xml script that tells Windows to relocate to my second HDD.
Is there a better way to do this? Something I'm missing?

An answer would be really appreciated!
Thanks!

See my response to Seb above, in your case you have to edit <FolderLocations> tags to look like this:

[COLOR=#000000]<FolderLocations>
[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]<ProfilesDirectory>[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]C[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>
[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]</FolderLocations>[/COLOR]

After the upgrade you can no longer move the Users folder back to your data drive; an upgraded Windows cannot be sysprepped.

Kari

 

[David464]

About Windows store

Hello Kari,

I've read your tutorial with great interest, I've used to move media folder and Documents to drive d: for years but reading your tutorial and the fact that I purchased 8.1 Pro and an SSD drive convinced me that moving my user completely is a better choice, keeping the small size SSD for programs only.

Before I'm going to do a fresh install and follow your tutorial I've one question to follow Seb's post #392 regarding Microsoft store, is seb's issue with Microsoft store a private case of his system or is there an issue with Microsoft store caused by moving the whole user to D: in general?

Many thanks in advance.

David

 

[Footleg]

Ooops... I'm just in the process of a new PC build, Win8.1 Pro, SSD etc. etc. you know the story. After the initial base install and a look around 8.1pro, I went for move as described in the post! Perhaps a little prematurely - all was fine, worked a treat, or so I thought...

Now that I'm doing retrospective reading, there seems to be a lot of issues with this whole thing (inc. MS explicitly saying it's a bad idea and not supported). That aside, my immediate issue is this, I had two accounts set up - mine and one for my wife. Mine seems to be working fine, I transferred GB's of data back from the external backup on to my new Videos/Pictures/Music folders etc. - I even installed MS Office. However, when I then started to turn my attention to my other account - when I tried logon / switch users, it says: "The User Profile Service service failed the sign-in", "User profile cannot be loaded".

I've tried removing and recreating the account, but thus far it's not looking good. Apologies if this is already covered in the 40 pages of comment - a search didn't turn it up (will keep looking). Interestingly, when I go to add a new account, it does not create a corresponding Users folder either.

Any suggestions before I reinstall and resort to less-than-perfect approaches?

Thanks in advance..

Anthony..
<<EDIT: I now see I'm not the only one with this issue >>

 

[Kari]

David and Footleg, welcome to the Eight Forums.

Having a bit time issues at the moment, here shortly some pointers:

• Windows Store and Store Apps do work well also when the main profile folder Users is relocated on another drive than C:
• Windows Store and Store Apps do not work if any other system folder for example Programdata is located on another drive than C:
• User Profile Service issues have nothing to do with relocated Users folder. Check this tutorial for possible causes and solutions. If one or more accounts are working well and another account not, the logics already tell that the system itself (relocated Users) works and the issue is elsewhere
• When a new user account is created, Windows will not create the User folders but only prepare the system for a new user. The user folders themselves are only created when this new user is logged in first time
• Microsoft has nothing against relocating users. The problem is relocating ProgramData, which although not recommend on Windows 7 can be done without any issues, but on Windows 8 includes several issues like for instance non-functioning Store
• I have personally used Windows 8 since first beta versions, having Users relocated on all my physical and virtual Windows 8 setups, never had any issues

I'll be more active here at the Eight Forums starting from now, checking my threads daily. Ask more if something is still not clear.

Kari

 

[David464]

Thanks Kari,

Now that I'm assured regarding windows store and I know to not move anything but the User I'll go on with my installation. The truth is that I've already done some test installation just to get the hang of it and to be ready for your answer.

@Footleg, while experimenting with the process of installing windows 8.1 on C: and the User on D: which in my case were two separate physical drives, I've encountered the error message that you described above, the cause in my case was that the hard drive containing the User (D: in my case) was unplugged at one of my reboots while I was trying various things, took me a minuet or two to check the system while I was thinking to myself that the process of moving the user is utterly unsafe, of course after reattaching the second drive and booting all went well.


I hope I've helped a bit.

 

[Footleg]

Hi Kari, thanks very much for the prompt reply...

Prior to your reply, I had read the tutorial on the profile service issues, and several others, so far to no avail.

What I'm not clear on is that the "second" account worked before I relocated the profiles (the profile for second account seemed to be moved fine) and also I had been able to create new accounts before hand (obviously). At this time, I cannot use the second account or create any new accounts - all except my "primary" don't work. I have tried local and MS; Creating through Control Panel and from "Manage Computer / Users" - always the same result, they cannot login. The only other thing that changed post the move, was installation of Office2010, AVAST (not used this before) and iTunes...

Note I had not moved the ProgramData as I only came across this tutorial AFTER you'd removed it ;-)

Any suggestions? Given it's quite clean, I may just blow it away and start from clean - I just hate having to resort to that until I know why!