As you know,windows 7/vista put all system data and user data on the same partition,normally it’s drive C.Under this condition we must backup our user data every time we re-install our windows 7/vista.From windows vista ,Microsoft supply us a tool mklink which can create a symbolic link under windows 7 or vista just as the command ln under unix/linux.Below is an example about how to put user data on non-system using mklink in windows 7.
1.Enable administrator account and set a password for it.You can refer How to enable or disable administrator account in windows 7
2.Logoff and login with administrator account
3.Relocate your user data to other non-system partion,for example from C:\users\J to D:\users\J,then REMOVE the old profile folder
robocopy /MIR /XJ C:\Users\J D:\Users\J |
4.Use mklink to create a symbolic link from C:\users\J to D:\users\J
mklink /J C:\Users\J D:\users\J |
5.Re-login use your own account,you will find nothing changed,but in fact your physical user data is on drive D.
6.Done.The next time you re-install your OS ,just use the same user name, remove C:\users\J then run the command of step 3 again then your user data is back.
Great jobs,it works here,many thanks
[...] source:How to move user data folder to non-system partition in windows 7/vista [...]
I just get “Cannot create a file when that file already exists”
Ok I got the mklink to work now, except when I login, the profile says it can’t access the folder, so just runs a temp profile.
Are you sure the link works?Go to C:\Users\ ,double click the link “Your username”,can you go to the correct path?
getting this messege “Cannot create a file when that file already exists”
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Initially, I had the same problem mejobloggs did. A temporary profile was created when I logged into my main user account. However, I realized that it was a simple path mistake, i.e. I relocated my “Username” folder to drive D:, but I typed “D:\User\Username” instead of “D:\Username”. I went back to the Administrator account, fixed it, and everything is working order.
Thanks for this awesome tutorial!
You can simply righh-click drag and move the folders from your user folder to the new folder on the other partition, see:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=215
For moving thepublic folder, see:
http://integrityitsolutions.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-move-public-folder-to-different.html
Also on vista it is good to set the permissions on the moved to location folder to the same as on the folder in C:\users
Note: on vista home premium 64 i also get the message
“Cannot create a file when that file already exists”
when i try to create the symbolic link, so the method on this page does not work for me.
Just dragging over the folders (see the zdnet link above) works though. It won’t move the NTUSER.dat and other system registry files, but it works for the documents, favorites, etc folders, which is the important data.
I’m curious, but does this work so that if I link mklink /D C:\Users\ D:\users\, every profile created afterwards will automatically create the profile directories on D?
Basically, I guess what I’m trying to say, is can this method replace this one?
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/howto_optimize_your_windows_profile_and_media_storage_ssd
When I try to move the Users folder to another partition, I get the error message: “Error 0×80070057. The parameter is incorrect”. Does anyone know how to fix this?
thanks
To avoid the “Cannot create a file when that file already exists”, make sure to uncheck “Hide protected operating system files” and enable “Show hidden files(…)” in Windows Explorer folder options before moving the contents of the user folder.
It’s a shame that Microsoft makes us tanker around instead of providing a neat standardized solution to the very common wish to separate OS and user data…
It works better to create a Junction rather than a symbolic link, e.g.:
mklink /J C:\Users\MyLogin D:\users\MyLoginAlso, make _SURE_ you copy any hidden and system files over as well!
Are you sure this works after reinstalling Windows? I’ve tried it, and after linking to the old account, I get either logged out when trying to log in, or I just get logged in with a temporary account.
When you are using “/J” make sure that you delete the original directory/Folder. The Junction will automatically create the new folder that will just act as the forward. This is why many people are getting the error “Cannot create a file when that file already exists.” Once it is delete the command should work with no issues.
HTH,
Miguel
hi i have the same problem as Peter when reinstalling windows 7, when i try to link to my old user profile (which is on another partition), after rebooting i cannot log in (win 7 keeps logging me out), or else can just get temp accoutn login.
Many people have shown the way to separate data from OS. but few have actually tested to make sure that its seamless when reinstalling OS to re-link to the old user profile!
I have the same problem as Peter (February 2, 2010) and moose (March 27, 2010).
And I agree with moose.
Did any one have a solution for re-installing and re-usinga previous user’s folder?
I have already relocated Documents to another partition. But if I do an image restore there is still a lot of data that remains on the system partition (Outlook email, NTUSER.DAT, etc.) So this technique looks like a good way to resolve that. But what issues would it present for System Restore Points if NTUSER.DAT is moved off the system partition? Couldn’t you easily get things out of sync if you restored to an earlier restore point but still had the latest NTUSER.DAT?
I figured out how to solve the issue of re-installing and re-using a previous user’s folder
Peter (February 2, 2010) and moose (March 27, 2010) complaint about it and so do I.
I blogged the entire solution (including the steps to -re-use a previous user’s folder after re-installing the OS)
Here it is –
http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/guyronen/archive/2010/06/20/finally-how-to-set-the-user-s-data-folder-in-a-different-drive-in-vista-windows-7-and-re-use-it-after-re-installing-the-os.aspx
/J would work better for Folders. And as beng states above, make sure to replace permissions on the resulting folder.
Cheers.
Windows Vista actually sucks, it is full of bugs and very unstable;*”
windows vista is very unstable and often crashes a lot, windows XP is several thousand times better:“
[...] [...]
i have tried
mklink /D C:\Users D:\users
but received
“You do not have sufficient privilege to perform this operation”
altough i’m an administartor
please help
Hi, I am a new user of Windows 7 (x64). It is great to find this thread about how to move the user folder. I tried by following the descriptions, however, encountered some problems/uncertainties:
a) at Step 3 “Relocate your user data …”: There is no “Location” tab for moving files after I right clicked the folder C:\users\J and then properties. As a matter of fact, after logging in with the administrator account, even all the folders My Documents, My Pictures, etc. do not show the “Location” tab anymore (although they do when I log in with my own user account). Therefore, I am not sure how to relocate C:\users\J in this case. Can I just move C:\users\J by drag&drop to D:\users\J ? Or better to use some other ways?
b) Do I have to delete the original C:\users\J (after the relocation) before creating the symbolic link from C:\users\J to D:\users\J ?
Thank for any help.
I found the answers of my questions in the discussions. I have missed it somehow reading through it the first time.
Hello,
I’ve tried this and it works until you actually have to reinstall windows or do a system restore.
If you decide to do a restore, everything will break. Windows will try to make the folder on the C drive and next time you try to log in your account will be broken.
I fixed this but then all my installed programs didn’t recognize my user so I had a lot of issues trying to reinstall/uninstall many programs.
I have no idea how to fix this but it became a huge problem.
Hi There, We had a great victory in the previous election phase. Tnx.
Yes! Windows Vista actually sucks, it is full of bugs and very unstable.
OK guys, I was getting the same message “Cannot create a file when that file already exists”, so first while logged on as Administrator I moved my whole folder in Users to D:\Users, it went, then I typed the command like this:
mklink /d “c:\users\joao alfredo\” “d:\users\joao alfredo\”
and it worked, perfectly, I remember still in XP when dealing with directories in prompt command it is necessary to add inverted commas when performing DOS commands, so I tried here and it worked.
Whats up! I just wish to give an enormous thumbs up for the good data you may have right here on this post. I will likely be coming back to your blog for more soon.
A tip if you cannot move nor delete certain files like C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows and stuff linked to Windows media player: turn off the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service and you’ll be able to remove the folder…
Tried this on clean install of Win7 64 bit. Seems to work, except that IE 8 (both 32 and 64 bit) will not download files. Internet Explorer just hangs for a few seconds and the sites generate different errors depending on how they are written.
Firefox can download with ease. Haven’t tested Chrome, yet.
Anyone else have this problem? Solution (besides punting IE, which may not be a bad idea)? Any other quirks?
[...] [...]
I get the same error with trying to download files i.e. 8
Found a solution already Mike? anyone else?
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The only issue I have with using mklink is that Search in explorer will NOT search the symbolic links. For example you will likely relocate some libraries with this. Try searching by point to the library at the top of explorer (if you are allowing libraries to display.) Can’t find anything. Point to the symbolic c:\users link. Can’t find anything. Point to the newly created user are on d: and no problem. So that sort of stinks.
@Mike West & Raymond: Try running Internet Explorer AS ADMINISTRATOR at least once after creating the mlink, that solved the downloading problem for me. Also, I found it necessary to remove the %USERPROFILE% reference and replace it with the actual path for both System Environmental Variables and User Environmental Variables. p.s. People should delete all previous restore points if the don’t want system restore to clobber their mlink (junction).
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You may edit the post, as i had to trinkel until all was fine on windows vista bussines.
Step 2 Logoff and login with administrator account on save mode command pront
Step 3a delete the old user directory (rd /S C:\Users\J)