Move My Documents and etc to E: in W2K

[gordon451]

G'day all - I've had a quick search, but didn't see anything. Besides which who would want to do this anyway? :icon_rolleyes:

Anyhow... Is there a way to keep My Documents and Settings on E:, my data drive? The only reason I want to do this is my paranoia :scared: -- I've seen too many disasters when C: falls down for some reason and the system needs to be reinstalled or something.

On W9x I was able to keep all these sorts of things on D: or E:, but...

Now I'm using W2K SP4, and yes I am impressed, but I am not happy with my Seagate 40GB as it's a bit long in the tooth and reporting quite low values, so it may need replacing sometime.

Gordon.

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi,
If you want to keep your files on another drive you need to to make a directory in that drive then copy and paste your files to that directory. When you want to save any other files ensure that when you save them that you select the new directory. That directory should be the default the next time you want to save that type of file.
There are other ways to do this but this is a simple way. If any files do still get saved to your original drive, just copy and paste them as well.

[jbennet]

You can local users and groups under computer management. You can specify profile paths here.

[gordon451]

@Bob_180_Bob, @jbennet -

Thanks for your input. I'll give the profile paths a go tomorrow. I love this technology (I never had a machine to support it before), but I have a lot to learn. It's all coming together slowly.

Gordon.

[gerbil]

Easy as...
My Documents: Create a new My Documents folder, close ALL documents!! then rclick on My Documents link above My Computer, properties, press Move, browse to the new location, and OK.

[jbennet]

Yeah that would work too. That just moves the my documents, as opposed to the entire profile.

[gordon451]

Oh dear. :'(

The best W2K can come up with is a "Roaming Profile", which really is a bit silly on a stand-alone machine -- and it updates on the C: drive rather than in the E: drive.

I tried a number of ways to persuade it that it should keep the profiles on E:, but it insisted on creating "local" copies in C:\My Documents and Settings, and you really don't want to know the mess this made.

The good news is that I was experimenting with my wife's account :twisted: so the damage was minimised. But I still have a clone :icon_eek: of her account sitting in C:\My Documents and Settings, which I'm not yet confident to remove :scared:

While I don't yet want to mark this thread as solved, I'm fairly sure now that this is one of those things that W2K isn't prepared to negotiate -- I've seen it can be quite bloody-minded about some things. You should have seen what I had to do to get rid of Outlook Express!

Oh well, use Plan B: make backups of all the profiles :icon_frown:

Gordon.

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi,
Just look around this message and you will see "Mark as solved"

[gerbil]

You cn move tons of stuff out of C: and away from Windows. It is a good idea. But some stuff should be left alongside Windows.. OE andIE will duplicate some of their files back in C:\Program Files if you move them.. so don't bother, but the OE data files can move. Local Settings... some Windows Application data should remain... Here is a rough I have been preparing, don't have time to poplish it, but this contains all the things I have moved. I have a batch file which automates it..
Moving stuff. First decide what you wish to move out of C: -
I would suggest from User take Application Data, Cookies, Favourites, My Documents, Recent [My Recent Documents];
from Local Settings I would take History, Temp, Templates, Temporary Internet Files, leaving behind the actual Local Settings directory.
I would also relocate Outlook Express mail folders, Opera cache and Firefox cache.
And tell the sys the new default applications path. I think that's about it. Deep breath, now....
Step one - build your desired directory structure on PAPER. I would go something like:
(D:) Ephemera
\Downloads **
\Scratch Pad **
\User Documents and Data **
\\Don **
\\\My Documents
\\\Application Data **
\\\Cookies **
\\\Favourites **
\\\Firefox
\\\History **
\\\Opera Cache4
\\\Outlook Express **
\\\Recent
\\\Temp **
\\\Templates **
\\\Temporary Internet Files **
-on paper, cos some of this stuff you Move to here, which will naturally move the folder also. But create now the ones that I have asterisked.

=Now the easy one first. In Programs drive make a folder Program Files [see now why I called my drive Applications?]so:
(E:) Applications
\Program Files
\\Common Files
\Application Resources
\Cleaning Services

\Pgm Installers

\Pgm Help Files
\Program Files

(F:) Data Store
(G:) Games
(H:)Sights & Sounds

Next, into reg, and change this key to your new pgm files and Common Files directories:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion]
"ProgramFilesDir"="E:\Program Files"
"CommonFilesDir"="E:\Program Files\Common Files"
Done. Now any new apps you install will load there. You could move some M$ pgm files over to it, but a lot of em complain, so it's really not worth it. OE does move [rclick and move], IE will not [it gets very confused, and will rebuild some of itself in the orig directory].
=My Documents. Rclick it in Explorer window left pane, properties, move. Expand destination, select Don, Make New Folder - name it My Documents. Ok n out. Done.
=Temp and Tmp. [these are in C:\Windows...] - go control panel, system, advanced, environmental variables, in TOP user window select TEMP, Edit, change path to the new T:\User Documents and Data\Don\User Data\Temp ;
Edit TMP to the same folder.. ie Temp - so combining them, there is no need for a TMP folder. OK n out. Done.
=Temp Inet Files. In an IE window, go Tools, Internet options, General, Settings, press Use Blank, change disk space to 32MB or less, Move folder, expand and select the new Temporary Internet Files, OK n out. Done.
=Cookies n History, Favourites n Application Data. The last step may have moved cookies, it may not have.. Change these reg settings [it is only necessary to change an entry in Shell Folders if it is not present in User Shell Folders]:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders]
"Cookies"="T:\User Documents and Data\Don\User Data\Cookies"
"History"="T:\User Documents and Data\Don\User Data\History"
"Favourites"="T:\User Documents and Data\Don\User Data\Favourites"
"AppData"="T:\User Documents and Data\Don\User Data\Application Data"
"Recent"="T:\User Documents and Data\Don\User Data\Recent" -this one is only found in Shell Folders key.
"Templates"="T:\User Documents and Data\Don\User Data\Templates"

%USERPROFILE% is "C:\Documents and Settings\user" - when someone logs in this environmental variable %USERPROFILE% is set. You can replace %US...% with whatever path you wish.
=OE mail. OE: Open OE and click Tools| Options| Maintenance, then click the Store Folder button. Click the Change button and Browse to your new folder. Click OK to close each dialogue, and then close OE. When you open OE again it will automatically move the old store to the new location. Done.

To move the cookie folder, first create a folder, and then modify these two registry keys to the desired location..... [also works for history].
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders; Cookies & History
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders; Cookies & History
"Cookies" = "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Temp\Cookies" ...for example.

Environmenal variables ie system and per user: create the new files then change the variables paths via System properties.
-for TEMP, TMP. Here one can also change default pgm files directory under system variables paths, else this key : HKLM\S\M\W\CV\

OE: Create a new mail folder; open OE and click Tools| Options| Maintenance, then click the Store Folder button. Click the Change button and Browse to your new folder. Click OK to close each dialogue, and then close OE. When you open OE again it will automatically move the old store to the new location.

Temp Internet Files, cookies: Create a folder in the destination drive (say E:\TIF), click Start, Run and type:
CONTROL INETCPL.CPL - Else use Internet Options tab...
In the Temporary Internet Files section, click Settings, click Move Folder button and browse to the target folder , click OK .
Click Yes, when you see the prompt "Windows will log you off to finish moving Temporary Internet Files. Do you want to continue ?"
Windows will now copy all the Cookies, temporary internet files to the destination folder and log you off. Log back in for the changes to take effect. Else use Internet Options tab...

My Documents: Create a new My Documents folder, close ALL documents!! then rclick on My Documents link above My Computer, properties, press Move, browse to the new location, and OK.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_shell_folders.htm

Howzat?
Firefox n Opera are a bit special. Goggle "about:config" for Firefox, "Opera Cache4" for Opera.... you let Opera create the Cache4 folder inside your new Opera folder.

I have given one way of doing it. Some of those you could use Move, if they resist use TweakUI, or my method. Recent may jump back to where it was.. a funny one that.
Move any contents over to the new locations if you do not use Move to move the whole folder.
Say how it goes... I guess you will..:) Now if this works for you, save a hard copy of this note somewhere [a floppy?] cos if you ever do a Repair you will have to reinstate this stuff... and get rid of newly created duplicates.

[gordon451]

Thanks gerbil, but not quite what I was looking for. I'm accustomed to moving data off the C: drive, but I probably didn't do the Subject Header too well in this thread: it's only the user profiles I want to put on D:, everything else has already been done.

I'm going to mark this thread as solved, although it should really be "Too hard basket"!

@everyone else, thanks for your input.

Gordon.

[gerbil]

Gotcha. And that previous post wasn a lot of work, just scraps from something I worked up for another thread, and some bits I noted for myself , so no problem. What happens if you move the user profile folders and then change the paths in this key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ ProfileList
You would need to change ProfilesDirectory and ProfileImagePaths. But there is sure to be a multitude of other references to the original paths... I wouldn't try it. Maybe on a test drive with its own OS.....
So if it all blows up, I was never here.

[jbennet]

its almost certainly an option somewhere in Policy

[gerbil]

Sure to be, jb... and I may read up on it properly one day, but it's not something I want to do because I feel that some parts of a profile in Application Data and Local Settings\Application Data should stay close to the OS. And the templates path is recorded in registry for any application that puts its templates there. It all adds up to too much interference. But I support moving a lot of the folders out of there, especially those that contain very temporary data - they just fragment the OS too much.

[jbennet]

Ive done it before on a server using the domain policy, but i dont know how to do it on a local machine if you know what i mean.