Vista Hands On #7: Move user data to another drive
Summary: One of the smartest things you can do with a new installation of Windows Vista is to relocate user data folders to a different drive than the one that contains the Windows and Program Files folders. The advantage? By separating system files from data, you make it easy to back up and restore each. Here's how.
Windows Vista introduces a fundamental change in the way user data is stored. The XP-style Documents And Settings folder is gone, replaced by the Users folder, which is located in the root of the system drive. Each user account has its own profile folder here, which contains 11 folders, each devoted to a different type of data.
One of the smartest things you can do with these folders is to relocate them to a different drive than the one that contains Windows and your Program Files folder. The advantage? By separating system files from data, you make it easy to back up and restore each. Create an image-based backup of the system drive (using the built-in Complete PC Backup tool in Vista Business or Ultimate editions or a third-party product like Acronis True Image) and back up data files using whatever method works best for you. If something happens to your system drive, you can restore the image, and your data files remain unaffected.
Although you can partition a single drive into multiple volumes, I recommend using two separate physical drives for maximum data security; in a two-drive configuration a hardware failure doesn’t wipe out everything.
Moving your user data folders is ridiculously easy. The instructions below assume you have added a second drive using the letter E:.
- Click Start, Computer, and double-click the icon for your data drive (E:, in this example).
- On the Windows Explorer toolbar, click Organize and choose New Folder from the menu.
- Type a name for the folder in which you want to store all your document folders. For convenience, I use my user name, but you can choose any legal folder name. Double-click this folder to open it in the current window.
- Click Start and then click your user name (at the top of the right column on the Start menu). This opens a second Explorer window containing your data folders.
- Press Ctrl+A to select all folders. Point to any selected folder, hold down the right mouse button, and drag to the folder you created in Step 3.
- Release the mouse button. Windows displays a shortcut menu asking whether you want to move or copy the selected items. Choose Move Here.
That’s it. You can verify that the data folders have been moved by returning to the user profile folder, opening the Properties dialog box for any subfolder, and looking at the Location tab.
If you want to leave some user data on the system drive and only move specific folders (Music or Videos, let’s say), you can do so by modifying the procedure in Step 5. Instead of selecting all folders, right-click and drag one folder at a time into the new location.
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Talkback
Finally!!!
XP Data
Steps for XP
move data folder
You can still use that technique
Such Good Stuff!!
You are really hitting the nail on the head in this blog!! Just the kind of stuff an everyday, heavy user needs to know while updating or getting and bringing up a new Vista system. I just ordered your book and have put this blog on my RSS feeds list. As long as Vista is here, I'll be reading and using your practical, to the point "Hands On" information and techniques.
but why only 11 types of data
No more "My"
Glad to be able to clear that up.
Running behind again
I'm sure the Linux distros (and MacMuffins for that matter) being so "progressive" and forward thinking already included those by default, no?
Oh wait, has any Warez actually been written for the Mac yet? Uh, scratch the latter ... what was I thinking?
Just like we've being doing it with Linux for years ...
It's been available in Windows for years too.
available
Of course *nix has had it for decades since they were designed as multi-user multi-tasking networked systems from the start.
It took windows so long to finally do the obvious because it came from DOS, the single-user single-tasking no networking no vision OS.
Learn Windows? Small learning curve since there's not much to the OS. I've used all versions of Windows and there's not much there to like.
The past few years it's been nice to get back to real OS's with the *nixes, finally get some real work done.
What's really said in all this is how MS and Windows has set the computing world back a couple of decades in progress.
#8 Install NEW OS over Vista
What's the compelling reason to invest so much in moving over to Vista? I do like the better looks but that's not enough.
-m
Good grief.
This is really sad.
Thanks grandpa
So now you can do it without the extra configuring. You don't see an improvement there?
As for a well measured dose of atavism, who say you can't learn (or borrow) something from Grandpa that maybe your Pop never dished your way. ;)
Grandpa? LOL
It must be my advanced age, but I've always thought that changing things from the default was known as configuring. What's it called in these modern times?
Thanks grandpa x2
Now if this wasn't the case, it would make us BOTH grandpas as I've been hammering on these platforms since the NT4/W95 days too (my how fast 10 years can come and go indeed). As it is, I have nothing but respect for my elders (and the elderly in general), more so now that I have a few years under my own belt. You come to appreciate as time snakes along the things those who came before us spoke (and warned) of, from their more experienced and battle worn eyes.
[i]It must be my advanced age, but I've always thought that changing things from the default was known as configuring. What's it called in these modern times?[/i]
Well if you're referring to the new user-data consolidation found in Vista, I'd say 'leaving well enough alone'. As for moving the data elsewhere to keep it safe by the simple method outlined, I'd say 'old world, meet new'. What goes around eventually comes around! ;)
Oh Good Grief! This Is An OS Improvement?
Stupid, meaningless info like this that implies a non-existant improvement just is misguided reporting.
Oh. And how do you move your My Documents folder in XP:
Click Start, and then point to My Documents. Or right-click on the My Documents icon on your desktop.
Right-click My Documents, and then click Properties. Click the Target tab. In the Target box, do one of the following:
Type the path to the folder location that you want, and then click OK . For example, D:\My Stuff . If the folder does not exist, the Create Message dialog box is displayed. Click Yes to create the folder, and then click OK.
Where did I say that?
I said it's a fundamental change. It is. There are 11 discrete user data folders in the user profile and they're organized differently than in XP. I've published the same instructions you listed for XP, but this technique is new.
In fact, many people will take 20 minutes in Vista to do things the way you suggest. if they follow my recommendation, they can get the job done in 2 minutes or less. (If you want to stick with XP, that's fine. But get the Tweak UI powertoy to do this job much more effectively than the manual steps you list.)
And I certainly never said this is "the best Vista improvement I can find." It's one in a series of 30 posts that each contain productivity-enhancing tools. This is one of them.
It's all about contradictions, Ed