Hi David,

Here you go.

Vista Hands On #7: Move user data to another drive

If you prefer the manual approach, keep reading.

Windows Vista makes a few fundamental changes in the default folders used to 
store

personal data. For starters, the Documents and Settings folder is gone, replaced

by the Users folder, which is located in the root of the system drive (usually 
C:).

Each user account has its own profile folder here, which contains 11 folders, 
each

devoted to a different type of data.

If you have multiple hard drives (or multiple partitions on a single hard drive)

you can relocate any of these user folders. The advantage? By separating system 
files

from data, you make it easy to back up and restore each. At least once a month, 
you

can use the backup program in Windows Vista Ultimate Edition to create an 
image-based

backup on DVD or an external hard disk. If something happens to your system 
drive,

you can restore the image, and your data files remain unaffected.

In my experience, the Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos folders are most 
likely

to contain large amounts of data and will benefit most from relocation. In this 
case,

I assume you have a separate empty drive or partition that uses the letter E:. 
If

your system is configured differently, you'll need to adjust the instructions 
accordingly.

Here's how to relocate the Documents folder:

1. Open Windows Explorer, navigate to the empty drive that you want to use to 
store

data, and create new folders for each of the existing folders you want to move. 
If

you're the only user on your computer, you can put them in the root of the 
drive:

E:\Documents, E:\Music, and so on. If you're planning to use the drive to store 
data

for two or more users, you should create a separate top-level folder for each 
user

and then create subfolders for each type of data: E:\Ed\Documents, etc.

2. Click Start and click the bold user name at the top of the right column in 
the Start

menu. This opens your profile folder.

3. Right-click the icon for the Documents folder and choose Properties.

Move_docs_folder_1

4. On the Location tab, click the Move button.

5. In the Select a Destination dialog box, double-click Computer, double-click 
the icon

for your data drive (E: in this example), and select the folder you want to use 
as

the new location. Don't double-click this folder, just click to select it.

6. Click Select Folder to return to the Location tab, and then click OK. You 
will see

two dialog boxes:

Do you still want to proceed and redirect to

<new folder location>

? Click Yes.

Would you like to move all of the files in your old location to the new 
location.?

Click Yes. (If you click No, the original folder remains intact and you risk 
having

documents split between the two locations.)

That's it. You can now repeat the process for Music, Pictures, Videos, and any 
other

data folders you want to use. When you click the Documents shortcut on the Start

menu, it takes you to the new location, which appears to be in the same old 
location.

In the Vista namespace, your profile folder always appears under the Desktop, 
and

each link in that folder points to the location you specify. So you can leave 
some

folders (especially those you rarely use) in the original location and just move

those that are chock full of data.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David 
  To: WE English mailing list 
  Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2009 3:54 AM
  Subject: How to move MY DOCUMENTS Folder?


  I have partitioned my drive, and had plans to make it the way, that one 
partition would hold all my software etc, while as another partition, will be 
my work space, among others, holding the 'my documents' folder. Simply 
Cut/Pasting the folder to the new drive won't do. Windows has quite a few 
programs, that refers to this folder (and a bunch others). What I wondered, is 
if there is anywhere in Windows to change a setting, that will let it refer all 
the documents to another drive? Anyone who has a direction? Thanks alot!

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