Moving Documents and Settings Folder

[buhlig]

This is about as late of a post as you can get from the original post.. but here it goes...

I must remind you that moving a production server with users accounts on it will be a pain in the arce.. its best to do this before you add users, or invest in advil....

This has been working for me 98% of the time so I thought I would share it...

Steps:

Log in as administrator

Create a backup copy of your registry

create a user with admin privilages (just call it temp and add him to the administrators group)

Log out

Log back in as temp

Create d:\Documents and settings\

run the big registry key from below

Run regedit

search for "%systemdrive%\doc" and change %systemdrive% to d:\ (should be 3 changes on a clean system with temp account created)

Go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CONTROLSET001\CONTROL\HIVELIST\
you will see 2 SIDs at the bottom of that key similar to the following...

\\REGISTRY\\USER\\S-1-5-21-602162358-616249376-839522115-1001"="\\Device\\HarddiskVolume3\\Documents and Settings\\temp\\NTUSER.DAT"

"\\REGISTRY\\USER\\S-1-5-21-602162358-616249376-839522115-1001_Classes"="\\Device\\HarddiskVolume3\\Document s and Settings\\temp\\Local Settings\\Application Data\\Microsoft\\Windows\\UsrClass.dat"

you will want to increment the HarddiskVolume to the correct location.. for example if you currently have volume2 for the c: drive, change that to volume 3 for the d: drive for each of those keys. This will also change the harddiskVolume for the other keys in the registry that work with the documents and settings folder.



Copy the folders (except the temp user folder and all users folder) from c:\documents and settings\ to inside d:\Documents and settings\

Log out of the temp account and back in as administrator

try to copy the all users folder over to the d: drive and rename the c:\documents and settings folder to another name. if succesfull you are done if you cannot rename it, you will need to complete this by doing the steps in this next section.

the only issue that i have come across is some times in server builds the following...

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"Common Start Menu"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu"
"Common Desktop"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Desktop"
"Common AppData"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data"
"Common Programs"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs"
"Common Documents"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Documents"
"Common Administrative Tools"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Administrative Tools"
"Common Startup"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup"
"Common Templates"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Templates"

some times doesnt apply the changes to the registry when I log back in the work around I came up with that works is reboot in safe mode and make the changes to those keys and then rename the docs and settings folder on the c:\ drive. the next time you reboot you can delete that folder then.


This was made for Windows server 2000 and assuming that you will be moving the folders to the d: drive, but should be a good starting point for all other MS OS versions..


-------------Copy Here--------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment]
"APPDATA"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Application Data"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fax]
"ArchiveDirectory"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Documents\\My Faxes\\Sent Faxes"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fax\Setup\Or iginal Setup Data]
"Store Directory"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Documents\\My Faxes\\Received Faxes"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths]
"Directory"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files\\Content.IE5"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\path1]
"CachePath"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files\\Content.IE5\\Cache1"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\path2]
"CachePath"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files\\Content.IE5\\Cache2"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\path3]
"CachePath"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files\\Content.IE5\\Cache3"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\path4]
"CachePath"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files\\Content.IE5\\Cache4"
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Co ntentIndex\Catalogs\System\Scopes]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Co ntentIndex\Catalogs\System\Scopes]
"D:\\"=",,5"
"D:\\Documents and Settings"=",,5"
"D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Application Data\\*"=",,4"
"D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\*"=",,4"
"D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files\\*"=",,4"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"Common Start Menu"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu"
"Common Desktop"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Desktop"
"Common AppData"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data"
"Common Programs"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs"
"Common Documents"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Documents"
"Common Administrative Tools"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Administrative Tools"
"Common Startup"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup"
"Common Templates"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Templates"
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Co ntentIndex\Catalogs\System\Scopes]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Co ntentIndex\Catalogs\System\Scopes]
"D:\\"=",,5"
"d:\\Documents and Settings"=",,5"
"d:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Application Data\\*"=",,4"
"D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\*"=",,4"
"D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files\\*"=",,4"
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"AppData"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Application Data"
"Cookies"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Cookies"
"Desktop"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Desktop"
"Favorites"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Favorites"
"NetHood"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\NetHood"
"Personal"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\My Documents"
"My Pictures"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\My Documents\\My Pictures"
"PrintHood"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\PrintHood"
"Recent"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Recent"
"SendTo"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\SendTo"
"Start Menu"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Start Menu"
"Templates"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Templates"
"Programs"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Start Menu\\Programs"
"Startup"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup"
"Local Settings"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings"
"Local AppData"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\Application Data"
"Cache"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files"
"History"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Default User\\Local Settings\\History"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\S etup\CreatedLinks]
"Shortcut0"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Accessories\\Entertainment\\Window s Media Player.lnk"
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer \Setup\CreatedLinks]
"Shortcut0"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Accessories\\Entertainment\\Window s Media Player.lnk"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList]
"ProfilesDirectory"=hex(2):44,00,3a,00,5c,00,44,00 ,6f,00,63,00,75,00,6d,00,65,\
00,6e,00,74,00,73,00,20,00,61,00,6e,00,64,00,20,00 ,53,00,65,00,74,00,74,00,\
69,00,6e,00,67,00,73,00,00,00
"DefaultUserProfile"="Default User"
"AllUsersProfile"="All Users"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]
"AppData"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Application Data"
"Cookies"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Cookies"
"Desktop"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Desktop"
"Favorites"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Favorites"
"NetHood"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\NetHood"
"Personal"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\My Documents"
"My Pictures"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\My Documents\\My Pictures"
"PrintHood"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\PrintHood"
"Recent"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Recent"
"SendTo"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\SendTo"
"Start Menu"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Start Menu"
"Templates"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Templates"
"Programs"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Start Menu\\Programs"
"Startup"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup"
"Local Settings"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Local Settings"
"Local AppData"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Local Settings\\Application Data"
"Cache"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Local Settings\\Temporary Internet Files"
"History"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Local Settings\\History"
"Administrative Tools"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Administrative Tools"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fax\Setup\Or iginal Setup Data]
"Store Directory"="D:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Documents\\My Faxes\\Received Faxes"


----------------------End Copy-----------------------

Just save it as a .reg file and import it once you have verified the contents to be safe for your environment.

Please let me know if this is helpful

Thanks,

Ben U. MCSE, CCA, CPM, CNS
Network Architect / Sr. Systems Engineer
Velocity Partners
Brookfield, WI
nospam:buhlig@velocitypartnersinc.com


(just to cma if something is mistyped)
this document is intended as information only, I take no responcibility for any modifications made to the system registry. Please verify the code above before using this on a production system.

[satyr]

Originally Posted by TMAN777

I have seen a couple of postings about trying to do this but so far I haven't seen the answer. I want to move my Documents and Settings folder off of the system partition.

Using Regedit: I'm able to change the paths for all the folders in Documents and Settings so that windows looks to the data partition but I cannot redirect the path for NTUSER and ntuser.dat. I think that's all I have left to do to finish this. Does anybody know if it is possible to do that? If so how?

Well, I was thinking about quite similar thing.


Beause I use command line programs a lot (and also for other, more "personal" reasons), I wanted to change the root "OS required" folders names to short file names (i.e. Documents and Settings and Program Files, hehe, at least I already did it for Recycled Bin folder with simple registry modification ...), though not "short file names" in meaning with tilde "~" as used in DOS, but just being eight or less characters long, so to prevent renaming them (by some file managers that works in 16-bit environment, on my machine "pure" MS-DOS in particular, like DosNavigator, Norton Commander, Fwin32, etc.), like happened once with my techno mp3 collection, hairsplittingly sorted by albums and labels, and to use other 32-bit commandline applications without need for quoting the path.

I was of course thinking about changing environment variable, and all possible related paths in registry, that I could find with Ctrl+F in Regedit. Again, quite similar idea to yours, TMAN777 ...




Though, I think only renaming those crucial folders, rather then deleting or moving them (as you want to), is possible in the end, or at least much easier to actually doing it, and with less chance to screw something, when trying various system hacks.




Cheers

[satyr]

Originally Posted by satyr

Well, I was thinking about quite similar thing.

Wow !! It is quite more complicated than I thought.

First I made a banal mistake, and I only replaced those "system folder" settings with Microsoft's TweakUI utility, changed installed software's paths in registry,.and finally moved (and not just copied, how dumb) Documents and Settings folder, but of course that wasn't enough.

Note: I moved it from other OS, you cannot move it from Windows XP, and I think this is because of some "internal Windows protections", cause if you try to delete one of this folders, you get some popup-prompt message (with Cancel and OK), saying that they are required for Windows to run, and you cannot delete them, and note, this is not normal WFP (Windows File Protection) message, with red-cross sign on popup window, it is different. I suppose, it is because these files: Ntuser.dat.log, Default.log, Security.log, Software.log, System.log, AppEvent.evt, SysEvent.evt, and SecEvent.evt (they play various crucial rolls)


After reboot, I was logged with default profile, and that was very very anoying. Then I remebered Environmental Variables. In User Variables, I changed TMP, TEMP, and added USERPROFILE and APPDATA, all pointing to respective (new) folders, all nicely structured like before reboot (just copied, so all settings should remain the same).

I additionally added also ALLUSERSPROFILE under System Variables, pointing to (new) All Users folder. And all this actually worked, but only for one boot (after lots of trying). But then after one more boot, I was again loaded with default profile because before boot, I actually deleted All Users folder (on previous boot it was set on different path, but not deleted) And it looked like on boots system switches back on default settings.
I suspect that beause all that modifications changes only "My Profile" and "All Users" folder, but default settings for Default and Guest user, and for Local Service and NetworkService remains the same, and Windows requires them as on Windows installation.



But I sucessfully managed to replace Program Files with only 8< name "Programs" on my Windows XP, with only one problem, that Outlook could not be started, if you for example change also Common Files to CommonFiles with TweakUI. Most of other apps works OK (with all registry corrections o course), but Outlook just couldn't read account's settings and stored mails. I monitored a bit with Regmon and Filemon from www.sysinternals.com, and found those entries deleted.



My friend also link me to this page. It might kelp you too. It is a bug in shell32.dll preventing to change APPDATA variable. There is one way around, but I give up trying:

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBM/tip6300/rh6300.htm




P.S. All this applies only to Windows XP, on Windows 98, I managed to do all this with TweakUI without any problem. Well, few pograms unregistered themselfs, and one installation was destroyed, but it doesn't matter.

[gugliasky]

Originally Posted by buhlig

This is about as late of a post as you can get from the original post.. but here it goes...

I must remind you that moving a production server with users accounts on it will be a pain in the arce.. its best to do this before you add users, or invest in advil....

This has been working for me 98% of the time so I thought I would share it...

Steps:

Log in as administrator

Create a backup copy of your registry

create a user with admin privilages (just call it temp and add him to the administrators group)

Log out

Log back in as temp

............................................


Just save it as a .reg file and import it once you have verified the contents to be safe for your environment.

Please let me know if this is helpful

Thanks,

Ben U. MCSE, CCA, CPM, CNS
Network Architect / Sr. Systems Engineer
Velocity Partners
Brookfield, WI
nospam:buhlig@velocitypartnersinc.com


(just to cma if something is mistyped)
this document is intended as information only, I take no responcibility for any modifications made to the system registry. Please verify the code above before using this on a production system.

This is a very good trick, and I've used it too.

Just for add some useful things, if you want to change the various "Common" folders too, go to the registry location "Machine\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentverision\profile list", (where also the folders name "All Users" and "Default Users" are stored) and change the key ProfilesDirectory to the path of the folder you have moved the Documents and Setting folder to. You should have done this by following the steps in Buhlig's post, but when you copy the Documents and Settings subfolder, you must also move all the hidden subfolders, that comprise All Users and Default User. Further, also in use files (like the registry hives) must be copied. I've done so from another Windows partition, but peraphs it is possible simply issueing a "copy" or "xcopy" command from the command prompt.
Restart after these steps and the other registry keys, included those in the hivelist section, will automatically change accordignly.

But if you are installing a completely fresh operating systems, you can write a text document file called, for example, UNATTEND.TXT, with the following lines:

[Unattended]
ProgramFilesDir="E:\Program Files\" ;Program Files
CommonProgramFilesDir="E:\Program Files\Common\"

[GuiUnattended]
ProfilesDir="E:\Documents and Settings\";Documents and Settings

(You can omit the Unattended section if you don't want to change the Program's dir, and, of course, you can set the unit letter to whatever you want)

Then you have to install Windows NOT booting from the CD, instead booting from a dos disk and run

X:\i386\winnt /u:[UNATTEND.TXT path] /s:X:\i386

where X: is the drive letter for your CD-ROM or a location where you have copied all CD files, and the /u: parameter points to the location where you have saved UNATTEND.TXT
This kind of installation is much slower, but leads the proper registry entries to be set BEFORE instaaling XP, so even all subsequent programs or settings installed in "Programs" folder or in the "Documents and Settings" subfolder are installed correctly with the correct keys, so that there is no need to change any registry key.

Notice1: this method should work on all NT-like windows version, but I've tested it only on Windows XP.
Notice2: in Windows XP this kind of installation procedure is MUCH SLOWER than the standard one.

[satyr]

Originally Posted by gugliasky

But if you are installing a completely fresh operating systems, you can write a text document file called, for example, UNATTEND.TXT, with the following lines:

[Unattended]
ProgramFilesDir="E:\Program Files\" ;Program Files
CommonProgramFilesDir="E:\Program Files\Common\"

[GuiUnattended]
ProfilesDir="E:\Documents and Settings\";Documents and Settings

Exactly gugliasky, I also got used to do this on/during an installation. If anyone is interested, here below is the content of my Winnt.sif file (UNATTEND.TXT is just another option or reverse); as you can see, I want to aviod spaces and more than 8-chars long file-names:

[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendSwitch=Yes
ProgramFilesDir="D:\Programs"
CommonProgramFilesDir="D:\Programs\Shared"

[GuiUnattended]
ProfilesDir="D:\Settings"

P.S., And here is a link to the default Winnt.sif file with all the entries used (note the ".default" extension), which I uploaded to my FTP server for this occasion: http://users.volja.net/tayiper/Winnt.default


cheers, satyr

[DeSotoISP]

Maybe this will help, I'm researching on moving folders from one xp to another xp.

Later