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Many users have C:\ with a small SSD and D:\ with a larger HDD.

Windows puts the user folders on C:\, which means that AppData, Downloads, and Documents for several users rapidly fill up the smaller disk. The whole point of the larger disk is user data.

Plenty of discussions (1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) make it clear that moving user data is difficult or risky, with sysprep, hardlinks, registry edits, and other deep technical work that is not suitable for non-technical users.

Even just moving Documents is blocked because of a link -- I think OneDrive did this -- putting Documents under C:\Users\MyName\OneDrive\Document. (And the user name is hardcoded instead of passed with a variable). And in any case, Documents is not the main culprit -- AppData is.

Is there an easy and safe way to set the user folders in D:\?

If not, it seems that the larger "data disk" with 900 GB is of little value other than perhaps manually moving movies to it.

Joshua Fox
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    These days, as SSD prices have plummeted, it would make more sense to replace the tiny SSD with a 1TB or so & use the HDD as a backup drive only. – Tetsujin Dec 05 '21 at 12:56
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    Larger main disks is the primary answer. I have had a minimum 500GB C: for years and have now moved to 1TB or greater SSD drives for drive C: However you can move Email store (including offline cache) and User documents anywhere you wish. Just leave the USERS main folder on drive C: Moving just documents won't harm this. – John Dec 05 '21 at 13:01
  • Yes its possible see this. – Arsh Coder Dec 05 '21 at 13:18
  • Or see https://superuser.com/questions/478095/what-is-a-safe-way-to-move-appdata-local-to-a-different-drive/478118 or https://superuser.com/questions/1250288/can-i-move-my-appdata-folder-in-windows-10 – Arsh Coder Dec 05 '21 at 13:20
  • Thank you @JFan. However, those 3 links (which I added in the body) seem to reiterate already-mentioned solutions. And simply moving Documents is blocked by some sort of link that OneDrive shoved into the OS. – Joshua Fox Dec 05 '21 at 13:35
  • Okay @JoshuaFox – Arsh Coder Dec 05 '21 at 14:01
  • Disk management with many drives is far easier when constraining size of C: drive. For backup, keep MS data seperate from valuable user data, especially confidential information. Answers like "buy a bigger system drive" don't solve the problem, you everything is in one pot that can be corrupted by a single failure, perhaps malware slipping by. A smaller C: cloned onto a 2nd and syncing the duplicate, makes recovery simple. There's no reason to keep stale data on fast SSD storage. A large HDD cached by SSD is fast and convenient. Organised data can easily be mirrored & backed to cloud. – Rob11311 Mar 26 '23 at 10:16

3 Answers3

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Is there an easy and safe way to set the user folders in D:?

If not, it seems that the 900 GB disk is of little value other than perhaps manually moving movies to it.

Is there an easy way to move USERS? No (95%)

900 GB disk is of little value?

Depends on your point of view. I have explained a little more below.

A C: Drive has to be pretty small for a full Windows system not to fit.

Some economical machines have 128 GB SSD C: drives and a slow HDD for storing data. This was never a good choice.

Numerous commercial machines have 256 GB SSD drives and HDD may be optional.

On my own ThinkPad working machine here:

USERS is 20GB; Program Files and PF (x86) is 23GB; Program Data is 9GB; Windows including WinSXS is 25GB for a total of 77GB.

I have another desktop with lots of photos and USERS is 40Gb - Photos being the difference.

So you can happily run Windows on a 256GB SSD and then (only if necessary) isolate Photos, Videos, and very large files to non-USERS folders and put those on your HDD.

Working as above, there is no need to move USERS to a different drive - this won't readily work anyway (95%).

The best result I have found over the years (<100GB for XP back to DOS) is a 1TB or larger SSD drive for C: . I used 500GB for years and 1TB just makes life easier.

John
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  • Thank you @john. This machine has 100GB on C: and 900 GB on D: . The problem is not system files -- it is AppData, which has a lot of Chrome, Firefox, and Edge caches for ~4 user accounts. Moreover, AppData can grow uncontrollably. Program Files ProgramFiles (x86), Documents and Downloads are also an issue, though these are easier to move with manual effort. – Joshua Fox Dec 05 '21 at 15:54
  • I am puzzled that such machines are often sold. What is the use of the HDD and drive D: given Windows severe limitations (which Linux, for example, does not have)? – Joshua Fox Dec 05 '21 at 15:57
  • I am puzzled that such machines are often sold ... Manufacturers economize on useful gear and gullible people think they are buying a good machine for few dollars. /me sighs! – John Dec 05 '21 at 17:37
  • In this case, it was a top-end desktop from a reputable manufacturer. There is only so far that a reputable company can sell junk and not destroy their reputation. – Joshua Fox Dec 05 '21 at 17:39
  • It varies by manufacturer and good manufacturers are not immune to the practice. I just purchased a commercial Lenovo Desktop with 16GB of memory, all requirements for Windows 11 Pro, puny SSD, and a DVD Writer. I replaced the SSD with a 1TB M.2 NVMe drive and a SATA SSD 2TB drive to make it a really good desktop. It is hard in the current economy to customize machine unless one is happy waiting 4 to 6 months. Businesses often cannot wait and suffer the consequences as a result. – John Dec 05 '21 at 17:47
  • I used 128GB SSD as C: drive for years with few issues, I simply had to move large library folders to the large disk. Similarly removing unwanted crapware, clean installing Windows, and installing large application suites on HDD were all easy. The only things that belonged in C: was system and small or most frequently used applications. It still sucks that MS didn't make splitting users off from C: in a transparent way simple. Only in Win10 were service updates and upgrades supported with something that's always been basic standard in UNIX. – Rob11311 Mar 26 '23 at 10:30
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The short answer is probably no. You already have linked the other possibilities to move some or all the user's Folders to another drive with the registry, hard links, etc...

I tried some simpler things once I had a smaller SSD built into my pc but then I had to account for many problems for example using normal links instead of hard links, changing the environment variable etc...

There are multiple ways a program can use the user folder, so to have no problems further you'll have to for almost all of them or buy yourself a bigger SSD.

CentrixDE
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I just made folders Documents and Downloads on my D drive. Then, when you have saved a .txt or .png, .xlsx, etc. to either folder, the next one will automatically attempt to save to the same location as your last save. I am not taking my brand new laptop apart to replace my SSD with a larger SSD because it is still under warranty and I'm not adding an external drive. I hate having things dangle off the side. This works very well for me. And, of course, you can add subfolders under Documents and Downloads just as you would on the C drive. You can also add videos, pictures, music, or any folder name that you want. My computer Setup

I also have applications/programs install to my D drive. My SSD is only 128 GB because I opted to get a great computer with all of the other features I wanted without spending thousands of dollars. My HDD is 1 TB. So, my laptop is very fast and graphics ready without spending too much. Most SSDs wear out more quickly than HDDs anyway. To buy one that lasts longer, you have to spend a lot. I have it all working the way I like.

DianaM
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