Has anyone had success in using directory junctions to move the Users and ProgramData folders to another drive in Windows 8? I used this technique successfully on 2 Windows 7 systems and 1 Vista system when I upgraded them with SSD's. (Put Windows and Program Files on SSD, user data on HD). It doesn't seem to work in Windows 8 anymore.
I installed Windows 8 on the empty SSD. I then copied Users and ProgramData to the HD using a combination of Robocopy and Xcopy to copy those folders and then manually rebuilt all the internal symlinks (about 36 I think) at the new location (checked and double checked for accuracy). Copying skipped about 7 files in ProgramData, but I couldn't determine which ones they were or why it skipped them. There were no access denied errors and I tried Robocopy and Xcopy with all the relevant options trying to get around the problem (copy NTFS data, backup mode, raw mode, etc.) (I don't really think this was the source of the problem but I thought I should mention it.)
Anyway, Windows booted and everything seemed fine. Windows and Modern programs ran fine as well. So I installed a few programs. No problems. Eventually I tried to add Windows Media Center through Control Panel. It failed to install over and over even after reboots. So eventually I gave up on WMC. I figured it MAY have been due to moving the user data folders, but I wasn't sure.
Anyway, after a while I ended up doing a Windows Update, two updates installed fine but one critical update failed to install. After that, almost all the icons in the start menu and the "all apps" page were gone, including the default Windows accessories and even the desktop icon. Both Start Menu folders for his user and for all users were wiped. I was pretty sure by now it was the fault of the junction, so I went back and removed it and put back the default Users and ProgramData folders Win8 created which I kept in a subfolder on C. Sure enough, I had zero problems after that. Updates installed, Media Center installed, all start menu items were fine.
I really liked using junctions, so I'm not to happy about this. I was able to use the manual way to redirect his user folders by right clicking on the user folder, properties, location tab, and choosing the folder on drive D. But this technique only works for the basic user data folders, not AppData or ProgramData or any of the hidden folders in the Users tree. This wouldn't be so bad but some programs are hogs like Adobe Premiere which makes a 30GB cache file in AppData. That's going to be a serious problem for him on a 120 GB SSD because he had a ton of programs installed before the format and will likely be reinstalling them. That's going to mean having to offload some of the bigger programs like his 3D modeling stuff to D using junctions (already did that for the games), etc. which partially defeats the purpose of an SSD. Plus I really hate the idea of all the temp files and such putting constant wear on the SSD.
Like I said, I've done this on 3 other PC's with no issues. They've been running like this for 2+ months and have survived many Windows Updates.
I installed Windows 8 on the empty SSD. I then copied Users and ProgramData to the HD using a combination of Robocopy and Xcopy to copy those folders and then manually rebuilt all the internal symlinks (about 36 I think) at the new location (checked and double checked for accuracy). Copying skipped about 7 files in ProgramData, but I couldn't determine which ones they were or why it skipped them. There were no access denied errors and I tried Robocopy and Xcopy with all the relevant options trying to get around the problem (copy NTFS data, backup mode, raw mode, etc.) (I don't really think this was the source of the problem but I thought I should mention it.)
Anyway, Windows booted and everything seemed fine. Windows and Modern programs ran fine as well. So I installed a few programs. No problems. Eventually I tried to add Windows Media Center through Control Panel. It failed to install over and over even after reboots. So eventually I gave up on WMC. I figured it MAY have been due to moving the user data folders, but I wasn't sure.
Anyway, after a while I ended up doing a Windows Update, two updates installed fine but one critical update failed to install. After that, almost all the icons in the start menu and the "all apps" page were gone, including the default Windows accessories and even the desktop icon. Both Start Menu folders for his user and for all users were wiped. I was pretty sure by now it was the fault of the junction, so I went back and removed it and put back the default Users and ProgramData folders Win8 created which I kept in a subfolder on C. Sure enough, I had zero problems after that. Updates installed, Media Center installed, all start menu items were fine.
I really liked using junctions, so I'm not to happy about this. I was able to use the manual way to redirect his user folders by right clicking on the user folder, properties, location tab, and choosing the folder on drive D. But this technique only works for the basic user data folders, not AppData or ProgramData or any of the hidden folders in the Users tree. This wouldn't be so bad but some programs are hogs like Adobe Premiere which makes a 30GB cache file in AppData. That's going to be a serious problem for him on a 120 GB SSD because he had a ton of programs installed before the format and will likely be reinstalling them. That's going to mean having to offload some of the bigger programs like his 3D modeling stuff to D using junctions (already did that for the games), etc. which partially defeats the purpose of an SSD. Plus I really hate the idea of all the temp files and such putting constant wear on the SSD.
Like I said, I've done this on 3 other PC's with no issues. They've been running like this for 2+ months and have survived many Windows Updates.
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