Re: Moving all user files to separate partition under windows

> I do have a concern about mounting a partition at c:\users if only for
> the oddball case where the real "c:" drive is a solid state drive, and
> the other partition is from a traditional HDD. Given that Windows 7 is
> supposed to treat SSDs differently, is it clever enough to discover
> that the "users" directory is not actually hosted on the SSD?

I've got nothing to contribute on the moving user's file front, but I
can answer this question. The "different behavior" for SSDs mostly
revolves around NOT doing automatic defrags or moving files on a
volume found on an SSD.

Since the moving of stuff is either happening by changing the registry
(no magic, just changing what the %USERPROFILE% environment is set to
which drive
it should create on) or by hard-links [better technique] (which merely
acts as a reparse-point in the filesystem) in EITHER case you're going
to end up with the files physically being stored to an NTFS filesystem
on a a known partition.  Thus, when NTFS writes the files, it knows
the properties of the underlying drive just like normal. So, final
verdict... if Win7 knows how to handle an SSD drive specially, it will
handle the volume you end up writing to the same way.

Now, having never moved the directory... what I've decided I _would
do_ is to use the:

1) Boot in Repair mode
2) Robocopy with all ACLs the entire C:\Users directory to a new
D:\Users directory (where D: is the desired home drive)
3) Rename the C:\Users to C:\KillUsers [for backup protection until proven fine]
4) MKLINK C:\Users D:\Users /J
5) Reboot to normal.
6) After confirming that everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) works
including a new WHS backup and an application of some Windows Update
then RD the C:\KillUsers directory.

Doing this procedure will make it still appear to Win7 (or vista) that
everything is normal and C:\Users is the (as usual) home for all user
profiles including those shiny All Users and Default sub-folders.
However, anyone actually accessing that directory will be redirected
silently by NTFS over to the D:\Users directory via the
directory-hard-link (aka Junction).

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

-- 
Marc C. Brooks
http://musingmarc.blogspot.com

NOT sent from an iPhone