ProfilesDir="D:\Documents and Settings\"

[koden]

Will I get any problem installing programs that use document and settings to locate files, when I have moved to ProfilesDir="D:\Documents and Settings\" ???

Or can it give me other problems???

If i don't have a D drive, will the installation then make one or what will it do??

(i use Repartition=yes and AutoPartition=1)

After installation I will make a ghost of my C drive installation and a backup of my D drive.

When I should make a reinst. will there then be any problem with having document and settings on D drive?

Edited July 10, 2007 by koden

[os2fan2]

When you move the profile directory off the system directory, it will treat it as a roaming profile, and cache it. You might want to move bits of the profile off the home tree (eg temp), or just live with the notion that Windows is pretty much an eighties operating system.

[koden]

Thanks: What you say is... moving document and settings or one of the users in there, will only be a copy on the D drive. The original will still be on the C drive?

But if I instead move some folders from C:\Documents and Settings\"my user" to D:\ then it will be a move and not a copy?

The folders I wuold like to move from my user to D:\ is:

Start Menu

My Documents

Cookies

Favorites

Desktop

application data

send to

local settings

It would have been easier to move my user, but if this is only a copy/duplicate it's not a god idea.

I do this because I then only need to backup my D drive and don't have to remember all the funny places MS have located the files.

[IcemanND]

if you do this during the install you have to partition and format the drive yourself. The XP install will only let you format one partition. So you need to prep the hard drive before running setup and then have the installation leave the drive partitioned.

I have been running my machine this way for more than a year and have had no problems with any applications installing or running with it configured this way.

You are much better off doing this from the install than trying to do it after windows is set up, or at least before you have set up the user account that you want on D:.

[koden]

if you do this during the install you have to partition and format the drive yourself. The XP install will only let you format one partition. So you need to prep the hard drive before running setup and then have the installation leave the drive partitioned.

Do you meen I have to make 2 partiton myself on the "blue screen"? (use Repartition=yes and AutoPartition=1)

I have been running my machine this way for more than a year and have had no problems with any applications installing or running with it configured this way.

This way? Do you meen d:\document and settings or D:\user?

You are much better off doing this from the install than trying to do it after windows is set up, or at least before you have set up the user account that you want on D:.

I surpose that I in the winnt.sif file can set it up to d:\document and settings or D:\user?

[IcemanND]

You can either create and format the partitions before you run the windows installation, using Windows PE, dos etc. Or you can create them during the install manually. But the partition that the Documents and settings folder ends up on MUST be formatted prior to any account being created. I believe it works if you format it during t-39 but I have found it easier to just prep the drive from windows pe before I start the installation.

Yes you can rename the Documents and settings folder to any valid folder name from winnt.sif with Profilesdir.

I have mine d:\documents and settings, but I know people who have renamed it users and profiles. Some stupid programmers have been know to hard code "documents and settings" into their code for some reason but I have not run across this myself.

[koden]

Thanks for helping

I will take a look at it...

In the unattended installation the D drive is formatted before installation of the user.

Is'nt that right when I use use Repartition=no and AutoPartition=0

Edited July 11, 2007 by koden

[IcemanND]

the unattended installation will only format the partition you put the windows directory on. It will not format multiple partitions.

[koden]

Okay...are you sure?

So no way to make a D drive when I run a unattended installation on a empty disk?

But no problem.

I have a formatted C and a D drive now.

Så I just need to run the installation, and format the C drive.

D is formatted and is empty...

I will do it tomorrow...

Thanks

[koden]

I have found something about it here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=55052

But i don't understand what to do.

Does the D drive have to be formatted or just an unformatted D partition?

Maybe someone could check my attached winnt.sif file???

WINNT.SIF

Edited July 24, 2007 by koden

[IcemanND]

the D: partition has to be formatted before any account profiles are created.

[koden]

Year... I can see your wrote it earlier.. sorry..

So there is no way to make a fulle unattended installation, that create a C drive and another drive, and then install somme of the installation on the other drive?

[os2fan2]

I was planning to do this kind of setup:

1. Windows on H:\WINNT (a 4g drive)

2. Data on N:\NTUSER50\ (a 73 g drive)

What happened is that while this worked, it also created a user on H:\Documents and Settings and ran things from there.

More over, adding drives, and resizing N: in something like PQMAGIC under a different boot, created lots of different locations for N:\NTUSER50 etc, which is hard to handle.

Also, some settings (like setting folder icon settings) did not save, so i had to replicate this elsewhere.

In practice, there are not many folders in the user profile to move out. It is therefore better to shift random files out to different drives. You should use some common sense here.

TEMP is always good to move to a drive with a lot of space. This is true if you multi-boot as well, because the free space is effectively shared.

If you are heavy into photos or music or movies, you might consider making a junction or 'link' to a folder in a different drive. Do this, and you won't have to reset the path on every save. You could fiddle the settings in registry or in tweakui to point the required files to the new locations.

If you plan to embed this into a setup, it is also handy to have a batch file (and utilities) to run if things go amuck later on (or you really don't like the setup!).

[John L. Galt]

This is deplorable. With nLite on XP, I was able to redirect my %Programs% and %Documents% to a different partition / drive (I did partition when I built it, but later realized the value of doing it on different drives, keeping my fastest drive open for multiple OSs) without a hitch.

Now, seeing that Vista does not like moving the tree, even *pre-install*, really chaps me - superficially, it seems just plain stupid that this cannot be easily accomplished....

However, I am sure that there is *some* reason behind it - I would love to find the documentation on it to figure out *why* certain items can be moved and certain items should be left alone....and to see if there is ever going to be some sort of working solution (even if it has to be done *post-install*).

Edited July 25, 2007 by John L. Galt

[larasa]

Koden, Did you manage to relocate your C:\Documents and Settings folder to D:\Documents and Settings ?

Is the fix ( ProfilesDir= ) also possible for C:\Program Files to D:\Program Files? Thanks

Edited September 10, 2007 by larasa