Can I move my whole users folder from my C drive to D drive?

[jonbruh15]

I was wondering if I can move my whole user folder from C:\Users to my D:\ drive. Is there a way to do this, and after I do it would I need to go into every program I have and change the save location, or would the AppData all move with it?

 

[USAFRet]

NO. Do not do this. Multiple things will break. If not today, down the road.

Question: In simple terms, why are you looking at doing this?

 

[jojesa]

It is not recommended to move the entire Users folder to another location. If you move the entire folder you will get Windows errors and some programs will not behave properly.
What you could do is move folders located inside your user folder like Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.
Right click the folder you want to move, select Properties, select the Location tab and click the Move button.
Browse to the location you want to move the folder, select the folder and click the Select Folder button. I suggest you create folders in advance on the location you want to move the folders. Create a folder for each folder you would like to move.

If you follow these steps you won't have any errors since Windows will take care of directing all apps to the new location.

 

[jonbruh15]

NO. Do not do this. Multiple things will break. If not today, down the road.

Question: In simple terms, why are you looking at doing this?

I have my C drive which is an SSD and I only want it to have the operating system on it. I download everything onto my D drive which is my hard drive, but somethings automatically download to my C drive. Another thing I noticed is that when I have programs saved on my D drive, some files get moved onto my C drive, making the program not function right because it is searching for the file in the wrong place. Also, I am not sure if it matters, but since my AppData folder is on my C drive, will it mess with the program? I'm not 100% sure what Local, Roaming and LocalLow is, but I know some information is saved there. The program I have the most trouble with is Adobe Creative Cloud desktop app. It downloads and then doesn't open because the path is missing. This is when I realized something is messing up somewhere. I'm sorry for this being so long, but thanks for your help so far.

 

[USAFRet]

You can't have that SSD be "only the operating system".
Why?
Because there is no such thing as "only the operating system".

Once you start installing and using applications, multiple things happen.
Registry, AppData, /Users/, /system32/, Program Files/..... All of that works together with your Windows OS.

And Windows expects/requires some things to be on the same drive, in the same location. /Users/, for instance.

You can install applications on whichever drive you choose. You have to do this during the install, not 'after'.
But some bits and pieces WILL end up on the C drive. No way around that.
You can have all of the files created by those applications go to whatever drive you choose. That's easy.

The question I have is...why are you looking to do this?
I have a couple of assumptions, but I don't want to guess wrong.

So...why?

 

[ubuysa]

YES YOU CAN....

...but you can't simply move the whole folder. As jojesa says, you have to move each folder (Documents, Pictures, etc.) separately using the Properties > Location tab.

 

[jonbruh15]

You can't have that SSD be "only the operating system".
Why?
Because there is no such thing as "only the operating system".

Once you start installing and using applications, multiple things happen.
Registry, AppData, /Users/, /system32/, Program Files/..... All of that works together with your Windows OS.

And Windows expects/requires some things to be on the same drive, in the same location. /Users/, for instance.

You can install applications on whichever drive you choose. You have to do this during the install, not 'after'.
But some bits and pieces WILL end up on the C drive. No way around that.
You can have all of the files created by those applications go to whatever drive you choose. That's easy.

The question I have is...why are you looking to do this?
I have a couple of assumptions, but I don't want to guess wrong.

So...why?

One reason would be space. I currently have a 120gb SSD which has about 12gb left on it. I did not install much on that except what was already on it, and a few apps like iTunes. I already moved my Desktop location to my hard drive and will do that to the other recommended changes as well. I know it's not recommended but I messed with the registry and changed the locations of my program files. If you think I do not need to change anything then I guess I won't. A possibility for me would just to buy a larger SSD. But I thought changing the location of the users folder would fix my space problem since it's a big folder. But after reading what you had to say I see that I shouldn't.

 

[jojesa]

Windows 10 just dropped the April 1803 update on a laptop with a 128GB SSD and the computer ran out space during the update and just froze and got stuck on a boot loop. The only way to get it to boot again, enter repair from a bootable USB drive and delete data using the Command Prompt.
Besides the update 4.5GB update, Windows 10 created a copy of files and programs for a total of 27GB.
For that reason a 256GB SSD is the smallest drive size I would recommend for Windows 10 OS and right now you could get one for less than $50.
So make sure to leave enough space in case of for a major update is installed.

 

[USAFRet]

One reason would be space. I currently have a 120gb SSD which has about 12gb left on it. I did not install much on that except what was already on it, and a few apps like iTunes. I already moved my Desktop location to my hard drive and will do that to the other recommended changes as well. I know it's not recommended but I messed with the registry and changed the locations of my program files. If you think I do not need to change anything then I guess I won't. A possibility for me would just to buy a larger SSD. But I thought changing the location of the users folder would fix my space problem since it's a big folder. But after reading what you had to say I see that I shouldn't.

Right.
Space is a typical issue with the 120GB SSD's.

You can redirect all your Libraries (Doc/Music/Video/Downloads) to other drives.
Win 7 & 8: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html
Win 8.1 & 10: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2024314/windows-redirecting-folders-drives.html

That's no problem. The whole /Users/ folder WILL be problematic.

Changing the default Program location in the Registry? Another bad move, and completely not needed.
I expect things to break on you during the next semi-annual update.

During an application install, you can tell it what drive or folder to install it to. That's no problem.
Moving the whole Program files thing to elsewhere? Problem.

In reality, though, applications don't take up that much space.
Games do, but again, that is easy to manage.

Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

To move an already installed game
Games library
Right click the game
Properties
Local Files
Move Install Folder

 

[jonbruh15]

Windows 10 just dropped the April 1803 update on a laptop with a 128GB SSD and the computer ran out space during the update and just froze and got stuck on a boot loop. The only way to get it to boot again, enter repair from a bootable USB drive and delete data using the Command Prompt.
Besides the update 4.5GB update, Windows 10 created a copy of files and programs for a total of 27GB.
For that reason a 256GB SSD is the smallest drive size I would recommend for Windows 10 OS and right now you could get one for less than $50.
So make sure to leave enough space in case of for a major update is installed.

One reason would be space. I currently have a 120gb SSD which has about 12gb left on it. I did not install much on that except what was already on it, and a few apps like iTunes. I already moved my Desktop location to my hard drive and will do that to the other recommended changes as well. I know it's not recommended but I messed with the registry and changed the locations of my program files. If you think I do not need to change anything then I guess I won't. A possibility for me would just to buy a larger SSD. But I thought changing the location of the users folder would fix my space problem since it's a big folder. But after reading what you had to say I see that I shouldn't.

Right.
Space is a typical issue with the 120GB SSD's.

You can redirect all your Libraries (Doc/Music/Video/Downloads) to other drives.
Win 7 & 8: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html
Win 8.1 & 10: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2024314/windows-redirecting-folders-drives.html

That's no problem. The whole /Users/ folder WILL be problematic.

Changing the default Program location in the Registry? Another bad move, and completely not needed.
I expect things to break on you during the next semi-annual update.

During an application install, you can tell it what drive or folder to install it to. That's no problem.
Moving the whole Program files thing to elsewhere? Problem.

In reality, though, applications don't take up that much space.
Games do, but again, that is easy to manage.

Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

To move an already installed game
Games library
Right click the game
Properties
Local Files
Move Install Folder

Thank you for all the help, I was able to free up a little space, but I'm probably just going to upgrade my SSD so I can really get more space.

 

[jonbruh15]

Windows 10 just dropped the April 1803 update on a laptop with a 128GB SSD and the computer ran out space during the update and just froze and got stuck on a boot loop. The only way to get it to boot again, enter repair from a bootable USB drive and delete data using the Command Prompt.
Besides the update 4.5GB update, Windows 10 created a copy of files and programs for a total of 27GB.
For that reason a 256GB SSD is the smallest drive size I would recommend for Windows 10 OS and right now you could get one for less than $50.
So make sure to leave enough space in case of for a major update is installed.

Thanks for the help, that's what I am going to do.