Moving user profiles to another drive. Moving a user profile using standard Windows tools

Hello dear readers of the blog www.site. Today we will complete the description of the process operating system migration Windows 7 with saving user profiles, installed programs, data and settings on two hard drives. One of the drives is a solid state drive SSD 60 GB, the second is a conventional mechanical HDD.

The decision to make a dual configuration of hard drives was made after the volumes occupied by the operating system and user data. Due to the fact that they clearly exceeded 60 GB in total, it was not possible to transfer everything to one small SSD drive.

Looking ahead, I’ll say that for a desktop computer, such a solution turned out to be not only successful, but also very profitable from a financial point of view. The total cost of a small SSD and a mechanical HDD is still less than the cost of one large SSD.

Even if you don’t feel sorry for money “for your own”, most likely, the volume of one SSD is really not enough. For example, my photo folders alone take up about 130 GB. And this despite the fact that the photos are mostly in jpg format. Who's in RAW? What if video? This I mean that you still have to either install another HDD, or connect an external one.

As for the speed of the system, there were initially serious concerns about whether the transfer of Windows 7 user profiles to a regular mechanical disk would negatively affect it. Fears were not confirmed - everything "flies". No, for sure the response of the computer would be even faster if the solid-state drive contained not only the operating system, but also the data. But something tells me that in most practical cases this difference would not be very noticeable.

We return to the process. Last time we migrated the Windows 7 operating system to an SSD drive and user profiles to a mechanical HDD. To transfer user profiles, we tried to use the standard Windows 7 wizard "Windows Easy Transfer".

Unfortunately, the result was not quite the one we would like to see - the settings of some programs were not saved. This can be partly explained by the fact that with such a profile transfer, the absolute paths to the files change and some programs do not find them. Apparently, "Windows Easy Transfer" makes sense to use to solve those tasks for which it is directly intended. In a word, this is not Linux for you, where you can mount any partition on any disk in \home.

Today I will describe the second, very simple, way to transfer Windows 7 user folders to another drive. The idea of ​​such a transfer was suggested to me by the Microsoft wizard at the moment when it refused to expand the saved profiles to the second disk and I had to deceive it by creating symbolic links. Here we are using them to the fullest.

Transferring Windows 7 User Folders Using Symbolic Links

We return to the moment when the preliminary optimization of the space occupied by the system on the C: drive has already been done, but the original user profiles from the C: drive have not yet been deleted. We copy the user directories to any available place or immediately to where they are supposed to be placed in the end.

You can do this in various ways, the main thing is to save permissions to files and folders and not lose system and hidden ones. For example, using the command xcopy in the command line with administrator rights:

xcopy C:\Users\UserName\ X:\Users\UserName\ /E /H /O /X

username– name of the user profile directory;

X:\Users\UserName– destination folder;

/E

/H– hidden and system files are copied;

/O- Access control lists ACLs and data about the owner are saved;

/X– File audit information is copied.

Or, also on the command line, with the command robocopy:

robocopy C:\Users\UserName\ X:\Users\UserName\ /E /COPYALL /XJ

C:\Users\UserName, X:\Users\UserName– source and result;

/E– directories with subdirectories are copied, including empty ones;

/COPYALL– all information about files is copied (data about the owner, audit information, etc.);

/XJ— exclude connection points.

Team robocopy interesting in that it is designed for data replication and can remove "extra" files from the replica. It can be successfully used to create backups without completely overwriting all files.

13 comments

Well, he did everything right. Rebooted, everything worked ok. And then even the OS stopped loading. I can't even reinstall Windows. Only black screen.

• Rustam, your problem cannot be related to the transfer of profiles. In any case, on C: \, even if you did not specifically create a new user whose profile cannot be transferred, as recommended in the article, there is an "Administrator". If everything is in order with the system itself, then if the second disk with the transferred profiles is unavailable, such horrors cannot happen - Windows will boot. Tell us in more detail at what point the black screen occurs, after which it started. And what does it mean

  I can't even reinstall Windows.

1. That's just the point that I had only one Administrator profile. Then I transferred it from SSD to HHD. Then, on drive D, where I transferred the Administrator profile, I made the Users folder invisible. Rebooted the laptop. Windows won't boot. Even the Windows logo does not appear. I decided to reinstall the OS, in AHCI mode the installation does not start at all. I switch to IDE mode, it stumbles at the “installation begins” step. Further nowhere. Although I had already installed the same copy of Windows with this flash drive on the same ultrabook before.
   It looks like something is wrong in the bios or what?

   I want to connect a laptop to a computer and format all disks. Could you tell me how to connect a laptop and see all its contents from a computer?

   • Something very complex you have conceived. The content is easier to view by booting from a Live CD. For example, Parted Magic with GParted. I wrote about him. I would also like to understand what kind of Windows you are installing - problems with AHCI are confusing. Again, you can partition and format disks by running the installation of Windows 7. I described how to make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows.

Thanks for the Parted Magic program. Downloaded, but apparently something in the tables is not right. When trying to create or format a partition, an Input / Otput error during read or during write on dev / sda error is generated. Then the HHD and SSD boot sectors in the BIOS generally disappear. I don't understand what to do. It looks like something with GPT, MBR tables. Is there any way to fix the tables? By the way laptop Asus Zenbook UX32A.

• MBR and GPT are not tables, but records at the beginning of the disk. They cannot affect the visibility of drives in the BIOS. As far as I understand, your ultrabook does not assume independent use of SSD, but as a cache for HDD. I think that the solution to the problem should be found here. Can this laptop actually work with an SSD as a separate drive?

Yes, the SSD is meant to be a cache, but I installed the OS on the SSD. And everything worked great. Then I decided to move the user folders to another drive. Transferred and... 🙂

• I can’t understand how you contrived to transfer a single user to another disk - when copying a profile, there should have been a huge number of errors due to file locks. But most importantly, I can not understand how even this wrong action could affect the inability to reinstall the system. There must be something else. M.b. did you change something in the BIOS?

Well, to transfer a single user, I created a temporary administrator, and after the transfer, I deleted this temporary administrator account. When copying user files, there were a couple of questions, but I skipped them. I don’t understand about the impossibility of reinstalling the system (It’s just that the impossibility of installing a new OS appeared even before I dug into the BIOS. But even after resetting the changes to the BIOS, it’s still the same.

• Yeah. With the transfer, it is now clear that there was still a service account. But with a laptop it is completely incomprehensible. If you manage to solve the problem, and I have no doubt about it, be sure to unsubscribe. Very interesting. Unfortunately, without having a similar sample at hand, it is problematic to give you some practical advice. Sometimes the solution is hidden under the very nose. I remember how we once fought half the night with a server that refused to start after changing the controller. What they didn't do. Thank God they didn't really ruin it. But it turned out that by this moment they had already gone crazy and were trying to boot from the wrong device.

I made a bootable Acronis flash drive.
And it gave an error "E000101F4: No hard drive found". How can this be if the BIOS has this situation:

Boot Opton Priorities


I go to
Hard Drive BBS Priorities
and there:
Boot Option #1
Boot Option #2

• It may very well be. Acronis can easily not see something. For example, for me it does not see disks connected via USB to a computer with an Intel DX58SO motherboard. Previously, too, constantly something came up of the same plan. To create backups, I now mainly use Live-CD with .

Hello, in this article we will look at how to transfer a user profile to another computer. To do this, we will use the utility Transwiz.

I would like to say that after reinstalling the system, returning everything to its rightful place is a very difficult task, why do this if you can go the easy way - transferring your account. This will save you from such a routine as sorting files and folders, setting wallpaper, setting up Windows and other actions. This operation can also be done with.

It is interesting:

With the help of the Transwiz utility, we will transfer all user account data to a new device. This can be done on any of the modern operating systems.

The disadvantage of the program is that it is not in Russian, but for this I am writing this article to help you understand it.

All about iPhone glass and screen repair. Watch continuation.

What do you need to know before working with Transwiz?

When you copy the data of one account, you need to have a second one with which you will do this, if it does not exist, then create or use an administrator account.

The note! The launch is made through the command line, opened on behalf of the administrator. Then you need to enter the following command: net user Administrator /active:yes

Transferring account data with Transwiz

Run the program. The first thing you will see are two questions: the first asks if you are going to transfer data to a new computer, and the second question asks you to the same computer.

Since we are transferring the account to another computer, we select first point and click "Next".

In the next section, we need to select the account whose data we will transfer. After pressing the button "Further" you need to specify the folder where a copy of the account will be saved.

Check mark fast pack means compression, you can also check it, but this is optional. Click "Further".

The next step involves setting a password for the account backup archive, either enter or click OK and move on.

It starts copying all user profile data to the folder where you specified. Note that the files will be in the archive, and if you have specified a password for it, then do not forget it.

The created archive will contain all the data, from folders and the exact location, then various Windows settings that you configured during the operation of the system.

At the end of the operation, press "Ready".

Transferring a user profile from an old computer to a new one

Install Transwiz on a new computer and at the very beginning we select the second option, that is, installing the profile on the same computer.

Specify the path to the archive from copies of the account from the old computer and click "Further".

Specify a computer name.

After that, a message will appear about the non-existence of an account and ask you to create a new one, so click "Yes". Choose the type of account, better, of course, "Administrator".

When the system boots, you can see 3 fields for entering a password - this is if you did not specify a password and login for the account. Then enter a new password, but only in the last two fields, do not touch the first one.

If you're having trouble setting a new password, don't enter anything. Yes, and you can change or put it from another account.

I would like to note that the profile transfer is carried out not only between the same versions of systems, you can transfer the profile from Windows 10, say, to Windows 8 or Windows 7, but you should not vouch for the correct installation of the copy.

| Posted on 02.11.2009 |

User profile is a set of settings that make the appearance of the computer and its work correspond to the wishes of the user. It contains options for the desktop background, screen savers, pointers, sound, and more. User profiles allow you to apply personal settings every time you log on to Windows.

The user profile is different from the user account that is used to log on to Windows. Each account has at least one user profile associated with it.

Before us stands the task is to transfer users from one domain to another domain with saving the user profile.

Naturally, there are several different ways. Let's consider some of them.

The most correct thing is probably to use a special utility from Microsoft's USMT.

Also on Windows there is File and Settings Transfer Wizard". Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> File and Settings Transfer Wizard

There is also a special Ideal Migration utility, you can also try it.

1) Log in to the computer under an account from the workgroup

2) Log in as administrator, give all rights to the folder with the old domain profile to a new user from the workgroup

3) Load into regedit under any name the NTUSER.DAT file located in the old profile and add permissions to this (loaded) registry branch for a new user from the workgroup.

The meaning of this paragraph is to give permission to a new user from the workgroup to use the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry branch inherited from the old (in this case, domain) user. Accordingly, this registry branch (hive) is stored in the profile in the NTUSER.DAT file. And you can give it rights using regedit, after downloading this file, for this in regedit we put the cursor on HKEY_USERS, then "File" -> "Load hive" -> Select NTUSER.DAT from the profile of the old user -> Assign the partition name for example "1" (no difference), although it is better to take the SID of the old user for this. Next, for the loaded hive, add the rights for full access for the new user.

4) In the registry, go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList section, find the section in which the ProfileImagePath parameter has a value that refers to the path to the profile of the new user from the workgroup and replace it with the path to the profile of the old (domain ) user.

In this case, the new user will work with absolutely the same profile as the old one. The only thing that can fly off is the passwords saved in the protected storage, for example, for OutlookExpress. But it will remain possible to work with one profile from under two accounts, both from under the domain and from under the local one.

They also advise you to try to transfer using the transwiz or profwiz program. Both live at http://www.forensit.com/

Restoring the User Profile Path on a Windows Workstation

If a user logged on to a Windows workstation after performing work to include the workstation in the Active Directory domain and its desktop, the folder with documents and settings disappeared, this means that a new user profile has been created instead of the old user profile. After all, even if the local and domain users have the same names, these are completely different users, and therefore the system fairly creates a new profile for the domain user. You can restore the user's desktop settings and documents by specifying the path to the old profile in the system registry.

Procedure To restore a Windows user's desktop settings:

Log in as a different user who has administrative rights to the computer, for example under " Administrator» computer

Fix the access list in the security tab of the profile folder - add a domain user to the list with full access rights. User profile folders are usually found in C:\Documents And Settings\_user_name_

Launch the registry editor (regedit). In branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList is a list of computer user profiles. The key branches describing the profiles are named after the user's SID. You need to look through each of these branches and find the old profile and the new (domain) profile by the directory name, then specify the old path in the branch for the new profile. Registry setting that contains the path to the user profile ProfileImagePath.

These actions are usually enough to return the user to all his pre-domain settings. Thanks to the author.

Here is a little more on the topic (rake):

1. give the created account admin rights
2. go under it and check the profile is working - launching programs, the location of shortcuts, if everything is OK, then it's still about the rights to hkey_current_user
3. open REGEDIT.EXE
4. on the HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch, right-click with the mouse-> menu item "permissions"
5. in the list that appears, you will most likely see an unknown account (S-1-…..) that has full rights to this branch, and so, you need to replace it with the account you created, after which you can take the admin rights

you need to change permissions for all elements of the branch, i.e. check the box "replace permissions ..."

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But I think it is very useful, so I post corrected and enlarged copy.

The task of transferring the user profile folder from the system drive to another logical or physical drive in the Windows OS family is very acute for a number of reasons:

• The need to separate operational information (system) and archive data (user data) is due, for example, to the need to store system files on a high-speed, but less reliable RAID0 disk array.
• No need for additional transfer of information when reinstalling the OS.
• Compared to transferring a single user profile, moving the Users folder is preferable, since the profiles of all subsequent users of the computer will also be saved in the right place, and there will be no need to go through the transfer procedure again.

One of the most elegant and rational methods of such a transfer is the ability to determine the location of the user profile folder at the stage of system installation. With regard to Windows 7, Microsoft provides us with such an opportunity under the name Audit Mode. You can read more about this mode in the next article.

Now about the scenario of transferring the Users folder:

1. You should perform a normal installation of Windows 7 in any way convenient for you, stopping at the step where the installer will ask you to enter the computer name and username.
2. From the computer name and username input screen, press CTRL + SHIFT + F3. The computer will restart and boot into Audit Mode. In this case, the system will be in this mode until you run the sysprep utility with the /oobe key or select the appropriate item in the window version of this utility, which starts in Audit Mode every time the system starts.

   

3. Since at this point you will already have Windows 7 installed, but not fully configured, before assigning a new location for the user profile folder, you must first prepare the disk subsystem, that is, create and format the partition that you plan to use to place the Users folder .
4. Now you need to create a configuration file to set the location of the Users folder, here are its contents:

   x86 version (download):
   D:\Users D:\ProgramData
   x64 version (download):
   D:\Users D:\ProgramData
   Save it with any name, such as unattend.xml.

   Attention! The file must be saved in UTF-8 encoding (and for those who understand UTF8 + BOM).

   

5. The window titled "System Preparation Program 3.14" must be closed. Otherwise, when you run the following command, you will receive an error: "Another copy of this application is already running."

   It is better to save the file "unattend.xml" on the hard drive, not on the flash drive, because when using this file, the next time you reboot, the flash drive will not be connected yet and the system will report an error and will constantly reboot. The entire installation process will have to start over. Suppose the unattend.xml file has been saved in the root of the C drive, then the command to apply it would be:

   C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /reboot /unattend:C:\unattend.xml
   

   

   
   The computer will restart.

   If the file is NOT saved in UTF-8 encoding (as described above), you will get the following error: "A fatal error occurred while running Sysprep on the computer."

   

6. Returning to the window for setting the computer name and username, complete the installation.
7. After booting the computer, make sure that the D:\Users and D:\ProgramData folders exist and that the user folder whose name you specified at the end of the installation is located in D:\Users.

   

As a bonus, you can also take advantage of so-called junction points to prevent errors related to explicitly specifying the old user profile folder paths. To do this, use the mklink utility to create two symbolic links (run with administrator rights):

mklink /J C:\Users D:\Users mklink /J C:\ProgramData D:\ProgramData
Thus, now, even when accessing the old paths, any program will not notice the substitution and will work with folders on drive C, although in fact they will be located in the location you configured.

For the compatibility of some applications with Windows XP, I recommend making the following symbolic link:
mklink /J "C:\Documents and Settings" D:\Users
If the user folder already existed and you set the previous user name during the initial setup of the operating system, then another folder for the profile will be created, and the old one will remain untouched. All files from the old folder should be transferred to the new one manually (it is advisable to boot under a completely different user so that files in the profile folder are not blocked).

Therefore, I recommend that after installing Windows and after creating user profiles (for this you need to log in interactively once for each user), create a system image on the C: drive. In case of failure, you are deploying a system from an image in which user profiles are linked to their folders, and the problem described in the paragraph above will not be.