Page 1 of Setting up `My Documents` in Vista

I`m trying to set up the a new PC (Vista) and would like to move the various `My Documents` folders to a separate partition. Seeing as people on here regularly do fresh installs, I was wondering how people went about it?

Basically I want to make sure that backing up user data is easy and installing new apps won`t end up creating user related folders in the wrong places. At the moment, this is a fresh install with only Office and a few general apps - no important documents/photos etc

I`ve created 2 accounts - admin (for changing the system but won`t be used for anything else). The other one is the family login (day to day use). I guess I won`t need to touch the admin user folders.

Which `family` folders should I move and which should I leave alone? Do I really need to update the `family` user folder with the `mklink` command?

Thanks for the help.

First question...why do you want to move the documents to a separate `partition`?

It`s easy to move any of the `special` folders around, in fact MS have added it as an option on the properties tab IIRC.

I recently (last week) installed Windows 7 and went through a similar process of examining the document area and folder configuration and found it very easy to change the location of the videos/photos etc.

Quote:
First question...why do you want to move the documents to a separate `partition`?

I just want to keep documents and other stuff separate from the OS, incase of failure + easier to backup/ format/ defrag a smaller partition (allegedly). I backup stuff to a external HDD rather than having a second internal one.

Moving `My Documents` was straightforward in XP but from what I`ve read it`s a little different in Vista. I don`t know if they changed/reverted back to anything for Windows 7. I want to set everything up right so that apps can find my documents/photos etc and don`t start creating folders in strange places when they install or can`t find something.

This item was edited on Monday, 10th August 2009, 13:23

OK.
From what I can see online, it`s the same under Vista as it is in Win7.

Take a look at this page specifically which explains about the special folders:
www.winhelponline.com/articles/95/1/How-to-move-the-special-folders-in-Windows-Vista.html

I`d just move the child directories (i.e. not the "C:\Users\{username}" area, but the ones under that). I think that`s what you`re proposing anyway, but just thought I`d be clearer :D

Thanks for the advice MilesR :)

I guess I`ll move all the child folders but leave anything `hidden` alone + redirect any paths used for saving.

When I was reading about this before, there was mention of using mklink/symbolic links as older apps may have problems installing - but looking again, this might only be a problem if you try and move the parent "C:\Users(username)" folder

2nd post : http://www.vistax64.com/vista-file-management/49443-duplicate-documents-folder-inside-home-folder.html

Does that advice only apply to the `admin` account or does it need to be applied to every user account?

This item was edited on Monday, 10th August 2009, 17:58