Any way to "remap" folders in Windos XP?

[InorganicMatter]

Yeah, I know it's a strange question, so I'll give an example. Say I have 2 hard drives, an OS drive (C and a storage drive (D. Now, in Windows XP they treat "My Documents" almost as if it was it's own separate hard drive; when you go to save a document, you can choose from My Documents, My Computer, or My Network Places. Is there any way to remap Windows so that the Documents and Settings folder is located on my D: drive? That way, I won't have to bother with backing up my stuff each time I want to reinstall Windows, and I won't have to worry about losing 3 years worth of school work if I forget to backup and Windows crashes. It's not necessary to my computer, but it would be a MAJOR convienience to not worry about any of that.

 

[lomn75]

Download the Windows PowerToys, specifically TweakUI. Options for all such folders are in there.

I'm sure there's a registry key fix as well, but TUI is much easier.

 

[Direwolf20]

I know theres a way to do it, I just don't know what it is.

I know thats not much of a help, but at least you know its not hopeless

 

[InorganicMatter]

Download the Windows PowerToys, specifically TweakUI. Options for all such folders are in there.

I'm sure there's a registry key fix as well, but TUI is much easier.

Well, the TUI can do it, but not the way I want it. It can change the location of specific folders (My Music, Pictures, Documents), but it's limited to that. All my emails, favorites, and such are in folders that TUI can't move. If I could somehow change it so that it relocates the "Documents and Settings" folder to the D: drive, then it would have everything, not just My Documents.

 

[lomn75]

Hmm... don't know about docs and settings then. However, it's really hard to trash a whole hard drive short of physical failure any more, and that leaves the D: drive equally vulnerable. I wouldn't worry a bit about it from a data-loss standpoint (Windows can be safely reinstalled without destroying any data in Docs & Settings).

 

[XOR != OR]

I know there is a way to specify the location of various folders ( Documents and Settings being one of them ) at installation. Which would lead me to believe it's possible to relocate them afterwards.

However, I have no idea how.

 

[Dawizman]

Here's a link with several methods: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q236621/

Here is the one you are looking for:

To specify a different folder for the entire "Documents and Settings" folder, including key system components, follow these steps:
1. Log on to the computer as an administrator.
2. Create a new folder.
3. Open the current "Documents and Settings" folder.
4. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
5. Under Advanced settings click Show hidden files and folders, and then click to clear the Hide file extensions for known file types and Hide protected operating system files check boxes.
6. Click OK.
7. Click and drag to copy all the folders to the new folder, except for the currently logged on users folder.
8. In Control Panel, double-click System, and then click the User Profiles tab.
9. Copy the current user's profile to the new folder.
10. Click OK, close Control Panel, and then log off and log on to the computer as an administrator again.
11. In Registry Editor, click Find on the Edit menu.
12. Type documents and settings, and then click Find.
13. Replace the value data or rename the value or registry key to the new path for each and every registry key and value that contains the original path.NOTE: You must complete this change for every instance in the registry or your computer may not start. It is imperative that you update all registry keys and values with the new path.

14. Restart the computer.
15. You can now safely remove the original "Documents and Settings" folder.

 

[Phoenix86]

I would strongly recommend against moving the whole documents and settings folders (same reasons I'm for just using default paths in general). Just move the my documents folder, right click the my docs folder-properties, and change the target path.