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Most folks use the My Documents folder to keep all their personal data. Unfortunately, this folder is by default located on the C: drive, the same drive that contains the Windows operating system.
First, your personal data is very likely to be growing in size while Windows is not. In this era of multi megapixel digital photos you are in real danger of filling up your C: drive. This progessively degrades Windows performance. Sooner or later you'll fill up the disk and have to make more space by deleting some of your personal files or get into the complex and problem- fraught exercise of increasing the size of your primary disk partition.
Second, it complicates backup. Your personal data is changing all the time while the Windows operating system changes much less frequently. That means your personal data needs to be backed up more frequently than Windows. With both on the same drive you'll end up making very large drive images and having to create them more frequently as well. Similar comments apply to disk defragmentation. Mixing your personal data with Windows increases the need for defragging and results in a slower defrag.
Nope, leaving your My Documents folder on the C: drive is like storing your washing powder with your vegetables. Quite possible, but not a great idea.
Now, many folks have only a single partition of their hard drive; that is, their only hard drive is their C: drive. These folks can't move their My Documents folder. They could of course re-partition their drive but that's a complex issue I'm not going to address here.
If you do have two or more partitions on your hard drive, or if you have more than one hard drive, it's quite easy to move your My Documents folder to another drive or partition.
You will, however, need enough free space on the second drive/partition to accommodate all your documents. To find out, go to My Computer and click on View/Details and make a note of the free space available on each partition or drive. Make sure you don't get confused by your CD drive. You can't move your My Documents folder there!
While still in My Computer, right-click on My Documents and select Properties. After a few seconds you should see the folder size shown. If two figures are shown with one in brackets, note the larger figure. That's the amount of disk space you will need.
Now make a decision which drive you'd like to move the My Documents folder to. Make sure there is enough disk space. Let's say you selected the D: drive.
Click on the Start button and then right-click on My Documents and select Properties. If there's no My Documents in your start menu then right click on the My Documents icon on your desktop instead.
When you've clicked on properties, select "Move" and then navigate to your D: drive. Select the drive letter and then click "Make New Folder." Enter "My Documents" as the folder name and hit Enter and then OK. Windows will then ask you whether you want to move your documents; click Yes.
Moving your documents make take some time. Once moved, though, you can access them normally from the "My Documents" icon on the desktop or elsewhere.
In the process you'll free up a lot of room on your C: drive. Defrag the drive so it can be utilized by Windows in the most effective manner.
Gizmo
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This was a very useful tip! Thank you for writing in a clear and concise manner!
Awesome! Just what I was looking for. Thanks!
How do I move other User Documents and Shared Documents to the other drive, as well? I have administrator rights, and I would like ALL of My Documents moved. Especially Shared Documents, because I plan to have a lot of files there and don't want them taking up space on my C:/ drive. I tried right-clicking and choosing Properties on the other User Documents, but there isn't an option to move. I changed the directory to my Shared Documents folder in the registry to my other drive (following instructions elsewhere), and the Shared Documents folder disappeared from my Start menu, so I had to change it back. Any ideas?
These are the instructions I used: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/sharedfolders.htm
I want the Shared Documents link to stay in the Start menu (so everyone can find it), and point to the Shared Documents folder that I made on the other partition.
I followed your "Never Install Windows Again" tutorials, and they were very simple and informative. Thank you! Great site!
i have move the documents but find that the application data has over 3.5 gb of data can I move that as well or delete it?
Brilliant, Thanks mate, that was really easy! :)
So I tried this without a lot of success , in the end i used a different method as i needed more space on my c drive . the method was relatively simple
do we have a way of doing this in Vista? It's not as easy as it might seem. i've tried it a few times and it keeps corrupting the documents folder. i rightclicked on the documents folder and changed location. but after, i had a path of user\user\user\documents. (and yes i did choose the default of 'yes' when i asked me if i wanted to move my stuff.)
The free version of TweakVI lets you do this. http://www.tweakvi.com/download.php
You'll notice the Article is flagged as "Not applicable to Vista."
We strongly recommend that you do not attempt to move Vista system folders around.
Very clear and helpful.
Thank you!
This is what I want
Thank you very much
With this process, is there a chance that I can loose data in case my OS get damaged and I need to reinstall it? I'm planing to move my data to a a second hard drive but don't want to take the chance... I have the feeling that I'm gonna be moving my folders but in some way, this files are atached to my OS since this is a system folder... and if I have to reinstall windows these files can be deleted in the process. Please tell me if I am wrong...(I don't know too much about this, so...)
You should make a back up DVD of your documents befoire monkeying around with anything in my opinion!
can this be done with other folders related to other applications?
thanks alot for that tip.
As to the process of relocating the entire "Documents and Settings" folder, there is a KnowledgeBase document on the Microsoft site that explains exactly how to do this. The document is primarily written for doing this during the Windows XP installation process, but at the bottom there are instructions for doing it after installation.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314843/en-us
You can take this one-step further and relocate your DESKTOP folder as a subfolder of your My Documents folder where it should be. This gives you quick simultaneous search capability of your MyDocs and Desktop at the same time. I don't know any quick utility for relocating your Desktop folder location. I just tweaked my system registry instead. Make sure you do it correctly though. Then you'll have to manually move your Desktop files.
Hello, I moved 5 backup folders I had created on my desktop, to a folder named "BACKUPS" within MyDocuments, by cutting from the desktop and pasting on the "Backups" folder in MyDocs but...
...when I opened the folders I moved...a popup message said "File no longer in existence"!
Could someone tell me what I did wrong? And what would be the proper way to do it? At first I tried to drag and drop but didn't work, hence I chose cut and paste...
Thanks so very much for a reply...
hi im azzy
im trying to do a file moving thing, you propably wont know it but its called football manager 2008. Im trying to upload a skin on fm08, it sez the document has to be in a C:\ documents folder but when i go on my documents it says D:\documents and settings...... instead of C:\documents and settings......!
why is this how do i change D:\ to C:\
thanks it would really really help if you showed me how to do this.
Please e-mail me this answer to azzys_h3re@hotmail.co.uk or vapour_twist@hotmail.com.
Hi,
To my idea the whole documents and setting should be moved to a specific partition.
That way you will be able to backup everything which is user specific.
Additionally all programs that are not pc speific hardware and windows should be in another
partition separate from windows and whatever harware specifics you have.
That way it would be relatively easy to move from ann old machine to a new one.
Now, how to do that ?
Ragnar Moller
Ragnar,
Check out this series of articles starting here: http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives.htm
Here is a list of the articles:
What Is A Partition?
One Partition or Multiple Partitions?
Partitioning A Blank Hard Drive During XP Installation
Reassigning Drive Letters
Resizing An Existing Partition On A Single Hard Drive
Creating A Primary Partition In Unallocated Space
Creating An Extended Partition And Logical Drives
Creating Logical Drives In An Extended Partition
Multiple Hard Drive System Partitioning
Converting Basic Disks to Dynamic Disks