I’ve noticed that in a few recent posts I’ve taken shots at Microsoft, though they were all in good fun. I do use Windows as my primary OS on my main PC though, so I figured I’d add a few Windows tips here and there. This will be the first.

This guide will cover how to relocate your Windows users’ personal files to an already existing non-system partition or hard drive. Any directories or folders created manually by a user won’t be covered for two reasons: 1) It’s impossible to predict every possible configuration, 2) if you created a file or directory, you should know where it is to cut and paste it onto the new drive, and 3) I can’t guarantee that applications won’t have to be reconfigured to find any files that they may rely upon.

First things first: what’s a partition and why would you want to store your data on a partition separate from your operating system (OS)?

A short answer to the first question would be to say that to partition a hard drive is to use software to divide it into various sections that an operating system will use as if they were all unique hard drives. See the below image as an example of what a partitioned hard drive might look like in Windows Explorer:

Now to answer the second question; it is useful because various data can be kept in separate locations on the computer. In the case of this article, we are looking to keep personal data separate from the OS drive. The main reason for doing this is to avoid the headache of losing all of one’s data when Windows decides, for whatever reason, that it doesn’t want to work anymore. Having to temporarily backup and restore files even when the Windows installation is voluntary is also a chore (never mind the fact that it’s easy to forget a directory or two when everything’s being done at once).

As a user that’s always tweaking, breaking and repairing — not to mention dual- or even multi-booting and upgrading — his system, I’ve done a lot of Windows installs, and with each installation, all of my programs need to be (re)configured, documents and other data need to be backed-up and restored to their original location… it’s a hassle.

Obviously it’s in my best interests to store my data on a designated partition. Here’s how I do it (the steps below are for Windows Vista or Windows 7. For XP, a similar end result can be obtained by using a program called TweakUI to change the system’s “Special Folders.”).

Moving your personal folders to another partition

First, create a new partition (or connect your new hard drive) if you haven’t already. This article will assume a partition already exists, I will a post on partitioning in the near future. What I will say on the subject partitioning now is that one must always back up any important data before starting. There is always a chance that something may go wrong, resulting in a loss of data.

Next, navigate to your home folder. Depending on how you’ve configured your menu, you may be able to just click on your username, or you may need to right-click and choose “Open” if you have set it to display as a menu like I have.

Once opened, you should be greeted with a number of familiar-looking directories.

Notice that there are separate folders for many of the most common file categories for the typical user. They’re all stored in C:\Users\<username> by default. Did you notice the “C:?” That’s the default drive letter for the Windows system directory. That means the files are stored on the same partition as the OS. Exactly what we don’t want. Okay, so how do we fix this while keeping this home directory useful to applications that use it as a default path for storing or accessing files?

Right-click on a directory that you would like to be relocated. I would suggest at least relocating the “Documents,” “Videos,” “Music” and “Pictures” folders. Internet Explorer users will want to include “Favorites” to keep their bookmarks safe, while Firefox, Safari and Chrome users can use Xmarks to sync their bookmarks online.

Here is a feature first introduced in Windows Vista. On the “Properties” Window for these special folders in the user’s home directory there is a “Location” tab. Click it and you have the ability to painlessly relocate the folders to another directory on your system while preserving the directory structure as far as your applications and Start Menu are concerned. It’s very similar to symbolic links in Unix-like systems.

Use either the “Move” button to navigate to the folder you’d like to use, or just type the location in the provided area. When prompted, select “Yes,” you do want to move all of the files to the new location. It will keep things neater.

That’s it! Your data is now residing happily on a folder separate from your Windows installation. So next time you have to reformat your system drive, reinstall or upgrade Windows for whatever reason, just follow the above steps to relocate the folders from your home directory to the appropriate locations on your non-system partition and everything will be back where you left it in seconds.