I'm really glad that I copied these instructions as the site linked to died. It's basically a SSD w/ HDD setup where the SSD contains windows. The HDD will get program files and x86, program data and user data. It basically works w/ symbolic links.
I will then typically make a Program Files (SSD) directory for the apps that I want to load quickly.
Windows 7 Move the Users and Program Files Directories To A Different Partition
Wed, Aug 5, 2009
Misc, Windows
- After installing windows 7 you will be greeted with a user creation prompt press shift+f10 and you should get a cmd window up like in the image below
- Copy the Users Profiles, Program Files And ProgramData Folders onto the Partition you want to use
robocopy "C:\Users" "D:\Users" /E /COPYALL /XJrobocopy "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files" /E /COPYALL /XJrobocopy "C:\ProgramData" "D:\ProgramData" /E /COPYALL /XJ
- Delete the old folders and create links
For Program Files:rmdir "C:\Program Files" /S /Qmklink /J "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files"For the User Profiles:rmdir "C:\users" /S /Qmklink /J "C:\users" "D:\users"and lastly ProgramData ( If you have any permissions issues while deleting C:\ProgramData don't worry about them just try to delete it and make the links again after first reboot ):rmdir "C:\ProgramData" /S /Qmklink /J "C:\ProgramData "D:\ProgramData"
- Now open regedit simply by typing regedit on the cmd window
- To change the program files path navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and edit the ProgramFilesDir and CommonFilesDir as needed
- For the user profiles you'll need to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and again edit the paths as needed
- Exit Regedit and the cmd window
- Continue to create your user
- Reboot your machine and you should be good to go
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