So about a month ago I set up a Windows 7 Professional machine where I was able to mount the secondary hard drive to the path C:\Users. This put all of the userspace files on the second hard drive without all that mucking about with registry editing. It has worked wonderfully and now I am trying to replicate it and I cannot seem to remember how I did it. Which makes me feel like quite an idiot.
"It looks like Jimmie R. Houts over at serverfault has the answer I am looking for. He referenced this article with more information.
To expand on his answer, after installing Windows 7:
You boot with the install media. At the screen with the ""Install Now"" choose ""Repair your computer"" You will be asked if you want to ""Repair and Restart"" by the System Recovery options, choose ""No"". Then make sure that Windows 7 is listed as one of the installed OSs available for recovery and it's selected; then press ""Next"". You will be given a list of recovery tools; chose ""Command Prompt"". In the command prompt you will be using Robocopy to copy C:\Users to D:\Users. Type robocopy c:\Users d:\Users /mir /xj
/mir tells robocopy to mirror the directories; this will copy all files and permissions and will delete any other files in the target directory (reference). If you already have user profiles in D:\Users and want to keep them, try /e /copyall instead; this copies everything recursively (/e), all file attributes included (/copyall), though for some reason you might have to adjust ownership permissions later anyway. /xj is very important, this tells robocopy not to follow junction points. If you forget this, you will have a lot of trouble.
Make sure no files failed to copy (FAILED column = 0). Remove the old Users Folder from the C: drive: rmdir /S /Q C:\Users Create an NTFS Junction that points to the new Users folder: mklink /J C:\Users D:\Users. Make sure the target, D:\Users, uses the drive letter which will be used after restarting, not as it is during the recovery command prompt session (Thanks mindless.panda, and matt wilkie).
Now restart and there you go. No further configuration or fiddling required. New user profiles will all be stored on the D: drive, as will any user-specific data. And it is achievable without any messing about in the registry, searching and replacing values, or having to mess with new profiles in any way. Totally fire and forget."
"I just tested tvanover's answer in a virtual machine. However, I did a few things differently.
I did this with a fresh installation in Audit mode (Ctrl+Shift+F3 on first boot). I let it boot once into audit mode before proceeding. I copied the files to the root of the second drive. Instead of making a link, I set a mountpoint.
Here's how I made the mountpoint:
After deleting the C:\Users directory, recreate it
mkdir C:\Users Run the DISKPART command, and select the second disk (substitute * for correct disk number listed after the LIST DISK command)
DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK *
SELECT PARTITION 1 Set the mountpoint. If it fails, go back and make sure the C:\Users directory exists and is empty.
ASSIGN MOUNT=C:\Users
EXIT Reboot. Once it's done rebooting, you can use Start->diskmgmt.msc to remove the drive letter from the second drive if you want. If you're in Audit mode, go back to the System Preparation Tool window, make sure ""Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE)"" is selected as the System Cleanup Action, ""Generalize"" should be unchecked, and the Shutdown Options should be set to either Reboot or Shut Down. Click OK, and the system will cleanup and reboot back to the first-boot setup."
"If your OS is installed on a SSD, the easiest way i found to specify a different path is to right click on the folder say Videos and select properties. Click on ""Include a folder"" Navigate to your 2nd HDD and right click and create a new folder called Videos then select include folder. Now if you select videos you should see two or three file locations C:\users\User\My Videos, C:\users\Public\My Videos and D:\Videos Now go to C drive -> users -> User and right click on My Videos go to the Location Tab and select Move Select D:\Videos and click select folder Now click apply Then you get a prompt asking if you want to move all select yes Now when you click on My pictures you will agin see the three locations listed previously except this time all of you files appear in D:\Videos Right click videos again and select all items except D:\Videos and delete them Now when you click on pictures all you see is D:\Videos Don't delete the public folders if you want to use them. Happy days"
"Under XP, this is in Disk Management. (I'm sure there are a million ways to get there, but I always right-click on My Computer and select Manage, then select Disk Management on the left under Storage.) Right-click on the D: disk and select ""Change Drive Letter and Paths"". Then click Add and enter the path where you want to mount the drive.
Check out How to create and use NTFS mounted drives in Windows XP and in Windows Server 2003. You could use the second hard drive as a "mounted drive".
