Moving User Folders

By default, all your user folders are subfolders of the %USERPROFILE% folder, which is usually the following (where User is your username):

This is not a great location because it means that your documents and Windows 7 are on the same hard disk partition. If you have to wipe that partition to reinstall Windows 7 or some other operating system, you'll need to back up your documents first. Similarly, you might have another partition on your system that has lots of free disk space, so you might prefer to store your documents there. For these and other reasons, moving the location of your user folder is a good idea. Here's how:

1. Create the folder in which you want your user folder to reside.
2. Click Start, type c:\users\ (replace c with the letter of the drive where your version of Windows 7 is installed), and then click your username in the search results. Windows 7 displays your user profile folders.
3. Right-click the user folder you want to move, and then click Properties. The folder's property sheet appears.
4. In the Location tab, use the text box to enter the full path (drive and folder name) of the folder you created in step 1. (Or click Move to select the folder using a dialog box.)
5. Click OK. If Windows Explorer asks whether you want to create the new folder and then to move your documents to the new location, click Yes in both cases.

TIP An ideal setup is to have Windows 7 and your programs in one partition and your documents (that is, your user folders) in a separate partition. That way, your documents remain safe if you have to wipe the system partition.