Description: This is a technical article on the topic of saving space on Solid State Drives in Windows 7. Part Five covers moving the User Directories.

The purpose of this article series is to show how to save space on Solid State drives, which are typically smaller than standard hard drives. In this article we will use a secondary hard drive, presumed to be larger than the solid state drive, as sort of a repository, so we may move files from the faster SSD drive to the bigger standard hard drive.

Backup
Although we haven't had issues in our testing, we do recommend you do a backup of your important files before proceeding.

User Directories
The User Directories are the folders such as Documents, Pictures, Videos, etcetera, which are stored in your user directory. In this document we will move these to save space. We will be moving these directories from the C:\ drive (SSD) to the E:\ drive (HDD). This configuration may differ per system, so make sure the drive letters are right with your system. *Note: this process would need to be completed once for EACH USER ACCOUNT on the system by logging in as that user.

1. Go to Start, then click on your Username in the top right.
   
2. Right-Click on a folder - we will use My Pictures and choose Properties.
   
3. Choose the Location tab, then click Move.
   
4. On the left in the new window, select the E:\ drive from the list, under the Computer section.
   
5. Once that is selected, select New Folder at the top.
   
6. Name the new folder appropriately - typically it would be the same as the username we clicked on earlier. In this case, it is Example.
   
7. Open the new folder by double-clicking on it.
8. Create another new folder using the same method, this time naming it My Pictures, or the name of the folder we are moving over.
   
9. Highlight the new folder, and then choose  at the bottom to complete the selection process.
   
10. Click on Apply to complete the move process.
11. Repeat this process for any folders in the user directory that need to be moved - anything that takes up substantial amounts of space would be recommended.
12. Once all the selected folders have been moved, restart the computer to complete the process.

This article is part 5 of a 6 part series.

Part 1 of this set, Paging File, can be found here.

Part 2 of this set, Disabling Hibernation, can be found here.

Part 3 of this set, System Restore, can be found here.

Part 4 of this set, Indexing Files, can be found here.

Part 6 of this set, Program Directory Location, can be found here.