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About six years ago, I moved my AppData folder off my boot drive (an SSD) to an HDD. I've just started looking at my system, and I seem to have done something quite wrong.

My AppData folder has been moved to F:\AppData\Roaming (which is apparently how that works?). However, my Local AppData is still located %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local. I have files in the F:\AppData\ folders, but only the Roaming folder has been updated in the last four years. In %USERPROFILE%\AppData, however, all three folders have been updated - Roaming hasn't been updated since August, but LocalLow was updated in mid-October, and Local was updated twelve hours ago.

To further compound things, I have discovered some oddities in %USERPROFILE% and C:\Users\Public. In the former, and it must explicitly be accessed via %USERPROFILE%, I have two Music folders and two Download folders: one referencing the C:\Users[USERNAME] folder, the other a folder on D:. If I go to C:\Users[USERNAME], however, only the C:\ folders are present. For C:\Users\Public, I have a Recorded TV folder (why, I have no idea), modified 1st May 2016 (the last day the F:\AppData\Local folder was updated); a shortcut called Recorded TV (1), modified 7th December 2017 and pointing at the folder I just mentioned; and a shortcut called Recorded TV (2), modified 22nd May 2018 and pointing at F:\Users\Public\Recorded TV, which does not exist (I found out this was occuring when TreeSize reported an error in following the shortcut).

What I'm planning on doing about all this:

  • Opening up RegEdit and moving the AppData, Cookies, Programs, Recent, SendTo, Start Menu, Startup, and Templates locations to D:\AppData\etc (D:\ is a smaller drive than F:, but larger than C:, and which I believe has a higher RPM)
  • Changing my Local AppData, History, NetHood, and PrintHood locations in RegEdit to point to to D:\AppData\etc
  • Changing Cache, Desktop, Favorites, Pictures, Videos, and Personal to D:\ root (may leave these as-is)
  • Merging the F:\AppData folders and %USERPROFILE%\AppData folders together (oh gods)
  • When I get an M.2 drive to replace my 120GB SSD, move them all back to %USERPROFILE%

So, this post is pretty simple: is this a good idea, or will it make everything worse? Should I leave everything until I get the M.2, then just move the F:\AppData folders back? Do I need the F:\AppData\Local and F:\AppData\LocalLow as well?

EDIT: Images!

EDIT 2: As pointed out by Ramhound in the comments, it looks like I didn't move everything over to F:. Also, a point I'm not sure I got across earlier: if I merge the C:\ and F:\ AppData folders and change the registry, will there be any issues, or should everything just work?

KBKarma
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    “which is apparently how that works?” -No; That’s just one of the folders in that directory. “Roaming hasn't been updated since August” - This tells me AppData is actually configured to be on your system disk. – Ramhound Nov 08 '20 at 03:35
  • I thought I'd seen another similar question here where someone was saying that moving your AppData folder moves your Roaming. But I am unsure, and only really looked at it today. I'll grab screenshots of RegEdit and the folder structure. – KBKarma Nov 08 '20 at 03:42
  • It should move all three folders, but you indicated, none of folders have been updated recently. – Ramhound Nov 08 '20 at 03:46
  • @Ramhound I've added images to the post to indicate what the current state of play is. – KBKarma Nov 08 '20 at 03:55
  • Local AppData is set to the drive that user profile exists on, based on this question, I am guessing that’s not the F drive. Based in n what you provided it sounds like you didn’t fully move the profiles directory to another drive. – Ramhound Nov 08 '20 at 03:58

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