Changing location of my user files and folders, win 10

  • Thread starter Miserable Former XP User
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Miserable Former XP User

I've performed a clean install of win 10 1903 - Build 18632.295. (Too terrified to click the "Oh NO!" button to update it further.) Before I do that, I need to move my all of my personal data, user folders (not the dreaded appdata junk) to a new 2tb internal hard drive.



Here's my system:



All drivers up-to-date, Intel i5-6500, 16 gb RAM, 64-bit, Asrock h170x/3.1 mb, Samsung 970 evo plus 500 gb nvme m.s ssd boot drive plus PCI adapter, 2-Seasonic Barracuda 2 tb hard drives - 1 will be the new Data drive, Samsung 500 gb hard drive, all internal, plus 2- WD 4tb My Book external hard drives (all show as "Healthy") and a new Brother printer-since MS murdered my previous, perfectly good printer.



Most of the drives (3 new to accommodate this emergency-not-of-my-making) are full. Of the 13.275 tb combined capacity, there are 3.726 tb of free space spread among those drives. They're so full with emergency backups since, beginning in March 2018, windows 10 updates, Office 365 updates and more than 20 on-board microsoft techs and 2 visits to local store techs created and tried to correct problems. Now I have 5 Desktops (Computer Names) and 6 User names containing my 25 years' of files, pics, business records, emails---you know.



Boy, I sure hope WinMerge is going to be my savior as I find where the techs saved my stuff as they ran willy, nilly through my it, renaming drives, even changing backup files on my external drive!



Having followed Greg Carmack's "Clean Install" (win 10) instructions - it's on my new 500 gb nvme m.2 ssd, I'm ready to move my data to an internal, 2 tb hard drive. I'm prepared to use Greg's suggested method (Windows for Dummies). Greg, thank you so much!



Because I'm scared to death of losing/wrecking any more of my data, I have several questions:



1. I've read scary things about how file access permissions are "very, very complicated" (How to move user files to a different partition in win10) and that, "...for all that is holy, do extensive research on this before you begin..." I've been researching, but I just don't know what I'm looking for. I'm the only user of my desktop that I built Oct 2016.



So, very specifically if you can, what should I do to prevent file access permissions from being problematic as I move my User Folders to my new hard drive? It's common, currently to get "denied" when I try to open things.



2. All of this 'activity' (techs from 6 different countries wiped my drive and gave it their best shots, multiple times, at reinstalling win 10 and my stuff with varying success) caused me to lose the actual and real file attributes (dates, especially). Real giant bummer. (It didn't help that one of my windows 10 plagues was that suddenly, I was living life in the future. I'm looking forward to Oct. 2, 2019 as this is the latest of the 'future' dates that Windows assigned as save dates.) This likely will be a parameter when I compare all the current C drive versions to backups and choose which version to save or delete as I peruse each of my duplicated million or so files. I'm sure looking forward to it.


What do I need to do to preserve the original file attributes when I move my data to the new Data Drive?



3. Office 365 (I won't say a word) is going to be upgraded to Office Pro 2013 (on a local account) as soon as I move my data to the hard drive. I expect a very awful experience. To make it as sweet as possible:



What do I need to do with my .pst and .ost backups before, while and after I move the location of my data to my new hard drive?



I edited out as much anger as I could, I apologize to you for it, but it poured out here because I've promised myself to never, ever speak to a microsoft rep ever again so this is the closest I can come. I've been livin' this 'dream' for over a year and I'm off my rocker...I really do thank you in advance for wading thru it and I'll be thankful for any advice you can give. Really, really thankful! Really.


P.S. I am unable to access my email, so I'll just keep checking back. Thanks once more!

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