Pulborough Computer Club

Moving the Data
(Windows 95, 98, 98SE and ME)

Why would I want to do that?

Because you eventually want to create a program recovery CD which will restore the partition containing Windows and its programs. If your data files are in the same partition, the act of using the program recovery CD would also restore the data files to what they were when you made it. File updates and newly created files would be lost.

Instructions

You're going to need a Microsoft program Tweak UI, so download it from Microsoft and install it by following the instructions on their webpage. Following installation, it can be run from the Control Panel.

You can customise Windows in several wondrous ways with this tool, but until you have a program recovery disc, I suggest that you don't.

MS Outlook Express - Email and News

Create folder 'Email' on your data partition to hold all your email stuff.
Start Outlook Express and Click Tools - Options - Maintenance - Store Folder.
Note where the data is currently stored.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the current folder.
Copy the contents of the folder to your shiny new one.
Rename the original folder to have a prefix of 'old' but don't delete it - it's your safety belt .
Go back to the Outlook Express Window (which should still be showing the Store Location) and click Change.
In the Browse for Folder window which opens, navigate to the new one and click OK.

The job is done and everything should continue to work with the new folder. Don't mess with it directly - continue to access email archives through Outlook Express. If everything is still working fine in a week or so, you can delete the original folder.

MS Internet Explorer - Favorites

Create an empty 'Favorites' folder on your data partition.
Start Tweak UI from the Control Panel and click its My Computer tab.
In the Folder drop down box, select Favorites.
Note where the data is currently stored.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the current folder.
Copy the contents of the folder to your shiny new one.
Rename the original folder to have a prefix of 'old' but don't delete it.
Go back to the Tweak UI Window (which should still be showing the Location) and click Change Location.
Nanny Microsoft may try to talk you out of it. Tell it you really want to.
In the Browse for Folder window which opens, navigate to the new one and click OK.

The job is done. Start Internet Explorer and click the Favorites button just to check. If everything is working fine, feel free to delete the old one some time.

MS Internet Explorer - Temporary Files

Only do this if you created the optional E: partition

Start Internet Explorer and click Tools - Internet Options - General
In the Temporary Internet Files section, click Settings - Move Folder.
Navigate to E: and click OK. Windows then creates a new Temporary Internet Files folder there.

The job is done. Oh, don't forget to hunt down the old one and delete it.

Desktop

Create an empty 'Desktop' folder on your data partition.
Start Tweak UI from the Control Panel and click its My Computer tab.
In the Folder drop down box, select Desktop
Note where the data is currently stored.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the current folder.
Copy the contents of the folder to your shiny new one.
Rename the original folder to have a prefix of 'old' but don't delete it.
Go back to the Tweak UI Window (which should still be showing the Location) and click Change Location.
Nanny Microsoft may try to talk you out of it. Tell it you really want to.
In the Browse for Folder window which opens, navigate to the new one and click OK.

The job is done. Just to check, create a shortcut on your desktop and use Windows Explorer to examine your new Desktop folder and see that it's been added. Delete the old one when you feel brave enough.

My Documents

Create an empty 'My Documents' folder on your data partition.
Start Tweak UI from the Control Panel and click its My Computer tab.
In the Folder drop down box, select My Documents
Note where the data is currently stored.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the current folder.
Copy the contents of the folder to your shiny new one.
Rename the original folder to have a prefix of 'old' but don't delete it.
Go back to the Tweak UI Window (which should still be showing the Location) and click Change Location.
Nanny Microsoft may try to talk you out of it. Tell it you really want to.
In the Browse for Folder window which opens, navigate to the new one and click OK.

The job is done. Just to check, save a document to My Documents and use Windows Explorer to examine your new My Documents folder and see that it's been added. You don't need the old folder any more.

Windows Address Book (.wab file)

This one isn't for the faint hearted because I haven't found a way of doing it without editing the dreaded registry (I always use Outlook as my contact manager, so the situation hasn't arisen previously).

Use Find to look for *.wab .
Copy the resulting file to a folder on your data partition.
Rename the original file to have a prefix of 'old' but don't delete it.
Run Regedit.
Expand the HKEY-CURRENT-USER folder.
Expand the Software folder.
Expand the Microsoft folder.
Expand the WAB folder and then the WAB4 folder.
Click Wab File Name and observe the original file location.
Double click (Default) to open a data entry form.
Enter the path to the new location.
Close Regedit.

Phew!

MS Outlook (.pst file)

Use Find to look for *.pst .
Copy the resulting file to a folder on your data partition.
Rename the original file to have a prefix of 'old' but don't delete it.
Start Outlook. It will complain that it can't find it's data and ask you where you've put it.
Tell it. Agree to whatever it asks and then close it
Start Outlook again and agree to any further suggestions.
Check that your Contacts and Calendar etc still work.

The job is done. You don't need the old file any more.

MS Word documents

Start Word and click Tools - Options - File Locations.
Select Documents and click Modify.
Browse to the new location (probably D:\My Documents) and click OK
If you plan to use templates such as these for letterheads etc, create a templates folder somewhere on your data partition and repeat the above steps for User Templates. Don't forget to copy any templates over from the old location.

Temp Files

Many programs create temporary files and don't always delete them when they're done with them. By default, they are put in the C:\Windows\Temp folder. Since we're trying to segregate things, we want to change that behaviour. If you made an E: partition, here's how to do it.

Create a new Temp folder on the E: partition.
Use Notepad to open C:\autoexec.bat .
Add these lines to the end

set temp=e:\temp
set tmp=e:\temp

and save the result.
Delete the C:\Windows\Temp folder.

Windows Swap Files

When Windows runs out of RAM, it creates a virtual RAM file known as a swap file on the hard disc and uses that instead. This is usually on the C: partition, but we don't want to include it in a program backup, so it can be moved to the E: partition if you made one.

Right click My Computer and click Properties.
Click the Performance tab and Virtual Memory.
Click Let me specify .....
In the Hard disc box, select E:\
Set Minimum to say 256 and leave Maximum alone.
Click OK a few times.

Mopping Up

That's covered the bulk of the work. You probably have a few other programs such as Quicken that have their own data files to be moved. This procedure will usually work.

Find the original file(s).
Copy the results to a folder on your data partition.
Rename the original file(s) to have a prefix of 'old' but don't delete it.
Start the program. It will complain that it can't find it's data and ask you where you've put it.
Tell it and close the program.
Start the program again and check that all is well.
Delete the original file(s) when happy.

Where You're At

You now have a nice tidy system with all the data on one partition and all the programs on another. This makes it pretty simple to select files for data backup and it also makes it possible to create program recovery CD-Rs that don't destroy the data.