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I need to move my C:\ProgramData folder in a Windows 7 installation to D:\ProgramData.

I understand how to make the symlinks and registry changes so this works. My problem is that I'm unable to copy the files in the ProgramData folder because the OS seems to have some of them locked.

Specifically, the files in the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys folder are blocking the move.

Am I out of luck here? Is there any way to move the folder, create the symlink, and update the registry without any of the files in these folders being locked?

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Aside from doing it off-line (i.e. remove the drive and do it on another machine), I don't think this is possible. – Randolph West Dec 17 '09 at 12:49
Could you expand on "doing it off-line"? Right now I have 2 drives, an SSD that has win7 on it and a normal drive that has XP on it. In other words, I can still boot into the XP drive and copy the ProgramData from the win7 drive onto the winXP drive without locking issues. My question is: if I do this and go in and change the registry settings on 7, will I risk rendering the win7 installation useless? – thinkzig Dec 17 '09 at 13:23
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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Caveat: I've never done what you are asking before, but...

You can get easily get around the copy problem by down loading a Linux Live CD such as Ubuntu, and booting from it. You will be able to access your drive, and copy the folder from one location to the other.

When you reboot you can make the registry changes, reboot, and thereafter you ought to be able to delete the original.

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Doing it offline works! Thanks!

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