Every time you create a user profile, Windows makes a bunch of folders for it. Some, like the My Documents folder in XP and 2000 and the Documents folder in Vista, are supposed to serve as storage areas for your documents, music, pictures, and other files. Others, like Desktop, hold configuration data specific to your user profile.
Windows plops all of these folders on the same drive or disk partition ("volume" in Vista) that holds Windows itself. But moving some or all of the folders where you store data to a separate drive or partition/volume simplifies backing up and restoring work files (which change frequently) because it avoids the need to get entangled in repeatedly and redundantly backing up system files (which don't change as often). The few minutes required to make the changes discussed below can save you hours of frustration down the road.
When is a shortcut not a shortcut? Some hidden shortcuts to formerly familiar locations go nowhere when you double-click.
Understand Vista's pseudo shortcuts: You may be curious about several files found in the folder where Vista puts your user profile. Normally hidden, these files look like ordinary shortcuts to folders you may be familiar with from previous versions of Windows--Application Data, Cookies, My Documents, SendTo, Start Menu, and so on. If you don't see these files, open Control Panel's Folder Options applet (you may have to click Appearance and Personalization on the Control Panel Home screen to find it), choose the View tab, and under Advanced settings select Show hidden files and folders. But when you double-click the file to get to the promised location, all you see is a "Location is not available" error message telling you that "Access is denied" (see the figure above) What's going on? 
Not to worry. These files are not shortcuts at all, but special files known as "junctions" or "junction points"; their purpose is to guarantee backward compatibility by redirecting programs to folders that in Vista have new names--Documents (formerly My Documents), AppData (formerly Application Data) and so on. Unfortunately, users who double-click them get nowhere.
If you need to manage the new versions of these folders directly, you may wonder where they are located. Many, like Documents, reside in the same folder as the user profile. Cookies, Network Shortcuts, Printer Shortcuts, Recent Items, SendTo, Start Menu, and others are in \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows, within the folder named for the user account in the Users folder.
Move (My) Documents: My Documents (in Windows 2000 and XP) and Documents (in Vista) may be the easiest built-in folders to move. In Windows 2000 and XP, right-click My Documents on the desktop or in Explorer, and choose Properties. With the Target tab active, type the path to the desired drive and folder, and click OK. Choose Yes when asked whether you would like to move all of your documents to the new location. The same procedure works for Vista's Pictures, Music, and other built-in folders.
If you use Vista, right-click Documents and choose Properties. (You'll find the Documents folder inside the folder labeled with your user name.) Click the Location tab in the Properties dialog box, type the path to the desired drive and folder, and click Move. Select Yes when prompted to move your existing files to the new storage folder.
You can move 11 of Vista's special folders to a location of your choice with a simple drag and drop.
Move other special folders: Many users adorn their desktops and Start menus with their own shortcuts to important files and favorite applications; it can be useful to move these (and other) folders to the same, frequently backed-up data drive. If you use Windows XP or 2000, download Microsoft's free Tweak UI utility. Install and launch the program, and in XP click My Computer, Special Folders in the right pane. In Windows 2000, click the My Computer tab, and look for the Special Folders section. In either version, select the built-in folder that you want to move (such as Start Menu), enter the path to the new location (in Windows 2000), click Change Location, browse to and select the new location (in XP), and read the warning. If all seems well, click OK. 
In Vista, open the Folder Options Control Panel applet as described above, click the View tab, make sure that both Do not show hidden files and folders and Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) are checked, and click OK. This will ensure that you don't do any file or folder shifting that might cause problems.
Now click Start, and choose your user account to open the folder containing its special folders. Open a second Explorer window, and select the folder that will be the new home of your special folders. In your user-account folder, choose the folders you want to move; use the right-mouse button to drag them out of that window and into the new folder in the other Explorer window, and click Move Here. You'll still see the folders in the same place when you open your user-account folder from the Start menu as described above. But if you right-click a folder and choose Properties, you'll see that the path has changed to the new location.
