How to Move the My Documents Folder in Windows XP

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By default, the My Documents folder is located on the C: drive, the same hard drive that contains the Windows XP operating system. It is not a good idea to store your data on the same hard drive as Windows. Your data keeps growing in size, taking up more and more room on your C: drive, filling it up.

You will find yourself having to delete some personal files to make more room, or having to perform the complex task of expanding your primary disk partition. Filling up the primary disk partition or hard drive also tends to degrade Windows' performance over time.


Combining your data with the Windows operating system can also complicate your backups, causing your drive images to become larger and larger, and having to create them more frequently. Drive images of the operating system don't usually need to be made as often as backups of data as they don't change as often. Therefore, your data should be stored separately from the operating system.

The need to defrag your C: drive also increases and the defrag runs slower.

If you have two or more partitions on your hard drive, or if you have more than one hard drive, it is easy to move your My Documents folder to another partition or hard drive, thus separating your data from the Windows operating system.

Before moving your My Documents folder, be sure you have enough free space on the second partition or hard drive to accommodate all your data and some extra for future storage needs.