How to restore D:\Users back to C:\Users after move [Vista]

Question

What will be the best way be to restore D:\Users back to C:\Users after move? Computer is running on Vista OS and I think to get Users folder on another partition was used method described here https://serverfault.com/questions/8187/whats-the-best-way-to-move-c-users-to-d-users-under-vista-w7

robocopy C:\Users D:\Users /mir /xj /copyall
mklink C:\Users D:\Users /j

I need to get User folder back on C due failure upgrade to Windows 7 (doesn't recognize that User folder is on D:)

Not sure if steps below are sufficient enough to accomplish that task:

rmdir C:\Users                      #remove junction link
robocopy D:\Users C:\Users /e /xj /copyall
rmdir /S /Q D:\Users
mklink D:\Users C:\Users /j         #to be safe if something will try to save to D:\Users

Answer 1

Last year I went the exact same route you did. IIRC, the solution you wrote was roughly what I ended up using, so I think it's okay.

For safety, though, don't run the third command (rmdir /S /Q D:\Users) just yet.

Before obliterating D:\Users, it's better just to rename it to something else and see if something breaks during boot. If by chance things get nasty, renaming it back will guarantee the previous state, which you won't be able to do if you rmdir /s it beforehand.

Also, instead of the last step (mklink D:\Users C:\Users /j), I'd rather use a batch search-and-replace on the registry to change all occurences of D:\Users back to C:\Users (and maybe let outstanding applications fail -- this is up to you, I just didn't want another junction). I vaguely remember having to be a bit creative on this part, because sometimes the path was stored like D/Users or D:\\Users. Maybe I used regex to accomplish that. Use a good registry tool (I used RegEditX).

So, summing up, I would recommend:

rmdir C:\Users                      #remove junction link
robocopy D:\Users C:\Users /e /xj /copyall
rename D:\Users D:\UsersOld
# try booting
# search and replace registry
# use system for a couple of weeks
rmdir /S /Q D:\Users

Small note: it's not the case that Windows "doesn't recognize" that the Users folder is in D:. Windows knows you moved it around and replaced the original path with a junction, and deliberately prevents updating (this is conspicuous in the logs).