Posted on

How to relocate Microsoft Groove data storage

It is quite annoying that Microsoft Groove 2007 stores its data files in the user’s profile directory, usually on the C: disk. There is no way in Groove 2007 to change it to a different place, for example, a seperated disk that many people prefer for the data files.

Kevin Reeuwijk in his blog suggests a solution, but only if you have Vista:

http://www.buit.org/2007/02/19/how-to-relocate-your-groove-2007-files-to-another-disk/

The idea is to create a symbolic link under the user profile directory, pointing to another preferred directory. However if you have Windows XP or 2000, you have no luck — There is no easy way in Windows XP and 2000 to create a symbolic link to a directory. But, if your file system is NTFS, you have your luck back.

 

The trick is a so-called "junction-creation" tool: Junction. You may download it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/Junction.mspx

Suppose you have Groove installed, and your user name is <UserName>. Your Groove data files are located in:

"C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Groove "

and you want to move it to D:\Groove. Here are the steps:

  1. Close Groove if Groove is running;
  2. Move the directory  "C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Groove" to D:\Groove by Cutting&Pasting or using command line commands;
  3. Create a junction by runing command:
    junction "C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Groove" D:\Groove

You are then set.