Moving Users Folder from C:\ to D:\

Warning: Follow the steps below at your own risk. I will not be held responsible for any damages caused as a result of following them. If you do choose to go ahead, remember to back up your data before going through the instructions. With that out of the way, read on.

I just got myself a new machine. The first time in eons that I have done so. As with all machines that I have owned, the first order of business was to customize it to my very specific settings. Among them was to move the Users folder normally found on the root of the system drive to a different drive. Reason being, I want nothing but programs and system software on the system drive, and all user generated data on a different drive.

I had done this before way back, and so had forgotten how I had achieved that task. And so onto the net I went to refresh my memory. Since the computer I have is running Windows 7, there was bound to be differences between how I did it last time and how I would get it done now.

The few links that came up initially involved some Registry hacking, which I am okay with. On researching some more, I found this LifeHacker site that showed a way to achieve my task without any Registry hacking. The thing that worked for it was use of symbolic links. I decided to try it out.

The instructions as laid out on that site are very simple to follow. I went through them without any problems. However, when I tried logging into my system, I got an error stating, "User Profile Service service failed logon..." No matter what I did, I wasn't able to log in. The LifeHacker site has an addendum showing what to do in the event one ran into problems. I followed those steps to try and recover my setup to no avail. Eventually I had to restore my machine to factory settings so I could log in again. Fortunately for me I hadn't yet set up anything else on it, so this wasn't as painful as it could have been.

I googled the error I had come across to try and figure out how I could resolve it. Nothing I found was of any help. At some point I remembered a way to recover a corrupt profile on a machine from a fix I had needed to do a couple of months ago and figured I would try that out on this machine. I went through the steps of moving the User folder once more, and at the point where I ran into the error tried out the steps of recovering a corrupt folder.

In detail, that involved:

- Backing up the corrupted user's folder
- Setting up a new user with Admin rights.
- Logging into that account in Safe Mode.
- Going into Regedit navigating to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/ProfileList
- Deleting the key entry of the corrupted user's key
- Adding the user again from Control Panel
- Restoring their data into their new user folder.

I tried going through these steps but failed at the second one. At this point I tried a number of different things, all very experimental, to see if I could fix the problem. I went into File Explorer in safe mode and tried accessing the User folder from the C:\ drive and found I couldn't open it. That got me thinking that probably the link making process was not working as it should, since I ought to have been able to access the contents of that folder on the D:\ drive. This led me to try the following:

- Rename the key S-1-5-**-****-****-****-1***.bak to S-1-5-**-****-****-****-1***
- Change the value of the ProfileImagePath variable of the user from C:\User\username to D:\User\username.

This fixed the problem, and I was able to log in to my account. I was tempted to leave it at this, but then the nagging thought that this was just a stop gap measure kept bothering me. I did a test to see if the solution would hold by creating a new user. That did not work, since the new user's ProfileImagePath variable was set under the C:\ drive.

I reset the changes I had made and tried a different approach. I thought that since the previous two steps seemed to have somewhat fixed the problem, combining them with the LifeHacker steps would probably give me the full solution. I combined my steps with those of LifeHacker to come up with the following set of steps that eventually solved my problem (started from the point where the robocopy command is invoked in the LifeHacker steps):

- robocopy /copyall /mir /xj C:\Users D:\Users
- rmdir /S /Q C:\Users
- reboot into Safe Mode and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/ProfileList
- rename the key S-1-5-**-****-****-****-1***.bak to S-1-5-**-****-****-****-1***
- change the value of the ProfileImagePath variable of the user from C:\User\username to D:\User\username
- reboot into regular mode and log into username account
- delete C:\Users
- mklink /j C:\Users D:\Users
- reboot into Safe Mode and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/ProfileList
- change the value of the ProfileImagePath variable of the user from D:\User\username to C:\User\username

I tested this by logging into my account in regular mode and it worked just fine. I also set up a new account successfully. The next test trying to access C:\User, which I was able to do. The final test was copying data onto D:\User\username and see if I could access it through C:\User\username. I also checked the disk space of both C:\ and D:\ after copying the data. D:\'s space reduced while C:\'s space stayed constant. Problem solved!

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Been Gone

Last time I was around, I can't remember! Missed my blogversary (May 23rd), my 3rd anniversary since moving back and my birthday (August 11th), and God knows what else! I figure I better at least post something before my birthday month elapses!

First, thanks to a great bunch that came together to get me a great cake. It was fun celebrating with them!



I have been taking a few random photos. I tell myself I need to get back to photography for photography's own sake, and not discard that for a purely moneymaking venture. There is so much beauty missed when the latter is the mindset. Here is a photo I took of a tire burnt, leaving just the wire treads and ashes.



Till next time, adios!

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A first

Two weeks ago I got to cover my first Muslim wedding. This was for my good friend Mukhtar of Bunduz. The wedding was in Arusha. Here are a few of my favourite images from the day.

Enjoy!



















I also got a few cool shots of some of the guests coming up in another post

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Bracelet

I had a shoot with a couple that was plenty fun. She is expecting and they wanted photos of her before she gave birth. It is couples like them that make my job so much fun!

This shot from the set I took is a view emphasizing the lady's bracelet which she loves.

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Site Changes

I've made a few modifications to the site. Figured it was about time.

The first was to remove access to the online albums. I shall leave this for just clients and those they wish to share the albums with. Everyone else gets to see just samples from various weddings.

Next was to revamp the weddings page. Instead of the thumbnail selection, I decided to have just a single image per page, and have the user scroll through to see all the images.

Next was to add a People section. Here I showcase the portraits I've done, both in and out of studio.

There still somethings I need to do, like revamp the nature and scenery sections to look like the two previously mentioned sections. And I really need to migrate to a dynamic site!

Feedback and critique is always welcome. If something sucks, tell me so that I can work on fixing it.

Asanteni!

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Insect

Things like this were what got me hooked onto photography in the first place. It's good that I can get to enjoy them again!

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Happy New Year!

I know, January is done and now is when I'm doing this. Well, you see, I had taken a little break. Even from things photography. And try and engage the technical side of my brain a bit. But I hadn't completely abandoned it. Still did a few jobs, some of them with great pictures resulting. As soon as they are processed, I will share.

Part of my launch into the technical got me reviewing my site. I need to change a few things about it. While in the process of researching and finding out who got to my site and how they did, I came across two sites that were shown as referrers. Yet when I went to the sites, I didn't see any links to mine.

Scrolling to the bottom of the sites, I saw my images on there. Complete with watermark. At first I thought they had taken the images and copy pasted, but on refreshing the images changed. Still mine. Looking at the source code, it turns out the site owners just copy pasted my code that rotates images right on there, and they get to use my images free without my knowledge!







What a way to start the year. Hopefully there won't be any more such crazy surprises in store for me.

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Originality

It is not often that I get to photo a wedding that is absolute fun. Most days, photographing one wedding is no different than any other. And so it is refreshing when I come across a bridal party that is a blast to work with.

Such was the case last weekend when I got to work with a group that has made me encouraged that there is yet hope. The photo session was great, with the party doing all sorts of crazy antics, and being open to my crazy suggestions as well. Including the bride hanging out of the door of a bus in her full regalia kange style. If it wasn't that we had to be back at the reception, we would have gladly spent the entire afternoon at the photo session.

And when it came to the cake, these guys had it down pat. A log complete with a saw to cut it. Makes me wish I'd have thought of it before them! Now I have to just get my grey matter going. If only all weddings I covered were this much fun. At the very least, I hope I get one every now and then so I don't end up getting too jaded!

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Omar Sosa

I was recently at a concert by Omar Sosa at the Alliance Francaise. He is a maestro Jazz pianist. Together with his band of 2 other musicians, they are really great at what they do. Able to play multiple instruments, including using their own hands and mouths to produce beautiful sound.

I got a chance to photo them in action, exercising Ramon to the utmost. I was impressed by the quality of pictures I got photographing available light at up to 6400iso. Here are a few of the images I took, with the rest available here

Enjoy!

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Didier Millotte

The first week of November saw me at Brackenhurst for the week photographing participants at the 2009 Littworld Conference. This was a week of immersion into the world of publishing, specifically, Christian publishing. I had a good time interacting with the men and women from all over the world. Among those in attendance was Didier Millotte, a French artist who writes and draws graphic books.

Didier is one very talented man. In the first few days I hadn't quite noticed him, but as the various sessions went on, he caught my attention. During the keynote sessions, he would be hunched over his drawing pad, pencil in hand busy sketching. This would be followed by him painting his sketches, to produce stellar images. Think of those who do sketches in courts where cameras may not be allowed. He was like that. Seeing it happen in real time was amazing.

Below is a drawing he did during the closing ceremony of the MC in his kilt.



Here he is drawing the view of Brackenhurst admin building and surrounding vegetation...



Here he is drawing the escarpment the day we took a trip to Naivasha...



Here he shows an example of one of his published works at a workshop he was giving on graphical novels...



I leave you to guess what it was he was doing here (hint: 2 person mexican standoff...)



Him busy with the post standoff activities...



In just 5 minutes, he had completely sketched me. He later painted the drawing and gave it to me the following day...



I am very glad I got a chance to get to know Didier. I sure hope our paths cross again. Check out his blog sometime. It's in French for the most part, though he has some of the posts in English as well. Enjoy the remarkable sketches he has on there.

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