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[Khan Boyzitbig]

Have you tried opening my computer and right clicking on the my documents folder? On my laptop one of the options the folder has in its properties is location, which can be changed.

[scriver]

That would be great and make me feel like a complete idiot. I assumed the computer needed it in that place because of the whole "user" stuff setup, and that it would just create a new documents folder there if I tried.

Anyway, trying immediately.

[wierd]

Have you considered using junctions? ;P

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_junction_point

Or even, abusing a .vhd with a mount point?
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/How-to-automatically-mount-d623ce34

Basically, you can keep the path on the C: drive, but have the files physically stored on the D: drive, if you know what you are doing.
If you don't, thats OK too, as there is a handy shell extension to ease the pain you would otherwise have to endure at the command prompt.
http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html

Despite the name, it does both hardlinks and softlinks. (to link to another partition/drive, you have to use a softlink or a mountpoint.)

[scriver]

Thanks for the response, guys. Khan's suggestion above seem to have worked. And I feel like a complete idiot

[Rose]

Yeah, first thing I generally do after setting up a new computer is move all the my documents, pictures, etc, into the D drive, where they won't go missing if I have to wipe windows or something similar.

[wierd]

I picked up a trick with some old(er) windows 8(.1) tablets that have very limited internal flash storage.

First, you need a filter driver to make windows view the external SDcard as permanent storage-- Then you can use something like symmover to move files out of the program files location, and onto the formatted SDcard, and then abuse symbolic links so that programs think it is still on the C: drive.

Similar approach would work fine for big programs that *INSIST* they must be on the C: drive (unless they use hardlinks. Thanks MS! I love how all your shit does that now!), meaning it would work great for systems with an SSD and a traditional spinny disk. (you just dont need the filter driver, for obvious reasons.)

[scriver]

Unfortunately it seems NwN was the only thing not capable of handling the change, and now it doesn't function. Is this ironic?

[Khan Boyzitbig]

Might need a symbolic link then, because its hardlinked by the sounds of it. On the other hand it is older than the option to move the documents folder IIRC, so it does have that excuse. I wonder if you could convince windows to consider the C drive as D instead (and thus trick NwN).

[scriver]

Yes, it seems something like that would be necessary. Does anyone have any idea of how that is done? Something like weird suggested above?

[Reelya]

Running older games in VMWare is also an option, then you just have a virtual disk.

[scriver]

So anyway, I decided to try that softlink thing. I dunno if it's what I need to do but I have to try something at least.

edit: Well, fuck. Moving the Documents folder back is apparently not an option - no matter what I destroy it says there's too little space to move it now. Hopefully I'll still be able to link it from a place where it isn't to begin with? I dunno. I fucking hate computers. Moved it back.

[Reelya]

Last resort fix is to get into the NvN exe with a hex editor and search for the path string manually, then edit it.

[scriver]

Well, I couldn't get Link Shell Extension to work at all (it only seemed to copy the files) and SymMover told me it couldn't remove the Documents file after moving all the files in it so it's currently moving all the files back. Guess I'm trying to move just the NwN folder next.

I still really fucking hate computers though. And all computer programs. And everyone who writes them, and their respective how-to-use guides online.

[scriver]

Well, everything appears to be working. I don't notice any difference in the folder, but the space indications for the disks shows a lot more free space now. And most importantly, the game seems to run just fine. Thanks for the help everyone!

Lastly though. If I want to add new files to these symbolically linked folders. Do I add them in the C: (source/ where I want the computer to think they are) or the D: (destination/where they take up actual file space) folder? D:, right? Do you think the computer will automatically get that or will I have to make new links ever time?

edit: Also related, if the game auto-downloads files to a linked folder, do they end up in C: or D:?

[scriver]

So...

_{...turns out there where .init settings...}