How do I move Windows Search and Index Service databases to another drive?

On one of our older Windows 2003 Servers we need to run the Indexing Service and Windows Search. The problem is that the windows.edb file has grown quite large.

I want to move these and related files to D:\IndexService. To do this you can change the index location using the Advanced Options of the Indexing Options control panel applet:

(via: Old New Thing http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2009/11/18/9923996.aspx)

I did the following:

1. Stopped Index Service then stopped Windows Search.

2. Copied the contents of C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Search to D:\IndexService\Search.

3. Updated the Index Service Advanced Options -> New Location and pointed at the D:\IndexService path and OK'd my way out back to the control panel (see image above).

4. I restarted the Index Service and Windows Search

This seems not have worked and from the time stamps on the windows.edb file I can see that it is still being updated in it's original location on the C: drive.

I also notice that if I open the Indexing Options control panel applet and click on Advanced Options, it still says that the current location is on C: and that the new location (d:\IndexService) will be used after the service is restarted. However restarting the service hasn't made any difference.

Can anyone point out where I've taken a wrong turn?

Alternatively you can use a junction link to re-point the folder to another drive. On Server 2003 you can use Sysinternal's Junction" or linkd from the Microsoft resource kit. This might prevent rebuilding it.

First create a directory, for example: "d:\Search". Then run the following command:

junction "d:\Search" "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Search"