Is there a way to change the location of the BOINC data files from C:\ProgamData\BOINC to somewhere on my D drive?

Yesterday my Win 8.1 Pro C drive got infected. The only way out was to boot from a two-day-old C drive clone. That worked fine but I lost all in-progress GPUGrid work units. Had the BOINC data files been on the D drive I'd have lost nothing.

Is there a way to change the location of the BOINC data files from C:\ProgamData\BOINC to somewhere on my D drive?

Yesterday my Win 8.1 Pro C drive got infected. The only way out was to boot from a two-day-old C drive clone. That worked fine but I lost all in-progress GPUGrid work units. Had the BOINC data files been on the D drive I'd have lost nothing.

Yes, it is. I'll give the general procedure: you may need to adapt it slightly if you want to recover both yesterday's tasks and the new ones on the clone.

1) Locate your existing data files. There will be a "BOINC data folder", and the location will be listed in the Event Log after startup, on around the fourth line. By default, it's likely to be a hidden application data folder: Make sire you can access this folder before you proceed.

2) Shut down the running BOINC client.

[3) Unless you are preparing to upgrade to a new version of the BOINC client, uninstall the BOINC client. This removes the programs only: it leaves your data intact.]

4) Move the data folder, including all files and sub-folders, from the location you found at step (1) to the new drive/location you want to use.

5) Run the BOINC client installer. Stop at the screen which shows the old/default data folder location.

6) Click the 'Advanced' button, and then the 'choose location' button for the data folder.

7) Select the location where you moved to existing data to, in step (4).

8) Finish the rest of the BOINC installation procedure.

When you restart BOINC, all your previous projects, tasks, statistics, logs etc. should be accessible as before, and tasks in progress should pick up from the point they'd reached before the move.

Yes, it is. I'll give the general procedure: you may need to adapt it slightly if you want to recover both yesterday's tasks and the new ones on the clone.

Many thanks, Richard. Worked a treat!!

Yesterday's tasks were gone since I had done a reformat of the infected disk, but today's tasks picked up fine after the BOINC reinstall.

I'm grateful. :)

As a related side note ... If I want to "test the effects of a change on my data folder", what I'll do is close BOINC, disconnect the internet, make a backup copy of the data folder, and then perform my test while offline.

That way, if it results in a long task failing, I can easily revert to my backup copy of the data folder, and the failure was never transmitted since the internet was offline during my test :)