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#1
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Special Folders Revisited
As you may recall, I am in the process of moving the special folders of
my main account to another physical drive and installing an SSD as my boot drive. An interesting anomaly has occurred! Here's the history. Connect external drive O: and create a folder alek with subfolders Documents, Downloads, etc. Move the contents of C:\users\alek\Documents to O:\alek\Documents and DEL C:\users\alek\Documents MKLINK /J c:\users\alek\Documents O:\alek\Documents Repeat for each of the special folders. Now unless I've made a typo above, that worked flawlessly. So I removed the magnetic HD that had been C:, installed the SSD and booted Everything was fine. Reinserted the old mag HD and rebooted. The old mg HD -- once again internal -- is now E:. So I created E:\alek\Documents, E:\alek\Downloads, etc as I did before, and deleted C:\users\alek\Documents, etc. Then I copied the contents of O:\alek\Documents to E:\alek\Documents, and then MKLINK /J c:\users\alek\Documents E:\alek\Documents, and so on. Great! When I look at c:\users\alek, I see one documents folder, and any changes I make in E:\alek\documents instantly appears in c:\users\alek\documents. BUT..... For some reason, I had File Explorer open to This PC and I opened Documents. Whoops! Not what I expected. Did a little searching and found that this points to o:\alek\documents!! Same for Music, Downloads!!! And at one point before I went to bed, I swear I saw under c:\users\alek TWO folders named Documents -- one in black and one in blue!!! I guess that at some point I should have RD'd the links I made with MKLINK but I guess it's too late now. Should I just delete the old o:\alek folders? What about removing registry entries for them?? Thanks. |
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#2
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Special Folders Revisited
Stormin' Norman wrote on 4/28/2015 2:13 PM:
snip Your explanation was somewhat long, but if I understand correctly, do the following. Well, I wanted to include everything. :-) From an elevated command prompt, use the rmdir command to delete the symbolic links to the directories on the O: drive, e.g. c:\rmdir /S /Q O:\alek\Documents This will remove the directories and the symbolic links. It did. Thanks. However, the six folders (System Folders) displayed in File Explorer still refer to O:\alek\whatever. What do I do about them? Thanks. |
#3
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Special Folders Revisited
On 28/04/2015 18:19:40, Alek wrote:
As you may recall, I am in the process of moving the special folders of my main account to another physical drive and installing an SSD as my boot drive. An interesting anomaly has occurred! Here's the history. Connect external drive O: and create a folder alek with subfolders Documents, Downloads, etc. Move the contents of C:\users\alek\Documents to O:\alek\Documents and DEL C:\users\alek\Documents MKLINK /J c:\users\alek\Documents O:\alek\Documents Repeat for each of the special folders. Now unless I've made a typo above, that worked flawlessly. So I removed the magnetic HD that had been C:, installed the SSD and booted Everything was fine. Reinserted the old mag HD and rebooted. The old mg HD -- once again internal -- is now E:. So I created E:\alek\Documents, E:\alek\Downloads, etc as I did before, and deleted C:\users\alek\Documents, etc. Then I copied the contents of O:\alek\Documents to E:\alek\Documents, and then MKLINK /J c:\users\alek\Documents E:\alek\Documents, and so on. Great! When I look at c:\users\alek, I see one documents folder, and any changes I make in E:\alek\documents instantly appears in c:\users\alek\documents. BUT..... For some reason, I had File Explorer open to This PC and I opened Documents. Whoops! Not what I expected. Did a little searching and found that this points to o:\alek\documents!! Same for Music, Downloads!!! And at one point before I went to bed, I swear I saw under c:\users\alek TWO folders named Documents -- one in black and one in blue!!! I guess that at some point I should have RD'd the links I made with MKLINK but I guess it's too late now. Should I just delete the old o:\alek folders? What about removing registry entries for them?? Thanks. Like I said back in the Hard Disk Management Strategies thread 12 days ago it would be 'messy and there would be 'glitches' doing things the way you contemplated. ......but you kept banging on about I've got backups, backups, backups..... What you should have done is copy all user sub folders and files that you were going to relocate in the future from the old mechanical C drive to the external drive. But as you had backups, that was not really necessary. You should have then deleted the files from those folders on the old C drive that you were going to relocate later to the new clean drive, leaving the user folders like Documents, Music, Photos etc. still in place. You then CLONE the old C drive with the user folders still present but not containing any files or sub folders to the new SSD drive. You boot from the SSD, make sure it is working ok then format the old mechanical drive and label it as E:. THEN you relocate the desired folders from the SSD to the E drive and finally copy the backed up files and sub folders from the external drive into the correct relocated folders on the E drive. Simple, been there, got the t-shirt. What should have taken you half a day or so to accomplish is dragging on to be a fortnight and now you are on about changing registry entries. If all was done correctly in the first place as suggested it would never have got 'messy' :-) -- mick |
#4
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Special Folders Revisited
Alek wrote:
An interesting anomaly has occurred! Connect external drive O: and create a folder alek with subfolders Documents, Downloads, etc. Move the contents of C:\users\alek\Documents to O:\alek\Documents and DEL C:\users\alek\Documents MKLINK /J c:\users\alek\Documents O:\alek\Documents Repeat for each of the special folders. As I mentioned, I'm sure that process ensures the correct permissions are assigned the new folder. I suspect but would have to test if using Windows to do the move would assign the correct permissions to the new folders. If you create the new folders yourself (and later copy items into them), I'm sure the permissions will be different. You will still be listed as the Owner account for the new folders. When I look at the permissions on %userprofile%\My Documents folder, the following accounts are listed: SYSTEM (full permissions), my account (full permissions), Administrators security group (full permissions). When I create a new folder at the root of my D: drive (e.g., D:\TEMP), its permissions a Authenticated Users (limited permissions but enough to allow access beyond thos for special folders), SYSTEM (full permissions), Administrators (full permissions), Users (read, list, and execute permissions). So me creating a new folder allows other users into those folder - which is not what you want for special folders that are supposed to be isolated by the Windows account (so user-1 cannot normally get at user-2's data files). So you still want to have Windows move the special folders since that probably retains the correct permissions on the new folders. Then rename the original special folder and create a junction using the original special folder's original name. So I removed the magnetic HD that had been C:, installed the SSD and booted Everything was fine. So you loaded a different instance of Windows on the SSD that had no knowledge that you moved the special folders in the other instance of Windows. Reinserted the old mag HD and rebooted. The old mg HD -- once again internal -- is now E:. Does that mean the SSD was still installed and Windows was loaded from the SSD (drive C? And you added another hard disk while still booting that the instance of Windows running from the SSD? Well, the SSD instance of Windows would have no knowledge of drive letter assignments you made in some other instance of Windows. The SSD instance of Windows did what was expected: it found a new drive that had never been defined to it before and proceeded to assign the next available drive letter. In the *new* and separate instance of Windows running from the SSD, you will have to do the same thing you did in the HDD instance of Windows: change the drive letter of the 2nd internal HDD. Drive O: was *not* the default drive letter assignment in the HDD instance of Windows. You had to change that drive letter assignment to O:. Now you have to do the same in the new and separate instance of Windows that runs from the SSD. So I created E:\alek\Documents, E:\alek\Downloads, etc as I did before, and deleted C:\users\alek\Documents, etc. Then I copied the contents of O:\alek\Documents to E:\alek\Documents, and then You said you moved the special folders to the 2nd HDD which was, under that instance of Windows, assigned the drive letter of O:. Now you're saying in the new instance of Windows from the SSD that it assigned drive letter E: to your HDD which is expected. So where is the O: drive from which you said you copied? MKLINK /J c:\users\alek\Documents E:\alek\Documents, and so on. Great! When I look at c:\users\alek, I see one documents folder, and any changes I make in E:\alek\documents instantly appears in c:\users\alek\documents. BUT..... For some reason, I had File Explorer open to This PC and I opened Documents. Whoops! Not what I expected. Did a little searching and found that this points to o:\alek\documents!! Same for Music, Downloads!!! And at one point before I went to bed, I swear I saw under c:\users\alek TWO folders named Documents -- one in black and one in blue!!! I guess that at some point I should have RD'd the links I made with MKLINK but I guess it's too late now. Should I just delete the old o:\alek folders? What about removing registry entries for them?? You had an instance of Windows running before when you moved the special folders. Then you switched [from HDD] to SSD. There's something missing in your story because you said in the SSD setup that you had both drives E: and O: and yet you never mentioned adding another disk beyond the one you had previously moved the special folders. How many disks do you NOW have in your computer and how are they partitioned and what drive letters are assigned to each partition? |
#5
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Special Folders Revisited
mick wrote on 4/28/2015 3:13 PM:
You have things out of order, Mick. The first thing I wanted to was to set up and test movving special folders. When that was successful, I then wanted to install this SSD. Apparently I did not clean up properly after step one. What you should have done is copy all user sub folders and files that you were going to relocate in the future from the old mechanical C drive to the external drive. I did. You should have then deleted the files from those folders on the old C drive that you were going to relocate later to the new clean drive, leaving the user folders like Documents, Music, Photos etc. still in place. I did. You then CLONE the old C drive with the user folders still present but not containing any files or sub folders to the new SSD drive. You boot from the SSD, make sure it is working ok then format the old mechanical drive and label it as E:. THEN you relocate the desired folders from the SSD to the E drive and finally copy the backed up files and sub folders from the external drive into the correct relocated folders on the E drive. Simple, been there, got the t-shirt. What should have taken you half a day or so to accomplish is dragging on to be a fortnight and now you are on about changing registry entries. If all was done correctly in the first place as suggested it would never have got 'messy' :-) The reason it took so long is because of my age and ailments. For example, insomnia. I would never attempt any system admin stuff after a night of insomnia. Yes, you told me so. You have the technical high ground. I hope that makes you feel "special". But now that I know what I should have done, so you have any advice based on what I actually did? Thanks. |
#6
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Special Folders Revisited
On 29/04/2015 01:15:24, Alek wrote:
mick wrote on 4/28/2015 3:13 PM: You have things out of order, Mick. The first thing I wanted to was to set up and test movving special folders. When that was successful, I then wanted to install this SSD. Apparently I did not clean up properly after step one. What you should have done is copy all user sub folders and files that you were going to relocate in the future from the old mechanical C drive to the external drive. I did. You should have then deleted the files from those folders on the old C drive that you were going to relocate later to the new clean drive, leaving the user folders like Documents, Music, Photos etc. still in place. I did. You then CLONE the old C drive with the user folders still present but not containing any files or sub folders to the new SSD drive. You boot from the SSD, make sure it is working ok then format the old mechanical drive and label it as E:. THEN you relocate the desired folders from the SSD to the E drive and finally copy the backed up files and sub folders from the external drive into the correct relocated folders on the E drive. Simple, been there, got the t-shirt. What should have taken you half a day or so to accomplish is dragging on to be a fortnight and now you are on about changing registry entries. If all was done correctly in the first place as suggested it would never have got 'messy' :-) The reason it took so long is because of my age and ailments. For example, insomnia. I would never attempt any system admin stuff after a night of insomnia. Yes, you told me so. You have the technical high ground. I hope that makes you feel "special". No, I do not feel special in way way or form. You asked for advice in the first instance and I, based on personal experience, and others gave you our opinions. As you still seemed determined to go along in your own way without heeding that advice then I see little point in asking for it in the first place. You had your mind set on doing it your way and nothing was going to change it, so it was reassurance of your method which you were really asking for. But now that I know what I should have done, so you have any advice based on what I actually did? No, I do not know. I have not encountered the situation you ended up with and I would not like to suggest an answer that could well cause further unnecessary problems. Thanks. You're welcome :-) It may sound like a rant or have a go at Alek day but that was not my intention. By all means keep trying and experimenting with computers as it is the best way to learn and if I can help with any other queries in the future then I will join in. Beware :-) -- mick |
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Special Folders Revisited
mick wrote on 4/29/2015 7:40 AM:
It may sound like a rant or have a go at Alek day but that was not my intention. By all means keep trying and experimenting with computers as it is the best way to learn and if I can help with any other queries in the future then I will join in. Beware :-) Tell me this: what is gained by "I told you so!"? |
#8
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Special Folders Revisited
VanguardLH wrote on 4/28/2015 7:06 PM:
snip So I removed the magnetic HD that had been C:, installed the SSD and booted Everything was fine. So you loaded a different instance of Windows on the SSD that had no knowledge that you moved the special folders in the other instance of Windows. Here's what I did. Created the junctions with the mag drive as C and O: as the drive with the actual folders. Cloned the mag drive to the SSD. Replaced the mag drive with the SSD and booted successfully. Shutdown and installed the old mag drive as E: Deleted the junction points (NOT rmdir, unfortunately) and created new ones that pointed to drive E: Went to O: and renamed the alek directory. Downloaded something and found to my surprise that it was dl'd to O:\alek\downloads!! You said you moved the special folders to the 2nd HDD which was, under that instance of Windows, assigned the drive letter of O:. Now you're saying in the new instance of Windows from the SSD that it assigned drive letter E: to your HDD which is expected. So where is the O: drive from which you said you copied? E: is an internal mag drive. O: is a USB-connected mag drive. Just for kicks, I looked in the registry for references to the original O: folders and found HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders Under that, I found My Music - O:\alek\music Personal - O:\alek\documents {374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B} - O:\alek\Downloads !!!! Ditto for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders |
#9
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Special Folders Revisited
VanguardLH wrote:
As I mentioned, I'm sure that process ensures the correct permissions are assigned the new folder. Oops, meant to say "I'm NOT sure". |
#10
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Special Folders Revisited
Curious as to whether you have yet logged out and in of your Windows
account. If that doesn't work, reboot the machine (no hybrid or hibernation mode restart but a cold boot). |
#11
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Special Folders Revisited
VanguardLH wrote on 4/29/2015 4:21 PM:
Curious as to whether you have yet logged out and in of your Windows account. If that doesn't work, reboot the machine (no hybrid or hibernation mode restart but a cold boot). Many times. |
#12
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Special Folders Revisited
Alek wrote:
VanguardLH wrote on 4/29/2015 4:21 PM: Curious as to whether you have yet logged out and in of your Windows account. If that doesn't work, reboot the machine (no hybrid or hibernation mode restart but a cold boot). Many times. Not sure how it all got screwed up but maybe it's time to put it back to the defaults. Delete the junction on the C: drive for the special folder, use the Windows wizard to move the special folder on E: back to C:, make sure apps and Windows Explorer see the special folder on the C: drive, and then use the Windows wizard to move the special folder from C: to E:. Only after experimenting that the wizard move of the special folder worked okay would I then go create a junction on C: to the special folder on E:. I don't recommend moving the entire %userprofile% folder due to programs that are hardcoded to use that path for their subfolders, like under the AppData or ProgramData subfolders. Just move the special folders - the ones where when you right-click on them and select Properties have a Location tab where you change the special folders physical path. Unless you actually have a program that uses its own hardcoded path to the default/old My Documents, My Videos, etc special folders, I wouldn't bother defining junctions for them back on C:. Wait until you have a program that is too stupid to use the paths that Windows specifies in the registry for the special folders and then try using a junction on that special folder. |
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