Moving my Documents folder from C drive to E Data drive

[jmt356]

I have a laptop with a C drive that hosts my operating system and an E drive that hosts my data. By default, my laptop came set up with Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos and Downloads on my C drive.

I have tried cutting and copying these folders from C to E, but it does not work for me. I can cut and copy the contents of each of these folders from C to E, but I want to move the folders themselves. Is this not possible?

[AlanMiller]

A quick Google search brings up this as a solution.
The Windows libraries (including My Documents) are "special" folders, which should not be simply cut/copy/pasted willy nilly.

Alan

[Rudi]

TX for sharing the solution.

[Argus]

TX for sharing the solution.

Was almost going to say "same procedure as every version" (referring to Dinner for one). It hasn't changed for quite some time; since Windows 95, I think. (I think it was possible to use MSFT's Tweak UI in the early days, up to Win XP, to point at another folder, but the built-in UI, i.e. the abovementioned method, could, and can, move the content as well.)

Anyhow, there shouldn't be any problems following this. Way back, if you did this after installing software such as Office, I think it could happen that you had to change the path in the Office software. Then there is some software that uses the Documents folder as some kind of Appdata folder, in my case CAD software that has created some folders in the Documents folder. Since, as Alan mentioned, these are special folders, and if using this method, there shouldn’t any problems.

[DaveA]

If this E drive is an external then take note:
I would NOT be moving the folders to and external drive, as the same drive letter may not be the same when firing the laptop.

If you do move these folders, then you WILL have issues if you ever fire it up and the external drive is NOT fully attached.

The move of the user's folders should be done ONLY to and internal drive when it will ALWAYS be there and the same drive letter.

[Jay Freedman]

It's best to leave the Windows-created folders where they are, for programs that aren't configurable enough to look elsewhere. Create a shortcut to your E:\Documents folder, and put the shortcut in the original Documents folder. That makes it easier to jump to your location when you get misdirected. Put your preferred folder in the Favorites or Quick Access list.

[AlanMiller]

I must admit that I've never found a satisfactory way of doing this. Too many MS and third party apps expect the libraries to reside on the default C drive. Some allow customizing, others not... all sorts of problems and errors. I've found it's really not worth the hassle. I have also been "tripped up" with the removable drive issue.

Alan

[jmt356]

I must admit that I've never found a satisfactory way of doing this. Too many MS and third party apps expect the libraries to reside on the default C drive. Some allow customizing, others not... all sorts of problems and errors. I've found it's really not worth the hassle. I have also been "tripped up" with the removable drive issue.

Alan

Then what do people who have their OS installed on C and their data installed on another drive do? This seems to be essential for the purpose of protecting data, particularly if you want to encrypt all of your data without encrypting your OS disk.

[StuartR]

I always add a shortcut to my data drive in the default Microsoft documents folder. Then if an app offers to save files in the wrong place it's just a single click to get to my preferred location

[Argus]

Then what do people who have their OS installed on C and their data installed on another drive do? This seems to be essential for the purpose of protecting data, particularly if you want to encrypt all of your data without encrypting your OS disk.

I had almost written a reply to the comments above earlier, but decided not to post. I see no problem with moving the data folders, Documents, Photos etc, to another drive, using the abovementioned method (but I don't touch Appdata etc, more on that below). There can be several reasons for doing that. Data tend to grow over time, it is then easier to migrate the data, and even if it doesn't grow some prefer a fast system drive and use a SSD, they tend to cost a bit more, so one can then use HDDs for data.

Several years ago we could see how some tried to move the user profile, or as much of it as possible, or some parts; the logic being that it contained user data. Then you can end up with all kinds of problems. In the old days some used environment variables to, for example, locate the Temp folder somewhere else. Not much use of that these days, when there are so many temp folders all over the place (software and OS).

There are also other arguments for moving the special data folders. Backups. There's plenty of software out there. Some years ago some of the freeware versions wouldn't allow backup of individual folders, only whole drives. So if one wanted a different backup regime for data compared to OS & software it would make sense to move the data to a separate drive.

As most know there can be some important data in the user profile, even if moving the abovementioned folders, such as data files for email clients and browsers. I see no problem with this, it is possible create simple backups with zip files or similar.

[DaveA]

If this E drive is just a partition on the same drive that C is on, then why risk the use in this manner.

I have seen more issues than I would want by moving the user files to another drive. I do save some files to other drives and network connections, but it does not take that much effort to click a different location.

[jmt356]

I have seen more issues than I would want by moving the user files to another drive. I do save some files to other drives and network connections, but it does not take that much effort to click a different location.

Just to clarify: I am only proposing moving the Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos and Downloads folders and their respective contents. Is that likely to cause issues?

[Argus]

You are quoting Dave, and perhaps he can share some examples. Just to clarify my experience, and in this specific case, up to Windows 7; I have been using computers with the exact same setup, using the built-in feature in Windows to move these folders (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos and Downloads), which tend to grow over time, to another drive.

That said, this has been done as part of the early setup, when changing some other settings, before installing most of the software.

[DaveA]

Yes, it can, but what Argus says above have a lot of truth to it.
It is the after a fact that the change can make issues.
Some programs will still want to use the "User" folder for their files.
Some Windows up dates have been know to put thing back where they should be.

With Windows 8.1 see https://www.zdnet.com/article/dont-move ... her-drive/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Argus]

Good example, Dave. As I mentioned above, moving the user profile or Appdata et al can result in problems. (That's one reason I mentioned it, since the article in the first link above goes on to talk about the Appdata folders; there is no support for that.)

Then what do people who have their OS installed on C and their data installed on another drive do? This seems to be essential for the purpose of protecting data, particularly if you want to encrypt all of your data without encrypting your OS disk.

It's a bit beyond the topic, but since you mention it (encryption) and it's one of perhaps several reasons you are planning to move the data folders; depending on what kind of data and software there can be as I'm sure many knows traces and cache files left in the user profile.

[jmt356]

As I understand, the main concern expressed here is that there are programs that save files by default to the C drive and that are unable to work with configures where Documents and other folders are located on another partition.

However, I do not consider these concerns to be valid because even after I moved the location of Documents, a Documents folder within C:\Users\ remained, though it was empty and a new Documents folder containing all of my files was moved to my E partition.

If a program cannot work with a configuration with my Documents folder located at E:\[user name], then I can create a shortcut to the E drive and place it in the Documents folder on my C drive.

[jmt356]

There was, however, one issue with moving the Documents folder. After moving it, I launched File Explorer by pressing Windows key + 4. I then received an error stating that the shortcut no longer existed, since the location of the target folder had been moved from the C drive.

I deleted the shortcut and relaunched File Explorer, which defaulted to the Quick access location. I right-clicked File Explorer, chose Properties and in the Shortcut tab, I tried to change the Target. However, the Target field was grayed out.

I tried searching for a solution to the grayed-out Target field and came across https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/chan ... e-explorer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, which suggests creating a shortcut to File Explorer on the desktop, setting the target to the desired location in the shortcut, and then dragging the shortcut to the Taskbar. Everything worked except for dragging the shortcut to the taskbar; Windows does not allow the shortcut to stick to the Taskbar.

Is there a way to change the target from Quick Access to my new Documents location?

[Rebel]

Have you tried right-clicking on your newly created shortcut icon and then selecting "pin to Taskbar" ?

[jmt356]

When I right-click the shortcut icon, I see Pin to Quick access and Pin to Start, but not Pin to Task bar.

[HansV]

Set the target of the shortcut to

explorer.exe "path to my documents"

substituting the correct path of course (if it doesn't contain spaces, you can omit the quotes around the path).

"Pin to taskbar" should then be available in the context (right-click) menu.