how to create an extra "My Documents" folder on a different drive?

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Guest

My question is: the main drive is getting full, and I would like to create an
extra "My Documents" folder on a different drive that would appear on the top
(as the original "My Documents" folder.) My aim is to shorten the time when
I am looking for a photo on the other drive for example in photoshop. I do
not want to click on the "My Computer", and than on the letter of the given
drive, then on the main picture folder, and than on the subfolders that
indicates the year..etc.
So a folder, that appears on the top whatever program I am using... ?? I
have Xp home Edition.
Thank You!!
 
Istvan said:
My question is: the main drive is getting full, and I would like to create an
extra "My Documents" folder on a different drive that would appear on the top
(as the original "My Documents" folder.) My aim is to shorten the time when
I am looking for a photo on the other drive for example in photoshop. I do
not want to click on the "My Computer", and than on the letter of the given
drive, then on the main picture folder, and than on the subfolders that
indicates the year..etc.
So a folder, that appears on the top whatever program I am using... ?? I
have Xp home Edition.
Thank You!!
Click to expand...

Right click on My Documents/Properties and configure it from there.

Alias
 
Thank you, now i understand how to change the location of My documents folder.

But: is there any way to create an EXTRA "My Documents" folder, which means
that the original one on drive "c" will be shown on the top, and the new one,
on drive "d", is shown on the top as well? It might be a strange question,
but that is what i need: two "My Documents" folder because files on drive "c"
must be reached quickly and since it is full, i need a new one on drive "d"
whose content must be reached quickly as well. ???
 
You can't have two "My Documents" folders as there names would be the same.
You could have a folder called "My Documents D Drive".

To create this right click on your desk
Select New
Select Shortcut
In the location path type D:\whateverthefolderiscalled
Click Next
Type in the name you would like to call it i.e. "My Documents D Drive"
Click Finish

You should now have a shortcut to your new my documents folder.
 
There is a way to get easy access to this second harddrive through My
Documents - without moving My Documents and without shortcuts - sorry Steve.

Now, both harddrives must be formatted NTFS. Given that, create an empty
folder in My Documents. Now go to Disk Management:

1. Remove the drive letter association from the second harddrive
2. And "mount" the second harddrive into the empty folder in My Documents

This means that when you search My Docments or perform related operations,
the system will search the second harddrive as if it were a folder in My
Documents. Understand? If not, reply and I will walk write up a walk
through.
 
Istvan said:
Thank you, now i understand how to change the location of My documents folder.

But: is there any way to create an EXTRA "My Documents" folder, which means
that the original one on drive "c" will be shown on the top, and the new one,
on drive "d", is shown on the top as well? It might be a strange question,
but that is what i need: two "My Documents" folder because files on drive "c"
must be reached quickly and since it is full, i need a new one on drive "d"
whose content must be reached quickly as well. ???
Click to expand...

Actually, any app will "reach" the files in different folders equally
quickly. You may have to click a couple of extra clicks, is all.

AFAIK, you can't there from here. Any "extra" MyDocs folder will be the
_same one_ as the original. I created one by accident, like this:

a) created new folder
b) named it "NameDocs"
c) dragged a few files from MyDocs to NameDocs
d) did other stuff, put some files into NameDocs
e) tried to copy some files from NameDocs to MyDocs
f) got error message:
"cannot copy as target is the same as source"
or words to that effect. (I don't memorise error messages.:-))
g) looked in MyDocs - all the files saved to NameDocs were there.
h) tried to delete NameDocs, since it's useless
i) got error message:
"Cannot delete My Documents as it is a system folder."
or words to that effect.
j) HUH??????

So now I have a duplicate of MyDocs under a different name. Or rather,
the icon is in effect a shortcut, but doesn't behave as a shortcut. Bah!

Unless someone knows how to do want you want (I'd sure like to know,
too), IMO, you have three options left:

a) copy the contents of the current MyDocs folder onto CD or DVD;
(Don't copy MyDocs, just its contents). Then empty MyDocs.
or
b) create a new folder tree on the new HD, and set your apps to use the
appropriate folders by default. You can still access the files in MyDocs
as needed, albeit at the cost of extra clicks.
or
c) buy a humungous HD, say 250GB, and move your current installation to
it. (Blank out the old drive, reformat it, and use it to keep current
system backups etc.) 250GB should take you a while to fill up... :-)

I'd also like to know to get rid of the NameDocs icon.

HTH

BeginRant;
I HATE My Docs etc. These folders seriously interfere with my desire to
set up my own folder tree to suit the way _I_ want to organise my data.
They the are the reason that tipped the balance: I am moving as far away
from Windows as possible.
EndRant;

[...]
 
All good suggestions on how to make a new MyDocuments folder or move a
MyDocuments folder from the root drive to another drive. The problem comes
when Istvan added that he wants this MyDocuments folder to be as accessible
as his current MyDocuments folder on the root (C:\) drive........and show up
in applications when saving or opening files. Microsoft Office applications
and many others default to the MyDocument folder when opening or saving
files and I am not aware of a way to have two MyDocument folders located on
separate drives be available in that way.

Jeff
 
Wolf said:
Istvan said:
Thank you, now i understand how to change the location of My
documents folder.

But: is there any way to create an EXTRA "My Documents" folder,
which means that the original one on drive "c" will be shown on the
top, and the new one, on drive "d", is shown on the top as well? It
might be a strange question, but that is what i need: two "My
Documents" folder because files on drive "c" must be reached
quickly and since it is full, i need a new one on drive "d" whose
content must be reached quickly as well. ???
Click to expand...

Actually, any app will "reach" the files in different folders equally
quickly. You may have to click a couple of extra clicks, is all.

AFAIK, you can't there from here. Any "extra" MyDocs folder will be
the _same one_ as the original. I created one by accident, like this:

a) created new folder
b) named it "NameDocs"
c) dragged a few files from MyDocs to NameDocs
d) did other stuff, put some files into NameDocs
e) tried to copy some files from NameDocs to MyDocs
f) got error message:
"cannot copy as target is the same as source"
or words to that effect. (I don't memorise error messages.:-))
g) looked in MyDocs - all the files saved to NameDocs were there.
h) tried to delete NameDocs, since it's useless
i) got error message:
"Cannot delete My Documents as it is a system folder."
or words to that effect.
j) HUH??????

So now I have a duplicate of MyDocs under a different name. Or
rather, the icon is in effect a shortcut, but doesn't behave as a
shortcut. Bah!

Unless someone knows how to do want you want (I'd sure like to know,
too), IMO, you have three options left:

a) copy the contents of the current MyDocs folder onto CD or DVD;
(Don't copy MyDocs, just its contents). Then empty MyDocs.
or
b) create a new folder tree on the new HD, and set your apps to use
the appropriate folders by default. You can still access the files
in MyDocs as needed, albeit at the cost of extra clicks.
or
c) buy a humungous HD, say 250GB, and move your current installation
to it. (Blank out the old drive, reformat it, and use it to keep
current system backups etc.) 250GB should take you a while to fill
up... :-)

I'd also like to know to get rid of the NameDocs icon.

HTH

BeginRant;
I HATE My Docs etc. These folders seriously interfere with my desire
to set up my own folder tree to suit the way _I_ want to organise my
data. They the are the reason that tipped the balance: I am moving
as far away from Windows as possible.
EndRant;

[...]
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I don't see what's wrong with mounting the spare harddrive (HDD) at a folder
in My Documents. It makes all of the new HDD accessible right through My
Documents. If he doesn't want the entire of the new HDD mounted there, he
could partition the new HDD into more than one partition and mount only a
partition at the folder in My Documents. This means when he wants to access
the new space, it's right there when he clicks on My Documents. What's NTFS
for anyway? Just for this sort of thing plus.
 
You can mount a whole second harddrive into My Documents .. and then some.
It's just one of the things the NTFS file system enables you to do.
 
Gospel wrote:
[...]
I don't see what's wrong with mounting the spare harddrive (HDD) at a folder
in My Documents. It makes all of the new HDD accessible right through My
Documents. If he doesn't want the entire of the new HDD mounted there, he
could partition the new HDD into more than one partition and mount only a
partition at the folder in My Documents. This means when he wants to access
the new space, it's right there when he clicks on My Documents. What's NTFS
for anyway? Just for this sort of thing plus.
Click to expand...


OK, that sounds reasonable. Thanks for that.
 
Good suggestion Gospel, the only reason I suggested my way was a) we don't
know how the d:\ drive is partitioned or whether he applications installed on
it and b) I was trying to keep it simple.

Either way if it was me doing it on my system I would do what you suggested,
but only because I know what I am doing :-)
 
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