Moving the Docs, Pictures and Music Folders to a specified partition

[Rat_uk]

just installed vista home premium.

on my old xp machine i had 5 partitions, one for docs, one for pics, one for
OS, one for temp files and one for music

i seem to be making a mess of moving the docs, pics, music folders default
locations from c:\users\rat

when i move the docs folder, the music and pictures one goes with it. i get
an option to move all other folders at the same time. i'm not sure what the
best solution is.

this is what i want:

f: documents\steve's docs
f: documents\jo's docs

g: pictures\steve's pictures
g: pictures\jo's pictures

h: music

what is the best way to achieve this?

i don't want odd folders left behind on c: and therefore making it an untidy
and confusing job of navigating to the folders, effectively i want to the
docs, pics and music folders to disappear from the c: drive and appear and
default to the drives that i have listed above.

any tips would be welcomed.

steve.

 

[Guest]

If you are moving the folders by right clicking on them and selecting
properties, then are you aren't actually moving anything. You are only
redirecting the dynamic link for "pictures" under each profile to a given
location. So if I understand correctly, to get this,

f: documents\steve's docs
f: documents\jo's docs

log in as Steve, go to your user\steve directory and right click on
"documents" select properties and change location to the "f:
documents\steve's docs" folder. This will simply put anything that is in the
C\user\steve's\documents folder in the f partition folder. If there is
nothing in your C:\user\steve's\documents folder, than nothing will get
moved. Then, from that point on, every time you click on your document
(under steve's profile), it will automatically take you to that folder on the
F partition.

You can do the same for each profile/user and each of the documents,
pictures, music, and video files (probably others too). It is actually quite
convienent.

I hope I understood that correctly, and just didn't tell you what you
already knew.

I think the big difference is that on XP, the music and pictures directory
was inside the documents directory. In vista, they are all on the same
level, underneath your profile name. The actual "my docs" folders are just
links so legacy programs that need them can still run. If you just try to
move each folder one at a time, i think you will be okay and accomlish what
you want to do.

Think of the C drive references as shortcuts, you cannot delete them. You
can only point them to where you want them to go. So when navigating you can
get to the same point by either clicking on "documents" in any explorer
window, or actually browsing to that specific partition and digging through
the folders.

 

[~Vaughn]

Justin,

I have followed your instructions so I could redirect the Documents
shortcut in c:\user\vaughn\ to point to D:\Documents.

When I do this I get the following error message when I open a Word
document:

"Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error." I am
then left with a ~WRL0003.tmp file and my original file is gone.

I just did a reformat and clean install of Vista Home Premium because
this issue was driving me nuts. I then slowly installed and tested by
opening and attempting to modify and save the same Word file.

Here is what I installed:

Vista, Defender and driver updates from Windows update -- test after
OK
Office 2003 - test after OK
Cisco VPN Client - test after OK
Avast Pro AV - test after OK

THEN changed the location as I said above by right clicking on the
Documents folder on the start panel and "moving" the location.

BOOM - Test after FAILED.

Tried to reset to default by right clicking on Documents link on start
panel and selecting reset to default and that won't fix it. Now I
cannot open then save Word documents. I even tried System Restore
prior to the redirect and it will not work.

Any idea? I noticed there is a similar thread under OneCare
installation, but I am positive it is the redirection that caused the
problem. No OncCare installed on my system.

Thanks,

Vaughn

 

[~Vaughn]

Justin,

Update: I seem to have fixed the problem by converting the D: drive
from Fat32 to NTFS.

Go figure.

Vaughn

 

[Rat_uk]

ok vaughan,

can you tell me what you did because it seems to be confusing. i want all
docs to point to another partition and music/video to another.

when i right click and redirect the folder it leaves bits behind and becomes
an untidy mess.

how have you done it?