Question I should have left it in its original location

[Afarrow21]

I was worried about potential space in SSD and wanted to move Program files to HDD to save space

Created new folders in A: labeled "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)"
Powershelled
Robocopy "C:\Program Files" "A:\Program Files" /mir
Robocopy "C:\Program Files (x86)" "A:\Program Files (x86)" /mir

In registry editor I changed location (Photo Attached)

Then I copied all the files from old program files folders and pasted into new to make sure no files were skipped Ignored duplicated when it was copying.

Now I fiqured out I cannot delete old program file folders from C:/ so im trying to move it all back and when I did
Robocopy "A:\Program Files (x86)" "C:\Program Files (x86)" /mir
to start to reverse what I did im getting a bunch of error32

Obviously I am in deep and realize i should have just left everything on the ssd as it was sufficient. Please help me get back to before my so thought great idea.

https://imgur.com/a/MxLJ3RV

View: https://imgur.com/a/MxLJ3RV

 

[Ralston18]

If you only copied files from C: to A: then the original files should still be on C: as they were.

If you actually moved the files then that may prove more troublesome...

The other matter is more serious: i.e., the registry edits.

When you first edited the registry you should have been prompted to make a backup copy. Were you prompted to do so and, more importantly, did you do so?

The first thought would be to manually reverse, if possible, the registry edits that you made. Did you keep any notes on what you changed and where? I.e., some "before and after" settings.

However, editing the Registry without such information is not recommended, things could end up worse.

Can you find that backup registry copy? My recommendation is to restore the backup if possible.

Even then, hold on doing that - there may be other ideas and suggestions offered.

 

[USAFRet]

Whoa, multiple bad moves.

Lots of things rely on being where it was installed in the first place, not just things that you've installed.
Changing that path in the Registry leads to actual parts of the OS not working. If you reboot, I'd bet that not even regedit would work again.

I know of only two actual ways to recover this:

1. Recover from a full system backup you made before this happened. (not just the registry, the entire system)
2. A full wipe and reinstall of the OS and everything else.

And in the future, don't use drive letter A and B. Yes, windows allows it, no you shouldn't.

What Are the Windows A: and B: Drives Used For?

The C: drive is the default installation location for Windows, if you have a CD/DVD drive on your machine it’s likely the D: drive, and any additional drives fall in line after that.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[Afarrow21]

If you only copied files from C: to A: then the original files should still be on C: as they were.

If you actually moved the files then that may prove more troublesome...

The other matter is more serious: i.e., the registry edits.

When you first edited the registry you should have been prompted to make a backup copy. Were you prompted to do so and, more importantly, did you do so?

The first thought would be to manually reverse, if possible, the registry edits that you made. Did you keep any notes on what you changed and where? I.e., some "before and after" settings.

However, editing the Registry without such information is not recommended, things could end up worse.

Can you find that backup registry copy? My recommendation is to restore the backup if possible.

Even then, hold on doing that - there may be other ideas and suggestions offered.

Thank you for your response I did not even think of everything being its original location still it is just the registry that has changed.
To the question on the back up I was never prompted to make a back up and did not think to.

 

[Afarrow21]

Whoa, multiple bad moves.

Lots of things rely on being where it was installed in the first place, not just things that you've installed.
Changing that path in the Registry leads to actual parts of the OS not working. If you reboot, I'd bet that not even regedit would work again.

I know of only two actual ways to recover this:

1. Recover from a full system backup you made before this happened. (not just the registry, the entire system)
2. A full wipe and reinstall of the OS and everything else.

And in the future, don't use drive letter A and B. Yes, windows allows it, no you shouldn't.

What Are the Windows A: and B: Drives Used For?

The C: drive is the default installation location for Windows, if you have a CD/DVD drive on your machine it’s likely the D: drive, and any additional drives fall in line after that.

www.howtogeek.com

Thank you for your response. I have rebooted multiple times since I started this yesterday as I was redoing some things that had to be PreOS. I have not tried to since trying to go back to C:/ Also thank you for the information on the A and B drive. I will change the drive letter. I am on track to try a reboot after all my changed this evening and will follow up with an update.

 

[USAFRet]

Is this a brand new install?

 

[Ralston18]

Re: No registry backup.

Then you are, overall, faced with the recovery ways (1 & 2) suggested by @USAFRet.

If you have good backups and have otherwise copied the system to facilitate a recovery then that is the route to go.

If not, then you might try reversing your registry edits and hope for the best.

However, overall, it is likely that all will be lost.

So do indeed copy/backup whatever data that you can, verify that all is recoverable and readable somewhere off of your system.

Then, and only then, try reversing the registry edits.

Nothing to lose by giving that a try....

Next would be "1 & 2" above.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[Afarrow21]

Is this a brand new install?

Its a hybrid. Old HDD that housed the OS and Program Files Old HDD with Media. Then new everything including two new HDD's. Did this with the intentions of migrating OS from old HDD to new. As you may be thinking that did not work since it was preloaded on the HDD by HP from my old system. I was prompted for windows license which bought one to just activate the already installed version. Since then I have been able to migrate OS to a SSD once Removed alot of the large files from user files. I do have it set to create a monthly system back up that was completed on 6/30/19 so I can go from that if need be however due to my recklessness Believe i will prompt for a detailed backup of partitions and all more frequent.

 

[Afarrow21]

Re: No registry backup.

Then you are, overall, faced with the recovery ways (1 & 2) suggested by @USAFRet.

If you have good backups and have otherwise copied the system to facilitate a recovery then that is the route to go.

If not, then you might try reversing your registry edits and hope for the best.

However, overall, it is likely that all will be lost.

So do indeed copy/backup whatever data that you can, verify that all is recoverable and readable somewhere off of your system.

Then, and only then, try reversing the registry edits.

Nothing to lose by giving that a try....

Next would be "1 & 2" above.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Thank you. That sounds par for the course with me. You try to do something you think is good and it turns around and bites you. I will be working on reversing entries and saving data and plan for a reboot tonight after all revisions and will provide and update.

 

[USAFRet]

Moving a drive with an OS to a new system has 3 possibilities:

1. It boots up just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It boots up, but you have lingering issues.

You found # 3, and then added to the pile with the registry edit.
I'd look to just starting over completely, with a full wipe and reinstall. Yes, painful. But that WILL work.

The licensing/activation is a whole different consideration.

 

[onespeedbiker]

If all you did was change the four values in the registry, you should be able to change it back. Here are the values in my registry on the same hive

 

[Afarrow21]

As an update to changing the registry and robocopying everything back to its C:/ Location. I did have an issue with some files copying back to C that were said to currently being in use. After closing the processes in task manager it finally worked. After multiple boots I believe I had to let my registry editor fix 700+ errors. Everything seemed to work just as it did before. However under the sound advice of USAFRet and Ralston18 I already made my decision to totally start fresh. I could do a partial reset from what I understand however this copy of window was Windows 7 from 2010 and it has built up alot of data and files so I currently am in the process of a full dump of windows 10 home and moving to windows 10 pro as my license was originally allotted for. We will see how this works moving forward. I was scared to loose my media and documents so I removed everything from my Sata ports. This is the only issue i see as i may not plug them in as they were before and they may have my old copy of window associated with them. Learning by trial and error.

 

[Colif]

Easiest way to avoid space difficulties on ssd is buy a bigger ssd, not mess with where program files are auto installed. I mean, I only have a 250gb ssd and after moving all library locations to my other hdd, redirecting onedrive as well, I still have 188gb free space on ssd. Only things installed on ssd are things that would need to be reinstalled anyway. Steam client is on C but steam library is on hdd. There is nothing really big on the ssd

Having applications running on 2nd hdd only makes them slow and creates a mess next time you reinstall.

moving save locations breaks all sorts of things, drivers and windows updates among other things.

 

[Afarrow21]

Easiest way to avoid space difficulties on ssd is buy a bigger ssd, not mess with where program files are auto installed. I mean, I only have a 250gb ssd and after moving all library locations to my other hdd, redirecting onedrive as well, I still have 188gb free space on ssd. Only things installed on ssd are things that would need to be reinstalled anyway. Steam client is on C but steam library is on hdd. There is nothing really big on the ssd

Having applications running on 2nd hdd only makes them slow and creates a mess next time you reinstall.

moving save locations breaks all sorts of things, drivers and windows updates among other things.

Colif,

Yes, I understand this principle and that you for replying. My SSD was large enough I should have to left it be. I think I set the partition for C:/ at 250 or 225 gb so yeah I just messed around and took it too far.