Windows 8.1 Troubles

Staunch99

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Oct 6, 2013
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Hi,
I just built a new rig and I was trying to shift the default downloads, documents, music, pictures and videos folders from my ssd to hdd by changing the location in properties. Though after I did it for each folder, they are all now like one big folder linked to my hdd. So if I click on pictures, it will have all the exact same files etc. as it does in the documents folder and vice versa, and if i delete it in one it will delete in the other. I tried changing the folders back to their default locations, though i just get an error message. Is there any way to undo these changes?

Thanks in advance.
 
Solution

Think this area is a nightmare, one huge failing by M'soft to recognise the SSD/HDD combination. I haven't figured out a way to...

Think this area is a nightmare, one huge failing by M'soft to recognise the SSD/HDD combination. I haven't figured out a way to successfully shift my personal folders off the SSD other than dragging files between folders. Hopefully someone in M'soft development will address the problem... meanwhile make a noise in their Forums...
In fact some are reporting it's impossible to upgrade 8 to 8.1 if they've already changed locations...
 
Solution

Staunch99

Honorable
Oct 6, 2013
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10,540


Thanks for replying. I took a disk image before i started adding all my files and adding programs etc. do you think I should just restore it from that?
 

Probably a sound idea until we can figure out the new layout. You can use your installation media and choose Repair, though I've had problems with that as well!
Meanwhile I only have an 'Upgraded' 8.1 machine to experiment with, and the personal folders appear in 3 locations on the left panel in File Explorer:- when 'My Name' is expanded (2 links to each of Documents etcetera, when 'My PC is expanded and 'C'/Users/My Name is expanded!
Perhaps USAF Ret will be able to throw some light on the subject if he has a clean installed machine.
Otherwise you could also consider Restoring to a point before you tried re-locating...

 

Staunch99

Honorable
Oct 6, 2013
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10,540

Tried restoring to a point before I started relocating and everything seems to be back to normal. Thanks so much for replying :)
 
Well, I remembered I have a laptop with 8.1 clean installed, so I tried re-locating Documents, Music and Pictures to an external USB (Manually as you did) as it has an SSHD instead of an SSD/HDD combo. Documents and Music transferred fine, but Pictures now has this...
BkKLVFC.png


and when I Rt click 'Pictures' and choose 'Properties I get the USB Flash properties.... hopefully I'll return all to normal using Restore...
Perhaps USAF Ret will try his method to compare...
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


This is basically a test machine, but yeah. I also have a fresh image of it just in case.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
OK
So the commands and dialog boxes for 8.1 are different than 8. But it does work.

The main thing you have to do is create target folders on the other drive first!
Just selecting the other drive root screws up the situation, and attempts to use the whole drive.

Create the target folders...call them anything. 1 each for Docs, Pictures, Videos, Music
Right click, Properties, select the Location tab
Move
Navigate to the relevant folder you created, Select Folder
Apply
OK
It asks if you want to move all the current files. Yes.

On the target drive, it renames it to Documents. That is just the visible name. The actual 'folder' appears to still be called whatever you called it.

And it does go back. You can undo. But in the case of selecting just the root (as it appears our OP did), that may not work.

I'll be updating the tutorial with pics, etc later.
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1834397/ssd-redirecting-static-files.html
 

That's exactly what I did, but I can't figure why ''Pictures' should behave the way it did. Not only did it contain the extra folders as shown, but the individual jpegs were shown as well! Anyway, I'll try again sometime to see if I made a mistake somewhere...after all. it worked fine for Docs and Music... meanwhile the upgraded 8.1 is a whole new can of worms...perhaps any relocations should have been reversed before the upgrade to achieve the perfect results, and then relocate subsequently. From what I've read elsewhere installations with relocations wouldn't complete at all, but that begs the question as to why this one succeeded, albeit with some strange results. Perhaps your tutorial should advise Upgraders to revert to default before upgrading...