Duplicate D:\ drive

dalchina said:

Certainly easy to try, but does the problem not lie in C:?

I would think the problem is with the D: drive. If the D: drive is deleted/formatted the problem should be fixed. Then ShaneN17 could copy the files back to the D: drive.

I agree MS should have System Restore turned on by default. I can understand why it gets turned off when doing a upgrade in the Insider build but not in the RTM version. :)

dalchina said:

The Recovery partition is part of Windows, and should be on the same drive as Windows. Not to be confused with a Recovery partition (bigger) provided by the manufacturer which allows the PC to be restored to a state as bought.

Formatting D, assuming you choose the correct drive (!) will not affect the SSD if D: is on your HDD.

Note: whilst this is a rather straightforward operation in Disk Management, which is perfectl adequate for this, usually these things are clearer in a 3rd party partition manager, which also provide a boot medium (some available free e.g. Minitools) and more flexibility and features.

You might like to take this opportunity to start to use disk imaging, which allows you to recover quickly and easily to a previous working state by restoring an image you have created (considering your OS) and also acts as a full backup.

This is strongly recommended as routine practise here.

Thus you could use e.g. Macrium Reflect (free) to create images of your drives. (Quicker than copying the data)
Then format D:
Then mount the image of D: and copy the data from that to D:

Would imaging the D: drive be the correct way to go? I would think if they image the drive when they do the restore the drive would be right back where it started.

Thank you both for the information, this is a great conversation. :)

I will work on trying the suggestions provided either later today or tomorrow and report back.

dalchina said:

Hi, I was careful to specify
Then mount the image of D: and copy the data from that to D:

That's not the same as restoring it- simply recovering the files folders from the image, using the image as a backup store.

Perhaps we need to research how junctions are actually implemented, assuming that's the issue..

Note: I'm beginning to think from what I've read that something is stored in the folder when a link is created.. I can't yet understand this or found a good enough description. But if so, formatting and copying back won't work.

***** This the first thing to try:
Obtaining a list of junction points


A list of all the junctions present in the current directory can be obtained from an elevated Command Prompt as Admin by executing dir /aL, and a list of all the junctions present on a disk volume, by executing dir /aL /s C:\, where "C:" is the volume to scan.

NTFS junction point - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I.e. before actually doing anything, let's see if there's anything there.
May as well scan both C and D for completeness.

I never had to deal with junctions so I haven't a clue what to suggest. I'm thinking that the problem is on the D: drive. If it is than I don't see why saving the files and formatting the D: drive wouldn't work. If It's something on the C: drive causing this than I have no Idea what to try.

ShaneN17 said:

Thank you both for the information, this is a great conversation. :)

I will work on trying the suggestions provided either later today or tomorrow and report back.

Let us know how it goes. Hopefully you'll get this solved. :)

Sorry for coming late !

dir /aL /s C:\ WILL find junctions, since there are system-created ones, such as the "Documents and settings" directory junction, which is perfectly normal.

I use junctions here and there, and imho it's very unlikely that you created one by mistake. However, checking for junctions won't cost you anything except search time.

I personnally doubt there's really a mirror between D:\ and your Videos folder, if adding/removing documents to D:\ adds/removes them to/from your Videos folder and vice-versa, it's more likely that the Videos folder is still configured to be D:\.

What do you see on the Location tab when you right click and choose Properties on your Videos folder ? You have to change that directory location to another one such as a subdirectory of D:\ (D:\Videos for example), and when you get a yes/no prompt about whether or not you want to move everything to the new location, say NO. You should not get a permission denied message, unless you don't have the rights to create this directory. You can create the directory in the file manager first if you want...