Documents/Desktop/Pictures etc. refer to same location issue

DanielM · 02 Nov 2018

Sorry about the ambiguous title but I am not one hundred percent certain how to best articulate my issue. Essentially I tried to move all my Program Files/x86 and My Desktop/Documents/Pictures etc. from my SSD to my HDD following this tutorial:
How to move program files to a 2nd HHD From SSD - YouTube

Somewhere along the line things got messy and now Windows can't install updates and all my Windows 10 Libraries (is that the name?) folders refer to the same place. They all have different icons, but the same subset of folders and at the moment they all refer to H:\Users\Dan\Music but when I click restore default location it goes to C:\Users\Dan\Documents automatically, for all folders, not just Documents. I have attached relevant screenshots from my registry editor and file explorer in a PDF, please let me know if there are any missing. I think I can see where the issue is but I want to get some more advanced advice before I go and tinker again.

Screenshots.pdf

If all else fails I guess I could back my stuff up and do a full restore but I'd rather amend my mistake if possible.

There are a lot of screenshots, I tried to include everything relevant but you may only need to see a handful. I realize it's a messy issue, thanks for your time guys, I really appreciate it.

dalchina · 02 Nov 2018

Hi, the first hack (moving and changing the path to the Program Files folder is unsupported by MS.

That breaks your ability to repair or upgrade Windows using Windows update.

The second part, changing the location of your library folders, whilst available and supported by tutorials here, again and again lends itself to users making bad mistakes which MS claim to be undoable.

In one such case, @Bree courageously spent several days developing a sequence to sort out the user's mistake. To do that he had to recreate the situation, try something, restore his test system back to how it was using a disk image, try again, restore again etc. Hugely time consuming.

I guess I could back my stuff up

Do you mean you DON'T have backups already?? What will you do when your disk fails, or something goes badly wrong?

Given where you are with problems in both areas, you could:
a. clean install and start again.
b. restore a disk image of your system before you made all these changes. If you have any, that is.
We constantly urge users to use disk imaging so that when things go wrong or they make bad mistakes they can readily restore their system to a previous good working state- even if they need to replace a failed disk. And that without technical help, potentially. E.g. Macrium Reflect (free) + external storage for disk images.

A different way to achieve your goal, at least in part.

There is nothing sacrosanct about the default library folders (Documents, Videos etc). You can create your own libraries, add folders to a library.

I would never move the default ones. Why?
a. Easy to make bad mistakes
b. Programs badly programmed may use a fixed path (rather than the registry) to access those folders- i.e. they assume they are in the default location
c. They get filled with folders by programs I install

Therefore I create my own folders-
My Files & Folders
Downloads
Music
Media
etc
on a second drive.

It is a good idea to keep your personal files off C: so as to avoide them being affected by major maintenance of your system partition. (Think clean install e.g. - and build 1809 was withdrawn by MS because of deleting files in those folders!)For large progs e.g. games, it may be that manually installing them to a second drive means a lot is saved on C: - whether this is true or not for a given prog depends on its design. Progs can create folders in many more areas than Program Files.Better to simply get a larger disk.