SSD drive and personal folders

sportsfan148 · 02 Mar 2019

Does anyone know what caused the recent problems with 1809 where people were losing their personal files in the Documents folder after the 1809 update? Ive read the advice where you right click on the Documents Folder and select properties/location and change the destination there to the D: Data drive. It seems to be a recommendation to do this with the Pictures folder too in order to free up space on the SSD drive. Was that what caused the original data loss issue? If so, is it better to leave well alone and leave the Personal Folders in their default location on the SSD?
My SSD is the C: system drive and it is only 128GB. The PC also has a standard 1 Terabyte internal Hard Drive which is basically empty. Im a bit unsure how best to use the SSD drive (what to install to the SSD etc). Any advice here would be really appreciated. This is the first Dell system Ive ever had that has come with 2 drives so Im a complete novice user of an SSD

dalchina · 02 Mar 2019

Hi, the 1809 problems in that respect are history. MS did produce an explanation for at least some cases.

My recommendations:
- do not use folder relocation (Relocation tab).
Why? It's just too easy to make serious mistakes. In one such case which MS said was impossible to resolve it took one expert member here about 5 days of repeated experiments to find a solution for the poster.
- keep all personal files off C: - so on your 2nd disk is a great idea. Use that as a data disk.
That means they are not affected by OS maintenance, clean installs.
- if you wish, create your own libraries, add folders to libraries (tutorials available).
- The default Documents, Photos, Videos can readily be filled with folders programs you install create there. I've come to regard them as 'their' Documents etc.

Clearly your OS should be on C: and you can install most programs there too. (Even if you choose to install a program to, say, D: it will often create folders and registry keys, start menu shortcuts, possibly drivers on C:

128Gb isn't huge, but I have over 300 progs installed, and about 140Gb of 256Gb used. If you install e.g. games, well, they are likely to be big.

There is an extensive thread on how to save space on C:

NavyLCDR · 02 Mar 2019

I move all my User folders except for AppData to D: drive using the folder relocation option and have never had a problem on my laptop or desktop computer.

SSD drive and personal folders-20190301_170253.jpg

My setup also survived the initial upgrade to version 1809 during the very first week it was available for download, before it was pulled by Microsoft.

sportsfan148 · 02 Mar 2019

NavyLCDR said:

I move all my User folders except for AppData to D: drive using the folder relocation option and have never had a problem on my laptop or desktop computer.

My setup also survived the initial upgrade to version 1809 during the very first week it was available for download, before it was pulled by Microsoft.

So it sounds like using the Documents properties Location Tab to change the folder Destination to the D: Data drive wasn't the reason people were losing their files during the 1809 update back in October. I wondered if that might have been the cause of the data loss that people were experiencing.
Do you happen to use the Steam Gaming platform at all? I wondered whether to install that and all my games to the D: Data drive because of space limitations on my 128GB SSD drive

NavyLCDR · 02 Mar 2019

I have both steam and ubisoft games on a separate 2.5" SATA SSD on my desktop (G: deive). My OS C: drive is on an M.2 NVMe SSD.

The laptop the screenshot was from has an M.2 NVMe SSD for C: drive and a 2.5" SATA SSD for D: drive.

The real key to not losing data, though, is to keep image backups of it on a storage location outside the computer.

dalchina · 02 Mar 2019

Here's one account of the data loss saga:
Microsoft Fixes and Explains Lost Files Issue with Windows 10 Version 1809 -- Redmondmag.com

Windows 10 Version 1809 Suffers from Yet Another Data Loss Bug - Thurrott.com

sportsfan148 · 02 Mar 2019

In my case then would you say its best to install Steam and all Steam games onto the D: Data drive which is an internal 1 Terabyte standard Hard drive?

NavyLCDR · 02 Mar 2019

sportsfan148 said:

In my case then would you say its best to install Steam and all Steam games onto the D: Data drive which is an internal 1 Terabyte standard Hard drive?

Yes

sportsfan148 · 02 Mar 2019

dalchina said:

Here's one account of the data loss saga:
Microsoft Fixes and Explains Lost Files Issue with Windows 10 Version 1809 -- Redmondmag.com

Windows 10 Version 1809 Suffers from Yet Another Data Loss Bug - Thurrott.com

Thanks for the link. Known Folder Redirection???...that's a new one on me. Never heard of that before. Im guessing that's completely different to using the Location Tab under Document Properties to change the Documents Folder location from the SSD over onto the D: Data drive.

sportsfan148 · 02 Mar 2019

dalchina said:

Here's one account of the data loss saga:
Microsoft Fixes and Explains Lost Files Issue with Windows 10 Version 1809 -- Redmondmag.com

Windows 10 Version 1809 Suffers from Yet Another Data Loss Bug - Thurrott.com

Thanks for the link. Known Folder Redirection???...that's a new one on me. Never heard of that before. Im guessing that's completely different to using the Location Tab under Document Properties to change the Documents Folder location from the SSD over onto the D: Data drive.