Ghost Folder

I moved my downloads folder from C:\Users\mojo1\Downloads to a backup drive E:\ because it was taking up to much room, now i have removed E:\ drive and moved the downloads folder to another drive which works fine, but in the left hand window in file explorer under "This PC" the blue arrow indicating Downloads is still there and when you go to properties it says E:\ drive, but E:\ drive is gone, i cannot delete it or move it as the pop ups say E:\ drive cannot be found so i am left with a ghost folder that does not exist that i cannot get rid off.
So i am hoping someone out there knows how to fix this problem so i can move on.

Thanks for any Remedies that might help.

mojo53 said:

I moved my downloads folder from C:\Users\mojo1\Downloads to a backup drive E:\ because it was taking up to much room, now i have removed E:\ drive and moved the downloads folder to another drive which works fine, but in the left hand window in file explorer under "This PC" the blue arrow indicating Downloads is still there and when you go to properties it says E:\ drive, but E:\ drive is gone, i cannot delete it or move it as the pop ups say E:\ drive cannot be found so i am left with a ghost folder that does not exist that i cannot get rid off.
So i am hoping someone out there knows how to fix this problem so i can move on.

Thanks for any Remedies that might help.

This might help you Reset and Clear Recent Items and Frequent Places in Windows 10

mojo53 said:

I moved my downloads folder from C:\Users\mojo1\Downloads to a backup drive E:\ because it was taking up to much room, now i have removed E:\ drive and moved the downloads folder to another drive which works fine, but in the left hand window in file explorer under "This PC" the blue arrow indicating Downloads is still there and when you go to properties it says E:\ drive, but E:\ drive is gone, i cannot delete it or move it as the pop ups say E:\ drive cannot be found so i am left with a ghost folder that does not exist that i cannot get rid off.
So i am hoping someone out there knows how to fix this problem so i can move on.

Thanks for any Remedies that might help.

Run RegEdit, go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

I think you will find that there is still a reference to your E:\ drive in there.

If so, you can just change it in the Registry but Windows gets really awkward if you accidentally enter a path that does not exist so
- use File explorer to go to your intended path,
- click in a blank area in the Address bar to select the path,
- right-click, Copy,
- in the Registry, double-click on the entry that has E:\ in it,
- in the dialog that appears use right-click, Paste

If you are at all unsure then post diagrams of those two Registry keys so they can be discussed
- Do make sure that all the relevant info is shown by dragging around column header dividers so the whole of each entry is visible [it's just like dragging column header dividers in File explorer].

Denis

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and i tried them all from the properties options to sfc /scannow and looked in the registry locations mentioned and nothing there so i was about to give up and pick a repair or clean install when i realized i used Samsung data migration and cloned a new SSD about a month ago, so i swapped C drive reinstalled my backup drives and everything almost fell into place, E: drive reappeared but said it was empty when i checked the properties also i did not have permission to open it so i checked with computer/Disk management who said it was there and everything was fine ? anyway i finally got it checked out in disk management and it had several errors on it which it fixed and finally "you do not have permission" etc popped up again and i blundered my way through that and actually opened it and everything was fine and i found a file00000001.chk recovered file fragments waiting for me so when i figure out how to open that all should be good, except i probably need a new backup drive very shortly.
So thanks for all the advice guys, i finally had a win.

When Check Disk Runs on a drive with errors or that is beginning to fail, if it reads a Bad Sector, it will try to move the data on that sector to another sector near by. If the file is a fragment or orphaned, it will store the file as file0001.chk and so on. These are incomplete files and can be safely deleted. If you want to try and recover the files, you can use Data Recovery software
You should replace that drive that is failing ASAP.