Windows 7 Files in wrong places

[Taffycat]

I have two HDs. One is the usual Local Disk (C which is a SSD intended only for the OS.

The other is a 2 TB 'ordinary' disk, entitled New Volume (E ... (when accessed it is expressed as E:\ ..........should there not be two slashes?)

When I downloaded a game recently (GW2) I directed it to the "E" drive. Sure enough, there are GW2 files in that drive. But, on doing a bit of searching today, I have found more files in the "C" drive (where I really don't want them to be!

There is a 31 MB file contained in "My Documents" (which by coincidence, I was looking for ways of moving to the 'E' drive anyway.

Can I do anything about stuff apparently re-directing itself to the 'C' drive? I've been extremely careful to re-direct all downloads to 'E' and feel really puzzled about how these files dodged.

Do you think they can be moved over in some way? Would it be 'safe' to drag and drop them into the "New Volume (E without causing major problems? The file is 31.9 MB

Ideally, I would like to transfer Documents, Pictures, Music over to the larger disk too. I've been Googling that one... but not quite certain which info is best (and least confusing.)

My question is a bit of a double whammy, but advice, as always, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.

 

[alow]

If you want to move the whole user directory to the E drive, you can try the steps here. If you just want to move My Documents, My Music, etc, you can go to C:\Users\<UserName> and Right click on each of them and go to Properties. Then go to the location tab and change the location to something like E:\Documents.

 

[V_R]

You can move your documents to the other drive if needed. Just right click and choose move.

I've done it myself, i have a 2Tb drive for docs alone.

Am at work and a little busy so i cant go into details right now, but will explain later if no one else has.

EDIT: Beaten by alow.

 

[muckshifter]

... just make sure you use 'folders' for sundry items as well, and not just chuck 'em on to E:\ ... "should there not be two slashes?" nope, one slash is 'path' of a drive, not \\ of a server, roughly.

 

[Taffycat]

Many thanks for the very helpful replies Alow, V_R and Mucks.

Alow, I have just bookmarked the linky so that I can digest it more thoroughly later. (I'm currently trying to catch-up on a few things around the house, so will come back to it when I can fully concentrate.) I missed that forum when I Googled earlier, my searches took me less we--explained pages. This looks much better.

Mucks ...yes, I chanced to make that discovery this morning... fortunately I haven't installed very much yet, so tried making a new folder for a recent item and then adding all it's stray bits and pieces. Needless to say.... it didn't work! Learned a lesson from that anyway.

 

[alow]

Good luck when you get some free time! I'm going to learn from your forum posts on this because I plan on finally building my own with a similar configuration in the (hopefully) near future.

 

[muckshifter]

Moving "data" and "installing" a program need different approaches ... if a program does not allow you to choose the destination, then making a new folder on the intended drive and dragging/moving the contents over, will not work. I must be installed so it sets it's "program" links correctly.

Windows likes to set up specific directories, or, as they call 'em these days, folders, for things like Pictures / Music / Documents ... in Windows 7, to add to the confusion, the "Documents", "Pictures", "Music" and "Videos" folders appear displayed in Windows Explorer with a "My" prefix but are actually still stored in the file system without the prefix.




oh, and we have a forced break from you know what.

 

[Taffycat]

Good luck when you get some free time! I'm going to learn from your forum posts on this because I plan on finally building my own with a similar configuration in the (hopefully) near future.

When I was growing up I remember a bumper-sticker which used to be very popular: "Don't follow me I'm lost!" That keeps coming to mind just at the moment.

Moving "data" and "installing" a program need different approaches ... if a program does not allow you to choose the destination, then making a new folder on the intended drive and dragging/moving the contents over, will not work. I must be installed so it sets it's "program" links correctly.

Windows likes to set up specific directories, or, as they call 'em these days, folders, for things like Pictures / Music / Documents ... in Windows 7, to add to the confusion, the "Documents", "Pictures", "Music" and "Videos" folders appear displayed in Windows Explorer with a "My" prefix but are actually still stored in the file system without the prefix.



oh, and we have a forced break from you know what.

I'm afraid I was using "TC logic" instead of Microsoft logic. Really should know better by now.

Yes, I noticed that about "My Documents" and "Documents."

Regarding 'you know what' (Guild Wars 2 for anyone needing a hint.) I'm not really surprised... bearing in mind the probs we had at the beginning of headstart, it seemed relatively likely that bigger ones would ensue on the official launch day. Shame though. Even the BBC has mentioned it.

 

[johhny-marshal]

The problem seems like whatever you started to download was in different partitions and required to allocate downloading space separately. As you directed the download to E: drive, which after downloading started to download another part in my documents which is by default path for everything to save.

 

[Taffycat]

Aaarrrrgggh! I despair!

I followed the advice from the Win 7 forums - regarding "include the folder into a Library" but I think something has gone very wrong. My so-called Pictures file is suddenly containing all kinds of stuff, including Microsoft gubbins.

I've taken a screensnip to help indicate what I mean. Does this mean I'm completely screwed and will need to do a re-install to start-over? Or just system restore?

Here is the awful mess :

 

[johhny-marshal]

You know what. i know how did it happen. You have used Windows Media Center and included your E: drive into it. That is the reason for sharing E: drive in My Documents. You have to remove it from Windows Media Center.

 

[V_R]

*Snip*

Not sure how you set up your user profile on the new drive, but it does look like something has installed to the root of the drive (E)

Personally i dont like the Libraries, so i dont use them much.

Personally i didn't set up my PC like that link above (only just looked at it) I just went through the folders and moved them individually that way i could pick exactly what i wanted where.

Like this...

So, for example, if i go to my 'Documents' and double click downloads, music, pictures etc, it takes me to that folder on my 'H' Drive.


I'm going out soon so dont have too much time to play with, but i hope that makes sense.

 

[Taffycat]

V_R that's exactly what I had been hoping to achieve.

It's pretty obvious that things went a bit awry here though, so do you think it's a correctable situation? Or am I looking at a re-install of Windows? As you can see from my attachment, there are files from Microsoft and NVIDIA lurking in there, to name but two.

My previous attempt to "gather up the stray bits" pop them into a folder and move them didn't go well. TC logic is obviously not PC logic, as Mucks indicated above.

Despite the mess-up... everything appears to be working okay, but I'm concerned that a few months down the line, the E drive is going to be a complete jumble if I don't sort it properly now.

Any thoughts? ..........Other than issuing a restraining order to keep me away from innocent computers, that is.

 

[Jeroy]

Windows need to keep a registry for every new entry to the system . No matter what you do , there will be always an index to all the other input devices ...It's a sort of a housekeeper who needs to control and access everything .. Sounds logical .

 

[V_R]

V_R that's exactly what I had been hoping to achieve.

It's pretty obvious that things went a bit awry here though, so do you think it's a correctable situation? Or am I looking at a re-install of Windows? As you can see from my attachment, there are files from Microsoft and NVIDIA lurking in there, to name but two.

My previous attempt to "gather up the stray bits" pop them into a folder and move them didn't go well. TC logic is obviously not PC logic, as Mucks indicated above.

Despite the mess-up... everything appears to be working okay, but I'm concerned that a few months down the line, the E drive is going to be a complete jumble if I don't sort it properly now.

Any thoughts? ..........Other than issuing a restraining order to keep me away from innocent computers, that is.

Well. If it were me (and i have a bit of OCD when it comes to stuff like this!) I'd probably reinstall if its as bad as you say/think it is... If you dont have much on that pc then it may be an idea to start again. But thats your choice.

But If its just that you have a bit of housekeeping to do it can be sorted relativity easily. Do you know what that is installed to the root of E?

How big is your E drive?

From looking at that pic you posted, i'd probably partition that drive in half, and have one half for Documents and the other for Program files.

Did you copy the 'Program Files (x86)' and 'ProgramData' folders from their original location on the C Drive?

 

[Taffycat]

Thanks for the reply V_R, much appreciated.

I think I've been bitten by the OCD bug too, lol, because it troubles me a bit that odd files might be floating about haphazardly.

The E drive is 2 TB, which is still 99% free (according to the details in Disk Management, pic below.)

I allowed the OS disk to install on the SSD (C: drive.) When loading the Drivers and Utilities, I was a bit uncertain, and pointed some of them to the E: drive (dumb of me!) At that point, the E: drive was still "unallocated."

After seeking some guidance on how to allocate it, (https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/hd-management-t4052084.html) I turned it into a "New Simple Volume" then happily directed a few more items there. But, that's when I discovered related files were showing up on both drives (as explained in first post, this thread.)

Regarding the "Programme Files x86" ...I honestly have no clue
about that. I spotted it - along with the others - after my attempt to sort stuff into "Libraries" (as explained in Windows 7 forums.) After doing so, what should have been an ordinary, (and empty) My Photos folder, suddenly contained that jumble of folders you saw above. (Naturally, I would not normally save anything except photos to that folder.)

I've previously only used single HDDs, and they've always been unpartitioned. (I've used an external HD for storage, but of course, that was simply a matter of hitting "Send to" or "copy to." ... Duh.... confusion reigns

 

[V_R]

You know what? After reading that, personally i'd just start again. No offence, but maybe it will just be easier to start a fresh, as its a new build and it doesn't sound like you have too much installed that you cant reinstall anyway.

Think of this as a trial run.


I'd do the following if it were me...

- Install Windows onto SSD.
- Sort out the other drive, maybe partition it in half? (half for programs half for documents?) Depending on how much media etc you have you may want to adjust that slightly, maybe 500Gb for Programs the remainder for Docs? Personal preference, but thats what i'd probably do.
- Any system/graphics drivers onto the SSD along with AV etc.
- Then Move your Documents over to where ever you've decided to put them. Go to your user folder and right click on, for example, the pictures folder, Location tab, Move. Browse to the location where you want them.
- You can always do a trial run with a temp folder and just one picture in it to see how it goes, before you move the whole lot.
- Make a new folder for Program Files, call it what you will, Program Files seems logical though.
This can be on the E drive if you wish on or a partition, then when installing stuff, just point to that folder. The only thing i've come across that wont let you choose the install path was Chrome and Google Earth off the top of my head....
- Obviously you can install what you like to the SSD if you'd rather, your browser, Guild Wars etc.


I think thats everything and i haven't missed anything, but just ask if your not sure. Like i said though, its your choice, but from what i've read, maybe a fresh start is the way forward.

 

[Taffycat]

Absolutely no offence being taken here It's just going to be an on-going niggle, knowing that it's not absolutely "right." I've already held off from installing very much, and you're right, there's nothing on here that cannot be re-installed or downloaded again. (Thank goodness I was insistent about having the OS disk!)

The SSD will be OS/graphics/AV only. The larger drive will take everything else.... well that's the plan - again!

Just one further question comes to mind.... (not another, I hear you say, lol.) Before I re-install, can I confirm whether I just need to format both of the disks (probably E: drive first, followed by the SSD C: drive?) Or should programmes/apps be uninstalled individually first? (Sorry to be asking such a noob question...) I know that some of you do a clean re-install of Windows periodically, but I have never done that either.... terrible admission.

Thank you for your detailed reply, it's so helpful and much appreciated.

 

[V_R]

Either really. You could do it now if you want. But tbh, if there's nothing that you need on the E drive at the mo, just re install the OS to the SSD and deal with the other drive after that. that would probably be the easiest thing to do.

Then once the OS is installed you can format/partition/anything else on the other drive from the fresh install.

 

[Taffycat]

That sounds good - and do-able. Thank you once again for your patience and help, I'm feeling more confident again now.