Moving MY Documents folder to a new drive

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I've installed an additional hard drive. I would like to move my existing My
Documents folder (currently on the C drive) to the new drive (D). Are there
any special precautions that I shuld take for this?

In addition, I would like those applications that now locate the My
Documents folder on the C drive to find that folder on the D drive. Are there
settings that I can change that would enable this?
 
Change the Default Location of the My Documents Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310147

NOTE: Programs which use the CSIDL value to locate the path for a special
folder, should sense the new location of My Documents (and My Music/My
Pictures) folder. Poorly designed programs tend to default to
"%userprofile%\my documents" folder, whereas the user may have relocated the
folder already. I'd say that it's the fault of that particular application,
not Windows, as Windows provides all the API needed to locate the special
folder path programmatically. It's upto the third-party software
manufacturers to use that facility.

CSIDL:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...llcc/platform/shell/reference/enums/csidl.asp

<Q>
CSIDL values provide a unique system-independent way to identify special
folders used frequently by applications, but which may not have the same
name or location on any given system.
</Q>

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


I've installed an additional hard drive. I would like to move my existing My
Documents folder (currently on the C drive) to the new drive (D). Are there
any special precautions that I shuld take for this?

In addition, I would like those applications that now locate the My
Documents folder on the C drive to find that folder on the D drive. Are
there
settings that I can change that would enable this?
 
I've installed an additional hard drive. I would like to move my existing My
Documents folder (currently on the C drive) to the new drive (D). Are there
any special precautions that I shuld take for this?

In addition, I would like those applications that now locate the My
Documents folder on the C drive to find that folder on the D drive. Are there
settings that I can change that would enable this?
Click to expand...

There's several ways to accomplish this. Here's one:
Right click on My Documents and select Properties. You will see a Move
button. Click it and follow the on screen directions.

Hint: I created a folder named "MyDocs" on D: before using the move button
in properties to redirect My Documents.
 
Thanks you very much for your help on this.

I thought that, before I initiated the actual move, I should make a copy of
the MY Documents folder on the new drive. The size of the folder is about 17
Mbytes. When the copy finished, I checked "Properties" of the source and
destination folders. The "Size" value of the destination folder was 271 bytes
less than that of the source folder. The number of files and folders copied
was identical. I tried this procedure twice, with identical results. Can you
help explain this behavior? Is this an issue that I should raise in a
different thread?

Thanks,

Ken
 
Ken, I think I've come across this question earlier, but don't have a
definite answer. Perhaps you can try this question in
microsoft.public.windowsxp_general group for more exposure.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Thanks you very much for your help on this.

I thought that, before I initiated the actual move, I should make a copy of
the MY Documents folder on the new drive. The size of the folder is about 17
Mbytes. When the copy finished, I checked "Properties" of the source and
destination folders. The "Size" value of the destination folder was 271
bytes
less than that of the source folder. The number of files and folders copied
was identical. I tried this procedure twice, with identical results. Can you
help explain this behavior? Is this an issue that I should raise in a
different thread?

Thanks,

Ken
 
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