Special folders "duplicated" in Windows Explorer

Y

yannick

New Member
Greetings,

I have moved my Users directory to a separate drive as described here. I did not encounter any serious issue, however my special folders are duplicated in the Windows Explorer.

For instance in my user folder I have two Documents folder, one pointing to C:\Users\yannick\Documents and the other to D:\Users\yannick\Documents. C:\Users is a junction that points to D:\Users.

My media files are duplicated as well in Windows Media Player.

Is there a way to get around this?

Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

yannick said:
Greetings,

I have moved my Users directory to a separate drive as described here. I did not encounter any serious issue, however my special folders are duplicated in the Windows Explorer.

For instance in my user folder I have two Documents folder, one pointing to C:\Users\yannick\Documents and the other to D:\Users\yannick\Documents. C:\Users is a junction that points to D:\Users.

My media files are duplicated as well in Windows Media Player.

Is there a way to get around this?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

When you re-located these user folders, did you use the "Move..." button on the location tab, and then told Windows to move ALL files to the new location? Doing so will eliminate this "duplication" you are experiencing.

The information that I read from following your link says:

  1. Change the location of each data folder (i..e Documents, Pictures, Music) individually using Windows explorer settings.
  2. Modify the Windows registry to reflect the new folder location
If you used the "Move..." button, you should not have needed to manually edit the registry.
 

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dzomlija said:
When you re-located these user folders, did you use the "Move..." button on the location tab, and then told Windows to move ALL files to the new location? Doing so will eliminate this "duplication" you are experiencing.

The information that I read from following your link says:
  1. Change the location of each data folder (i..e Documents, Pictures, Music) individually using Windows explorer settings.
  2. Modify the Windows registry to reflect the new folder location
If you used the "Move..." button, you should not have needed to manually edit the registry.
Click to expand...

That is only part of the information contained in the article.

I did not want to just move my special folders, I wanted to move my entire user profile to a separate drive. Manually changing the location of each folder would not work for hidden folders such as AppData.

So I have copied everything in my C:\Users to a new location in a separate drive and then created a junction to the new location. On my system C:\Users is a junction to D:\Users.

My problem is that my special folders appear twice in Windows Explorer. Iam seeing each folder in their actual location (D:\Users) and in the C:\Users junction. All other folders appear only once.

My media files also appear twice in Windows Media Player.
 

My Computer

System One

yannick said:
dzomlija said:
When you re-located these user folders, did you use the "Move..." button on the location tab, and then told Windows to move ALL files to the new location? Doing so will eliminate this "duplication" you are experiencing.

The information that I read from following your link says:
  1. Change the location of each data folder (i..e Documents, Pictures, Music) individually using Windows explorer settings.
  2. Modify the Windows registry to reflect the new folder location
If you used the "Move..." button, you should not have needed to manually edit the registry.
Click to expand...

That is only part of the information contained in the article.

I did not want to just move my special folders, I wanted to move my entire user profile to a separate drive. Manually changing the location of each folder would not work for hidden folders such as AppData.

So I have copied everything in my C:\Users to a new location in a separate drive and then created a junction to the new location. On my system C:\Users is a junction to D:\Users.

My problem is that my special folders appear twice in Windows Explorer. Iam seeing each folder in their actual location (D:\Users) and in the C:\Users junction. All other folders appear only once.

My media files also appear twice in Windows Media Player.
Click to expand...

Did you also take care to move the locations of the user folders? Simply pointing to the new location of "C:\Users" to whatever is not enough. Seeing as you've used the registry, have you checked and modified (if needed) the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" registry key?

And what about applications that place their own references to "C:\Users" in the registry? Have all those references been modified as well?

My suggestion is to attempt to revert it all back to it their default locations, and then only move those folders that provide an interface to allow them to be moved.

If your original intention was to save disk space on C: my moving the entire "C:\Users" folder, would it not have been easier (and less error-prone) to purchase a larger hard disk and then clone the C: onto it?

As for the duplications in Media Player. Is not not picking up the media that appears on both your "C:\Users" and the new "D:\Users" folder? You can force a rebuild of the Media Library by delting the contents of the "C:\Users\<YOUR USER NAME>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player" folder, and then instructing Media Player to re-scan for media.
 

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Yes the special folders were moved. I have also modified references to C:\Users in Explorer in the registry.

My original intention was not to save space. I simply wanted to have my system files and user data in separate drives.

I have forced a rebuild of my media library several times already, and media files that are located in media special folders (e.g. Pictures, Music) appear twice in my library every time the library is rebuilt. Also all the folders being monitored by WMP are under my D:\Users.
 

My Computer

System One

yannick said:
Yes the special folders were moved. I have also modified references to C:\Users in Explorer in the registry.

My original intention was not to save space. I simply wanted to have my system files and user data in separate drives.

I have forced a rebuild of my media library several times already, and media files that are located in media special folders (e.g. Pictures, Music) appear twice in my library every time the library is rebuilt. Also all the folders being monitored by WMP are under my D:\Users.
Click to expand...

Somewhere, a reference still exists to "C:\Users", hence all the duplications you are getting.

And unless it exists in a user-accessible special folder that provide a facility to be moved, ther's nothing of any real value worth saving in any other folders, such as "AppData". Anything that gets stored ther by applications (Outlook, for example), have their own facilities with which to correctly and safely move the folders to another location.

This is why folders such as AppData should remain hidden. Improperly moving them (which shouldn't be done) can cause undesirable results.

I maintain my original suggestion. Get everything back to wher they are supposed to be, and only move those folders that have the facilities to be moved ("Documents", "Pictures", "Searches", etc...). Leave everything else wher they belong.
 

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Hi yannick,

You may need to do a reinstall Vista to repair the user files back to their original location if you cannot put them back by reversing the method you used.

You may consider using this method instead. Your user folder files will be stored on the location you choose, and you can still access them from the Start menu as usual. Moving the actual main username folder location causes to many issues to be safe to do.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/107990-personal-user-shell-folders-move-location.html

Shawn
 

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