How do I easily move my Documents folder to a different drive?

Question

My windows 10 installation got hosed during an update. I've installed a new SSD drive and reinstalled Windows 10 from scratch. My old hard drive is still attached to my computer and I'd like to use it for Documents, Downloads. etc. to save space on the SSD.

I've followed the instructions to move the location of the Documents folder but I keep getting a message that it can't move the folder because there is already in the same location that can't be redirected. I've tried unlinking OneDrive but it didn't help.

How do I easily change the location of the Documents folder? (why does this have to be so difficult?)

Answer 1

To move the user shell folder to a different drive you need to right-click the user shell folder > Properties > Location tab > select the folder which will allocate that folder (not the drive). If this is not working, you need to do it on the registry.

Create the folder you want to move on the other disk, (Documents, Pictures)

On the Start Menu type regedit and press enter.

On the Registry editor go to this key (you can copy and paste on the address bar):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

You will see these values in the image below:

Double-click and change the values circled in green to change the Documents folder location. (Use the location of the folder you created before)

E.g.: D:\Documents

Double-click and change the values circle in red to change the Pictures folder location. (Use the location of the folder you created before)

E.g.: D:\Pictures

After the procedure, you need to manually move the files to the new location, restart the computer to apply the changes in the registry.

Answer 2

Yes you need to have a restore point when the issue still not yet occured when you rename the folder there still no delete button?

Answer 3

This is very frustrating. I can use the Location tab to find the target and delete it but the item remains in the navigation pane. If I click on it it says its unavailable. If I go into the location tab again and say restore defaults it asks if I want to create the location. If I say no it just quits. If I say yes then it tells me it can't create the folder because it already exists. And then it eventually gets recreated on it's own in the wrong folder.

How can I restore the defaults?

Answer 4

You can do a system restore to revert back to a restore point available dated before the issue started. Follow these steps for that.

Click the Windows logo

Then type Create a restore point, and click the top result to open the System Properties page.

Click the System Restore button.

Quick note: If the option is grayed out, then it means that the system does not have any restore point available.

Click the Next button.

Select the restore point to revert changes.

Click the Scan for affected programs button to confirm the apps that will be removed because they were added after creating the restore point.

Click the Close button.

Click the Next button.

Click the Finish button.

Report back the results here afterward.

Thank you.

Answer 5

As I mentioned earlier the only restore point is after I got the problem. My understanding is that using that restore point will wipe everything I've done afterwards but won't fix the problems that were created earlier, correct? Isn't there a way to fix the erroneous items in the File Explorer Navigation Pane?