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 can. Just run the setup.exe file on the installer to start the process.

You can check this link for reference.

https://www.wintips.org/repair-windows-10-with-...

Just make sure that Keep personal files and apps is turned on the process so you won't lose any apps or files in the process.

Thank you.

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Answer 3

I also have another problem that is related to my new installation. My new Windows 10 installation will only boot from the new SSD if I have an old drive installed. This old drive had windows on it at one time but it doesn't show up in File Explore. It does show up in Device Manager and Disk Manager. And msconfig shows the SSD drive as the boot drive.

According to this link this is a known bug and the only solution is to reinstall Windows 10 from scratch without any other drives connected: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-10-cannot-boot-without-secondary-drive/cf1609a0-8eb9-4df1-88a0-001f235b3f5c

Is the above answer still the best answer (I don't want to rely on this old drive always being connected)? Also, I have Legacy BIOS and not UEFI. I'd prefer not opening up my box again if it can be avoided (my BIOS was finicky and refused to even run until I disconnected everything and added items one by one), can I just disable them in BIOS? If all drives need to be disabled/disconnected I assume I can still have my DVD drive connected since that is where Windows installation will be, correct? And can this be done from an in-place upgrade instead of a clean install?

Answer 4

Yes you can try to run in-place upgrade repair first this is the 2nd to the last option before cleaning install windows on your device.

Answer 5

Should I disconnect or disable the other hard drives? I would prefer to disable if that is allowed.