Vista - Personal Folder need help please!!

Hi all,

I've messed up big time!! I tried moving My Documents folder to my D:\ drive and now have big problems!!!!

The whole folder disappeared. After searching the net for answers I altered some Registry settings (which was stupid I know ) but was able to get My Documents folder back under Desktop.

Now I don't have a User profile under C:\Users, just a Public folder. Here's the good part, if I right-click on My Documents folder in the Start Menu it says that my Location is C:\Users\myUserName which clearly doesn't exist.

Then if I click on myUserName in Windows Explorer it has every folder in the right hand pane except for the "Documents" folder but if I expand the tree of the username on the left hand side of Windows Explorer it has a Documents folder and all my files are dispayed in the right hand pane.

Also my NTUSER.dat file is in myUserName folder under Desktop not under C:\Users\**** where it's supposed to be. Have tried System Restore several times but it makes no difference.

Does any of this make any sense?? Can someone please help me to restore my "Personal" folder under C:\Users and the proper registry settings that I should have??

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Sometimes you can "fool" the system by "copying" and "pasting" files/folders (and/or renaming them) and moving them around. In your situation, why can't you just copy the My Documents folder and manually paste it somewhere in the right-hand pane of Windows Explorer, and then, when that's done, move it to exactly where you want it. Then, after you've done that, if you have sub-folders/files you want to place inside your new My Documents folder, do the same thing --- (i.e. copy and paste them into it).

By the way, if that doesn't work, you might try doing the same thing again, but this time try renaming the My Documents folder before and/or after you move it.

I think the My Documents folder that I have under my Desktop is actually my "Personal" folder that is supposed to be under C:\Users. I have tried cutting and pasting and even moving the Documents folder but I keep getting the message "NTUSER.Dat is in use by another program and can't perform the operation". Will the copy command work even if the NTUSER.DAT file is in this folder??

Try this: In the right pane of your start menu right click on Documents > Properties > Location tab > Restore Default.

I think whs (in the post above) has a really good suggestion. But if it doesn't work, you might try opening your Task Manager and looking under both Applications and Processes to see if NTUSER.DAT is listed there. If so, end its process. After that, hopefully your copy and paste commands will work because NTUSER.DAT will no long be "in use by another program."

Have tried the Restore Default option and now have lots of different folders. I ran a disk analysing tool and this is what it lists under folders:

Users C: 22.5GB
Glenn - Copy C:\Users 11.4GB
Glenn C:\Users 10.8GB
Documents C:\Users\Glenn - Copy 7.8GB
Documents C:\Users\Glenn 7.33GB

When I check in Windows Explorer no folders are showing under C:\Users except for my "Public" folder. If I click show hidden and system folders under the Tools menu I only see the "Default" folder as well as "Public".

In the Disk Analyser that I used it gives the option of Deleting, should I delete the Glenn - Copy folder as listed above? Just don't know how to get things right and the way I'm going I won't have any disk space soon on my C: drive.

Thanks to both of you for helping me with this by the way.