Vista - Moving documents folder and backup

I'm having trouble getting my mindset to change from XP to Vista Pro SP1. I had to clean install XP too many times and routinely moved all data to its own partition.

When doing a clean install of Vista, I did the same. Documents, Pictures, Music all point to D:\New Folder (with the green documents icon visible on D, D:\New Folder2, and D:\New Folder 3.

I have 2 questions.
1) Can I do anything about the New Folder, etc. names as seen from some programs? I lose the green icons if i use a different name.

2) Which folder do I backup? The pointer on C: or the folder on D:?? I didn't want to miss something, so I think I backed up both. That may be why I ran out of room on the backup drive so quickly!

DonH

may I know how you have pointed documents, pictures etc to d:\new folder
etc?

secondly - pl clarify what you meant to say by this? -- "with the green
documents--
-sushil [MSFT]
this information is provided as-is without any warranties, implicit or
explicit.
"DonH" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:f93f45d35ffcd464152634e83ebb38f2@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

You can move the physical location of your personal folders from the default location on the C: drive to a different partion or drive. It is explained here:
Personal User Shell Folders - Move Location

Vista uses icons with green folders for the personal folders. Click start and then the user name on the top right of the black column and you'll see them. When I redirected Documents to a new folder on D: it displayed the same green Documents folder icon, but only if I left it named "new". When I renamed the folder to something more meaningful first, it retained the standard yellow folder icon. The green icon is a good reminder that it's actually a personal folder.

My concern is making sure that I'm backing up the contents of the redirected folders if I don't also select the folders on D: when doing the file backup in Vista Business. On the other hand, I think that doing both duplicates the same files, causing a lot of bloat in the backups.

wanted to know - what backup application are you using?

vista backup does not allow to select the folders. it picks the important
files/folders based on category selection.

--
-sushil [MSFT]
this information is provided as-is without any warranties, implicit or
explicit.
"DonH" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:5259c00c94f4f057df26dd4d93d56687@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Vista backup, at least in the Business version, is more suited for unsophisticated home users than for business users. Without some way of previewing what will be backed up, you have to actually do a backup and then methodically look through every empty folder (who thought it was a good idea to backup empty folders?) to see what was and was not included. That is a terrible waste of time! Yet, nowhere is there any detail of precisely what will be included in each category. I spent days searching white papers, MS blogs, technet, etc. and still had only a sketchy idea. It was only through trial and error that I learned that, for example, "Documents" were not the contents of the documents folder, but apparently a group of files with certain suffixes located anywhere. The other categories are similarly vague. Obviously a specific criteria is used, but it's kept secret. The result for me was spending a lot of time testing what should have been transparent only to discover that many crucial files were not backed up. To add insult to injury, better than 1/2 of the backup space was taken up with files that could and should have been excluded.

The "important files/folders" as you said is really arrogant. Important to who? The user's opinion of what "important files/folders" are is the only opinion that matters. If a file that is crucial to the user is assumed to be backed up, but isn't, you'll quickly see what I mean. To hide what those "important files/folders" are is the height of arrogance. Vista backup in the Business version has gone far beyond helpful handholding. It assumes that the software engineers know what is important to a business than the business itsef.

I really liked the promise of the vista backup, but the reality was very disappointing. It would have been disaster had I actually relied on it.

I've been testing Genie Backup Manager and so far it is doing exactly what I want. It was easy to configure, yet I have complete control over what is and is not included. Best of all, it didn't hide what it was going to do. You can select categories as in Vista backup that clearly spell out what is and is not included. You can also add or subtract specific folders, files, or file types.

Sorry, this has been boiling around inside me for months. I guess I finally unloaded!

Don