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Vista - Personal Folders (Downloads/Favourites etc) Lost

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Old 09-16-2007   #1 (permalink)
Mullin


 
 

Personal Folders (Downloads/Favourites etc) Lost


OK, I've installed Vista for the first time and discovered the cool feature
that Vista Personal Folder (contacts, favourites, documents etc) can be moved
ie. your "downloads" folder can be pointed to a directory on another drive if
you want to store the goodies there. Great, so I redirect Download,
Favourites and a few others to my second HDD.

The Problem:
When I made the change the second HDD was F: and my DVD drive was E:
I've since changed the drive letter allocations so the second HDD is E: and
the DVD drive is F:
Vista didn't like this, as my personal folders were all pointing to and
address on a DVD drive... as a result they have all dissapeared. Now in the
personal folder I don't even have a directory called 'downloads' or
'favourites'. Also, you can't just create a new dir as it will not have the
ability to be redirected like the original personal folders.
Another byproduct of this is I have no favourites on IE7. By that, I mean I
can't access, save or manage favourites because the location doesn't exist.
When I click 'add to favourites' or 'organise favourites' nothing happens.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Mullin

My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 09-16-2007   #2 (permalink)
dean-dean


 
 

Re: Personal Folders (Downloads/Favourites etc) Lost

Try changing the drive letters back to the way they were originally, then go
the special user folders on F: and right-click each one, choosing
Properties. On the Location tab, click on Restore Default. This should put
the location of the folders under C:\Users\(Your Name). Then change the
drive letters as you want them, and then move the special folders back to
where you want them...

"Mullin" <Mullin@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news0B6F800-69C6-4CDE-8ECC-3F2C9292FEA6@xxxxxx
Quote:

>
> OK, I've installed Vista for the first time and discovered the cool
> feature
> that Vista Personal Folder (contacts, favourites, documents etc) can be
> moved
> ie. your "downloads" folder can be pointed to a directory on another drive
> if
> you want to store the goodies there. Great, so I redirect Download,
> Favourites and a few others to my second HDD.
>
> The Problem:
> When I made the change the second HDD was F: and my DVD drive was E:
> I've since changed the drive letter allocations so the second HDD is E:
> and
> the DVD drive is F:
> Vista didn't like this, as my personal folders were all pointing to and
> address on a DVD drive... as a result they have all dissapeared. Now in
> the
> personal folder I don't even have a directory called 'downloads' or
> 'favourites'. Also, you can't just create a new dir as it will not have
> the
> ability to be redirected like the original personal folders.
> Another byproduct of this is I have no favourites on IE7. By that, I mean
> I
> can't access, save or manage favourites because the location doesn't
> exist.
> When I click 'add to favourites' or 'organise favourites' nothing happens.
>
> Help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mullin
My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 09-16-2007   #3 (permalink)


Vista x64 Ultimate SP2, Windows 7 Ultimate x64
 
 

Re: Personal Folders (Downloads/Favourites etc) Lost

Quote  Quote: Originally Posted by Mullin View Post
OK, I've installed Vista for the first time and discovered the cool feature
that Vista Personal Folder (contacts, favourites, documents etc) can be moved
ie. your "downloads" folder can be pointed to a directory on another drive if
you want to store the goodies there. Great, so I redirect Download,
Favourites and a few others to my second HDD.

The Problem:
When I made the change the second HDD was F: and my DVD drive was E:
I've since changed the drive letter allocations so the second HDD is E: and
the DVD drive is F:
Vista didn't like this, as my personal folders were all pointing to and
address on a DVD drive... as a result they have all dissapeared. Now in the
personal folder I don't even have a directory called 'downloads' or
'favourites'. Also, you can't just create a new dir as it will not have the
ability to be redirected like the original personal folders.
Another byproduct of this is I have no favourites on IE7. By that, I mean I
can't access, save or manage favourites because the location doesn't exist.
When I click 'add to favourites' or 'organise favourites' nothing happens.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Mullin
Hi Mullin,

First, try putting the drive letters back the way they were and change the location for the personal folders back to C:\users\(your username)" (no quotes). Change the drives, then change the folders.

ALSO,
You can try using the Shell command to see if you locate and open them. You can then change them to the correct locations. See this tutorial for how to use it.

Shell Command

Shell commands for your user folders:
1. shell:Contacts
2. shell:desktop
3. shell:downloads
4. shell:Favorites
5. shell:SavedGames
6. shell:Links
7. shell:My Music
8. shell:My Pictures
9. shell:My Video
10. shell:Searches
11. shell:Personal (Documents folder)


If this is a no go, then you might try copying from or recreating the folder in "C:\Users\(your username)" and add the desktop.ini for that specific folder. You can use this tutorial as a guide.

Personal User Shell Folders

Hope this helps,
Shawn
My System SpecsSystem Spec
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