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  #1  
Old July 11th, 2007, 06:20 AM
jsmartin22 jsmartin22 is offline
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Unable to Relocate Documents Folder

Hello,

I just reinstalled vista-Ultimate, and I want to relocate the "Documents" folder to the "D" drive so I can separate my data from the OS, whihc is installed on the "C" drive. The process to do this is described at the link below. However, I am unable to relocate the "Documents" folder, despite this should be an easy process!!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=215

When try to move the "Documents" folder,
FROM: C:\Users\J Martin Software Tester\Documents
TO: D:\Data Files - JSM\Documents,

I recieve the following msg: "There is already a file with the same name in this location".

However, there is no file; the "D" drive was just formatted and is brand new. Why Do I get this msg? And what do I do to resolve the issue? My purpose is to put my data on a drive, separate from the Vista-OS.

Thanks!

Scott

PS At one point, I believe I was successful; but since I wipe and reformmated my drive, I have not been successful at placing the Documents folder on the "D" drive.
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  #2  
Old July 12th, 2007, 03:10 AM
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AnnMarie AnnMarie is offline
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Hi Scott. Try Start and rightclick on Documents > Properties > Location > Move.
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  #3  
Old July 12th, 2007, 05:43 AM
jsmartin22 jsmartin22 is offline
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Quote:
Try Start and rightclick on Documents > Properties > Location > Move.
Ann Marie,

Thx for the suggestion--This is exactly the right idea, but this is also exactly my point: This doesn't work; it gives me the errors listed above and I am wondering why and what I can/should do to address the problem.

Scott
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  #4  
Old July 12th, 2007, 07:57 AM
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AnnMarie AnnMarie is offline
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Scott, just out of curiosity, was the D drive connected when you initially installed Vista and reinstalled Vista?
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  #5  
Old July 12th, 2007, 08:24 AM
jsmartin22 jsmartin22 is offline
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Quote:
Scott, just out of curiosity, was the D drive connected when you initially installed Vista and reinstalled Vista?
Interesting question: It was connected, no doubt. However, it was either unformatted or more likely, it was formatted by I have since reformatted. Thx for your interest. I could really use some insight here.

Scott
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  #6  
Old July 12th, 2007, 08:30 AM
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AnnMarie AnnMarie is offline
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Try reformatting your D drive again and see if you still have the same problem.
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  #7  
Old July 12th, 2007, 01:35 PM
jsmartin22 jsmartin22 is offline
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Quote:
Scott, just out of curiosity, was the D drive connected when you initially installed Vista and reinstalled Vista?
Ann Marie, I believe you are onto to something. Somehow some fragment of the system remains, am I right? But I just can't see it?

Basically, what I did was:
1. Insert the VISTA software and boot from it. I am unable to format the "C" drive volume but I delete the volume.
2. After this is done, I move to repair mode and go to the DOS prompt to format the drive. I issue command: format c: fs:ntfs. I don't know the command for deleting the volume, which is why I do this from the "install mode" of VISTA, as noted in #1.
3. After the c drive is formatted in this "DOS" mode. I then restart. And I proceed to install the OS.
4. Once the OS is installed in "C", I move to "Disk Management" and delete the "D" volume, recreate it, and reformat it.

I think what you are suggesting is somehow there is a "Fragment" of the OS on drive D, right? And somehow this fragment is the "Documents" and other system folders from the previous OS maybe?

Thanks for the suggestion! I do think you are onto something. Can you explain to me what you think is happening? I hope this fixes it. Should I delete the volume first and then reformat or just reformat? Hmmm.

NOTE 1:
Drive D is also a RAID 1 drive and I deleted the volume and reformatted from Disk manager! When I did this, I wondered how it handled the issues of two drives in a RAID1 array. Does it really format each drive? But it seemed to work, so I forgot about it. Maybe I needed to reformat each drive from the Raid BIOS?

NOTE 2:
I also have another drive, Drive E. It was never 'touched' and it has the same problem. In other words, I never reformatted this drive, and I have the same issue when trying to save the 'Documents' folder to this drive. Hmmm.

Scott

Last edited by jsmartin22; July 12th, 2007 at 02:19 PM. Reason: Additional Info
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  #8  
Old July 13th, 2007, 01:26 AM
jsmartin22 jsmartin22 is offline
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Unable to Relocate Documents Folder--Unfortunately

Ann Marie, et al.

Even after reformatting my "D" hard drive, I still am unable to move the "Documents" folder without getting "The File Already exists...".

Perhaps I need to reformat each drive individually? Or maybe I need to consider something else? I am pretty sure that I'd be OK if bought two new drives!! After all, this did work for me originally before I wiped and reinstalled my system. Hmm...

Suggests & comments?

Scott

Last edited by jsmartin22; July 13th, 2007 at 01:44 AM.
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  #9  
Old July 13th, 2007, 04:39 AM
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AnnMarie AnnMarie is offline
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Hi Scott, well I know that Vista has been known to load boot code on additional harddrives that are plugged in during installation so I wondered if perhaps something similar might have happened.

Perhaps we can change the location in the Registry. You will have to copy the Documents Folder and files manually to your D drive first though.

When you have done this, set a restore point before trying the registry edit please and then try the steps outlined here for moving the Favorites folder. The Documents folder value is listed as Personal with value data of %userprofile%\Documents
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  #10  
Old July 13th, 2007, 05:24 AM
jsmartin22 jsmartin22 is offline
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Quote:
I know that Vista has been known to load boot code on additional harddrives
What a headache! Questions:
1. I reformatted each drive individually and then in the RAID BIOS, I rebuilt the array and when I did this, I was forced to (again) reformat the drive when I rebooted into Vista. Vista asked if I wanted to use "MBR or GPT" and the MBR was checked. I hadn't seen this before. Maybe this will install a new MBR and format and my drive will then behave normally? I sure hope so.
2. Your method is easy for you but more difficult for those (like me) who've never played with the Registry before. Is there some way I can just completely wipe my drive and start over?
3. Can I just reformat my D drives, unplug them, and then reinstall VISTA on drive C?

Thanks for all your help AM. I really appreciate it.

Scott

Last edited by jsmartin22; July 13th, 2007 at 06:13 AM.
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  #11  
Old July 13th, 2007, 01:21 PM
jsmartin22 jsmartin22 is offline
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Quote:
I know that Vista has been known to load boot code on additional harddrives
I need a little clarifiction to ensure I understand the issue:
So my D drives are "contaminated" with some boot code, right? can I just reformat drives C and D, and then reinstall VISTA OS, ensuring drive D is not connected? Will this resolve problem? Or is the boot drive "contaminated" and this will affect even a new install by contaminating the new registry?

My goal, btw, is to move all the User Shell Folders to the alternative "D drive".

Last edited by jsmartin22; July 13th, 2007 at 02:22 PM.
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  #12  
Old July 14th, 2007, 04:32 AM
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AnnMarie AnnMarie is offline
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Quote:
So my D drives are "contaminated" with some boot code, right?
No I dont think that. If they were, you would need the DVD to load Vista. It's just an anomoly that has been observed in some situations and there may be more anomolies that havent come to light yet. Bear in mind, that we are talking about a relatively new OS and there are bound to be other issues that we havent yet encountered. In this case, I dont know what the problem is and am just looking at possibilities. Another possibility is that your registry has retained some information regarding the successful move earlier and Vista still thinks the folder is on your D drive.

Let's look at the settings in your registry. Go here and download, unzip and run SteelWerX Registry Search utility. Type documents in the upper listbox and click OK. The Registry Search will search the Registry and report what it finds. The results are saved to a file named RegSearch.txt in the same location as the program but it will be probably be too large to post here so send it to me.

Copy the text file to a new folder, zip it up (this is important) and email it to me (include a link to this thread) and title your email "Requested File". My address is anniefriday@xtra.co.nz. I will post back when I have checked it out.
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  #13  
Old July 14th, 2007, 05:58 AM
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AnnMarie AnnMarie is offline
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Thanks Scott, I received the file. I am not 100% certain but I think the problem may be caused by your Norton software. I found the below entry:

Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\N360\SPProtectedLocations]
"CSIDL_COMMON_DOCUMENTS"="C:\\Users\\Public\\Documents"
I am not a Norton user and I cant find any information on the SPProtectedLocations key but ProtectedLocation seems to indicate that Norton is preventing that location from being changed. This may affect your other settings. I would have thought that the User Shell Folders key (which is ok) would take precedence but who knows.

If this is not a setting you activated, the only real way to find out is to uninstall Norton, reboot and see if you still have a problem. I could remove the key but there may be others tied into to this so this may not be effective.
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  #14  
Old July 15th, 2007, 01:10 AM
jsmartin22 jsmartin22 is offline
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Unable to Successfully Move Documents Folder

Quote:
If this is not a setting you activated, the only real way to find out is to uninstall Norton, reboot and see if you still have a problem.
Ha. Well, I wiped/reformatted all my drives, installing the C drive 1st and installing Vista, without D and E being connected. I later reformatted and reinstalled D (raid 1) and E drives, and I didn't install Norton. I still have the same issue. Hmmm.

Also, if I move only the "Documents" folder into: D:/Files, where Files is a folder, 'Documents' moves, but it replaces 'Files'; that is, D:/Files => D:/Documents, where the folder "Files" has disappeared. I mention this just in case it is a clue. Sure would be nice if I could ID the issue, since relocating the user shell folders to a separate drive directly separate data from the OS, which I belive is invaluable.

Thx for all your help (AM).

Scott

Last edited by jsmartin22; July 15th, 2007 at 02:19 AM.
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  #15  
Old July 15th, 2007, 04:07 AM
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AnnMarie AnnMarie is offline
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What is on your E drive Scott? Have you tried moving the folder there?
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