Redirecting Documents, general questions

[Ken Springer]

Trying to get more Win7 savvy here...

Unlike XP, when you open a user's folder, there are a number of
shortcuts in the folder.

1. What are these shortcuts used for?

2. When you wish to redirect *all* the user's data to another
partition, should the shortcuts also be redirected?

3. In XP, when you click on My Documents, you actually move the data.
In Win7, this just appears to refer to the library. I'm not interested
in moving the library, I want the data to be moved, which is done at the
folder location itself. How do I deal with the library, in this case?
Just set the new save location to the new data folders on the other
partition? When I redirect the folders, does the location in the
library get automatically changed too, or do I have to change them also?

4. Is there a way to batch move everything in the user's folder in one
setting, or do each and every one have to be redirected manually?


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 14.0.1
Thunderbird 15.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Trying to get more Win7 savvy here...

Unlike XP, when you open a user's folder, there are a number of
shortcuts in the folder.

1. What are these shortcuts used for?

Can you give an example of what you're talking about? Which user folders
are you referring to, and which shortcuts?

2. When you wish to redirect *all* the user's data to another partition,
should the shortcuts also be redirected?

This answer will have to wait on which shortcuts you were referring to.

3. In XP, when you click on My Documents, you actually move the data. In
Win7, this just appears to refer to the library. I'm not interested in
moving the library, I want the data to be moved, which is done at the
folder location itself. How do I deal with the library, in this case?
Just set the new save location to the new data folders on the other
partition? When I redirect the folders, does the location in the library
get automatically changed too, or do I have to change them also?

There's no difference between XP and W7 here, you can refer directly to
the My Documents folder or to its link in the Documents library, as you
wish. Both will end up moving the data to wherever you wish.

4. Is there a way to batch move everything in the user's folder in one
setting, or do each and every one have to be redirected manually?

There's no difference between how things are done in XP and Win 7,
you're overthinking things.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Can you give an example of what you're talking about? Which user folders
are you referring to, and which shortcuts?


This answer will have to wait on which shortcuts you were referring to.


There's no difference between XP and W7 here, you can refer directly to
the My Documents folder or to its link in the Documents library, as you
wish. Both will end up moving the data to wherever you wish.


There's no difference between how things are done in XP and Win 7,
you're overthinking things.

Yousuf Khan

I believe the OP is referring to the junction points.

 

[VanguardLH]

I believe the OP is referring to the junction points.

Those would be to folders, not files, right?

 

[Ken Springer]

Can you give an example of what you're talking about? Which user folders
are you referring to, and which shortcuts?


This answer will have to wait on which shortcuts you were referring to.


There's no difference between XP and W7 here, you can refer directly to
the My Documents folder or to its link in the Documents library, as you
wish. Both will end up moving the data to wherever you wish.


There's no difference between how things are done in XP and Win 7,
you're overthinking things.

Well, darn, and I thought I'd written things so clearly! LOL

It didn't occur to me when I wrote the original post, but I probably
should have provided a bit of background. I've had home computers since
the Apple/Atari/Commodore 8-bit days. Before DOS was even on the
market. I like to know what's on my hard drives, where the OS stores
things, where I'm storing things, etc. IOW, I like to know the basic
operations of my computers.

I dislike this hidden files and folders stuff, IMO it's for those who
wish to remain ignorant of computer basics. So my norm is to have these
folders and files showing.

Likewise, I use either List or Details for viewing folders/directories,
this is my norm.

1. Shortcuts: In Win7, when my norm is applied <grin>, double click on
your name in the Start Menu, or manually walk down the folder structure
in Explorer to C:\Users\Username and display the same folder/directory.
If you have the folder's options set to show the hidden folders and
system files, Win7 has a number of shortcuts that are not in XP. These
are the shortcuts I am referring to.

2. Is this enough information for the question I asked?

3. In XP, if you choose to redirect My Documents from the Start Menu,
XP will also redirect the My Music, My Pictures, My Whatever to the new
location. With Win7, and with what I read in a couple forums (Argh, how
I hate the forum concept! <grin>), if you use this route, you simply
change the libraries, not the user data itself. The data apparently
remains on C:\. Were the forum posters wrong, or did I misunderstand
what they were writing?

4. Since redirection from the Start Menu in Win7 apparently does not
move the data as it does in XP, is there a way to mass move all the
equivalent folders and anything else from the folder/directory window in
Win7? I don't want to laboriously have to move each folder
individually. I'm sure there's a 3rd party utility out there that will
do this, but I don't wish to start tweaking/customizing this machine at
this point in time.

I wouldn't even own a Win7 machine if this one hadn't been given to me
as a nonworking desktop that needed unknown repairs. It cost me just
the $$ for a set of factory disks to get it up and running just fine.
The problem with the machine is a crappy hard drive, lots of bad
sectors. But, I can live with and work around those.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 14.0.1
Thunderbird 15.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 14.0.1
Thunderbird 15.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Char Jackson]

Well, darn, and I thought I'd written things so clearly! LOL

It didn't occur to me when I wrote the original post, but I probably
should have provided a bit of background. I've had home computers since
the Apple/Atari/Commodore 8-bit days. Before DOS was even on the
market. I like to know what's on my hard drives, where the OS stores
things, where I'm storing things, etc. IOW, I like to know the basic
operations of my computers.

I dislike this hidden files and folders stuff, IMO it's for those who
wish to remain ignorant of computer basics. So my norm is to have these
folders and files showing.

Likewise, I use either List or Details for viewing folders/directories,
this is my norm.

1. Shortcuts: In Win7, when my norm is applied <grin>, double click on
your name in the Start Menu, or manually walk down the folder structure
in Explorer to C:\Users\Username and display the same folder/directory.
If you have the folder's options set to show the hidden folders and
system files, Win7 has a number of shortcuts that are not in XP. These
are the shortcuts I am referring to.

I find it interesting that a request for the shortcuts didn't actually
produce a list of the shortcuts.

2. Is this enough information for the question I asked?

3. In XP, if you choose to redirect My Documents from the Start Menu,
XP will also redirect the My Music, My Pictures, My Whatever to the new
location. With Win7, and with what I read in a couple forums (Argh, how
I hate the forum concept! <grin>), if you use this route, you simply
change the libraries, not the user data itself. The data apparently
remains on C:\. Were the forum posters wrong, or did I misunderstand
what they were writing?

4. Since redirection from the Start Menu in Win7 apparently does not
move the data as it does in XP, is there a way to mass move all the
equivalent folders and anything else from the folder/directory window in
Win7? I don't want to laboriously have to move each folder
individually. I'm sure there's a 3rd party utility out there that will
do this, but I don't wish to start tweaking/customizing this machine at
this point in time.

May I point out the obvious contradiction? You don't wish to tweak or
customize your new PC, but you'd like to redirect several folders? Is
that not a tweak or customization?

 

[Dave-UK]

1. Shortcuts: In Win7, when my norm is applied <grin>, double click on
your name in the Start Menu, or manually walk down the folder structure
in Explorer to C:\Users\Username and display the same folder/directory.
If you have the folder's options set to show the hidden folders and
system files, Win7 has a number of shortcuts that are not in XP. These
are the shortcuts I am referring to.

Like Gene said, these are junction points (for backwards compatibility), not real shortcuts.
Google for more info.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Those would be to folders, not files, right?

Yes.

And all the ones I see in my user folder point to folders, not files.

The OP just said "shortcuts", but since only shortcuts to folders
appear, that would implicitly be what he meant.

Unfortunately, I can't answer his question. I would think that if it
didn't happen automatically he could just move the or copy those
shortcuts. I'll try something now:

I copied My Documents to Temp. There were no error messages, but nothing
was copied

Perhaps leaving those shortcuts (junction points) in place is actually
the best thing to do, or even required, regardless of where the real My
Documents and other folders sit.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Perhaps leaving those shortcuts (junction points) in place is actually
the best thing to do, or even required, regardless of where the real My
Documents and other folders sit.

IIRC, there are ways to change where some of these system folders, e.g.
Users, or My Documents (the real one), lie. You might be able to find
them by Googling.

Perhaps those methods, which might involve editing the Registry, would
do the right thing about the JPs.

I'm shooting in the dark, so be sure you have your supply of salt grains
handy

 

[Ken Springer]

IIRC, there are ways to change where some of these system folders, e.g.
Users, or My Documents (the real one), lie. You might be able to find
them by Googling.

Perhaps those methods, which might involve editing the Registry, would
do the right thing about the JPs.

I'm shooting in the dark, so be sure you have your supply of salt grains
handy

Changing the real one(s) is no problem. Just right click the folder,
select properties, and then the location tab. You then get a dialog box
exactly like XP.

I don't like *anything* in my C:\ folder/directory except OS and program
files. I want all my data somewhere else. Then, should disaster occur
and the OS and software need to be reinstalled, there's no worries about
your data.

Essentially, I emulate what we were taught in the DOS days when hard
drives were small and unreliable. Put your data somewhere other than
the boot drive. And I consider it a safer way to protect from viruses,
ET. AL.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 14.0.1
Thunderbird 15.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Steve Hayes]

Changing the real one(s) is no problem. Just right click the folder,
select properties, and then the location tab. You then get a dialog box
exactly like XP.

I don't like *anything* in my C:\ folder/directory except OS and program
files. I want all my data somewhere else. Then, should disaster occur
and the OS and software need to be reinstalled, there's no worries about
your data.

Essentially, I emulate what we were taught in the DOS days when hard
drives were small and unreliable. Put your data somewhere other than
the boot drive. And I consider it a safer way to protect from viruses,
ET. AL.

I generally agree, and on my desktop computer, where I have two physical
drives, I do that.

But that computer runs XP, while my laptop runs Windows 7, and the problem I
have there is that I have difficulty in finding files.

Yes, it shows me the file NAME, but it doesn't show me where it is, in case I
want to copy it, or even if I want to know if it's the right one that I want
to open.

I want to open a file in MS Word, and it shows me the name of the file, but
not where it is.

So I close word, navigate to where I think the file might be, and if it is
there, I click on it, and it opens Word and opens the file. But it would be so
much quicker and simpler if it showed the path in the first place.

 

[Dave-UK]

But that computer runs XP, while my laptop runs Windows 7, and the problem I
have there is that I have difficulty in finding files.

Use Agent Ransack then:
http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=home

 

[Char Jackson]

Use Agent Ransack then:
http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=home

Or better yet, Everything Search. It's much faster than Agent Ransack.
<www.voidtools.com>

 

[Ken Blake]

I don't like *anything* in my C:\ folder/directory except OS and program
files. I want all my data somewhere else. Then, should disaster occur
and the OS and software need to be reinstalled, there's no worries about
your data.

Your choice, of course, but I don't agree, for three reasons:

1. If you are careful with your computer, a disaster that requires
reinstallation is extremely rare.

2. Putting your data on a separate partition or drive suggests that
you do not have a strong regular backup procedure in place. If you
have a current backup of your data, there should be no fear about
losing your data because Windows has to be reinstalled.

3. There are several dangers that affect the entire drive: head
crashes and other kinds of drive failure, severe power glitches,
nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.

Essentially, I emulate what we were taught in the DOS days when hard
drives were small and unreliable. Put your data somewhere other than
the boot drive. And I consider it a safer way to protect from viruses,
ET. AL.

If you have good security software installed and you are careful about
what web sites you visit and what attachments you open, viruses should
not be a worry. I, for example, have never been infected. But if you
do get infected, everything and *everywhere* on your computer is at
risk, not just what's on C:. In truth your data is not safe if it's on
a separate partition. Having to reinstall Windows is only one of the
dangers to a hard drive, and not even the most likely one. In my view.
This kind of "safeguard" leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss
of the original and backup to many of the most common dangers that
affect the entire physical drive, not just the particular partition.
Safety comes from a strong backup regimen, not from how you partition.

To me there's only one good reason for keeping your data on a
partition separate from C:, and that's a good reason only for some
people. I think that most people's partitioning scheme should be based
on their backup scheme, and backup schemes generally fall into two
types: imaging the entire hard drive or backup of data only. If you
backup your data only, that backup is usually facilitated by having a
separate partition with data only. Then you can back up just that
partition easily, without having to collect bits and pieces from here
and there.

 

[Ken Blake]

Or better yet, Everything Search. It's much faster than Agent Ransack.

Everything is great, if you are searching by file name. But it doesn't
search by content. So I use both Everything and Agent Ransack,
choosing which to use depending on what kind of search I'm doing.

 

[Char Jackson]

Everything is great, if you are searching by file name. But it doesn't
search by content. So I use both Everything and Agent Ransack,
choosing which to use depending on what kind of search I'm doing.

Steve specifically described a need to search by filename, so
Everything would be perfect in this case.

 

[Char Jackson]

Your choice, of course, but I don't agree, for three reasons:

1. If you are careful with your computer, a disaster that requires
reinstallation is extremely rare.

I agree with point 1.

2. Putting your data on a separate partition or drive suggests that
you do not have a strong regular backup procedure in place. If you
have a current backup of your data, there should be no fear about
losing your data because Windows has to be reinstalled.

I don't agree with point 2a. I don't see a strong connection between
data organization and the presence or absence of backup strategies.

I don't agree with point 2b. We talk on a regular basis in this group
about avoiding things that carry risk, such as registry cleaners. Why
put yourself in a position where you need to depend on your data
backups when you don't have?

3. There are several dangers that affect the entire drive: head
crashes and other kinds of drive failure, severe power glitches,
nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer.

The items in point 3 can be grouped with point 1. They all fall under
the umbrella of 'extremely rare'.

If you have good security software installed and you are careful about
what web sites you visit and what attachments you open, viruses should
not be a worry. I, for example, have never been infected. But if you
do get infected, everything and *everywhere* on your computer is at
risk, not just what's on C:. In truth your data is not safe if it's on
a separate partition.

Data isn't truly safe *anywhere*. That's why we make backups.

Having to reinstall Windows is only one of the
dangers to a hard drive, and not even the most likely one. In my view.

Which hard drive dangers are more common than having to reinstall
Windows? Perhaps I'm jaded because of the work I do, so I don't see
it.

This kind of "safeguard" leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss
of the original and backup to many of the most common dangers that
affect the entire physical drive, not just the particular partition.
Safety comes from a strong backup regimen, not from how you partition.

I agree with some of that.

To me there's only one good reason for keeping your data on a
partition separate from C:, and that's a good reason only for some
people. I think that most people's partitioning scheme should be based
on their backup scheme, and backup schemes generally fall into two
types: imaging the entire hard drive or backup of data only. If you
backup your data only, that backup is usually facilitated by having a
separate partition with data only. Then you can back up just that
partition easily, without having to collect bits and pieces from here
and there.

Most backup programs, and probably all of the popular ones, make it
easy to back up selected files and folders, and they offer to remember
those selections for you. Thus, I don't see much value in segregating
data just for 'ease of backup' purposes. To me, if you're going to do
it, it's probably because formatting the system drive and reinstalling
the OS doesn't need to touch the user's data when it's located
elsewhere.

 

[Ken Blake]

Steve specifically described a need to search by filename, so
Everything would be perfect in this case.

OK, thanks. If I had seen his mentioning the need, I had forgotten it.

 

[Steve Hayes]

OK, thanks. If I had seen his mentioning the need, I had forgotten it.

Actually my main need was to see the file PATH.

I don't just want to know that it is somewhere in my computer, but I want to
know WHERE it is.

 

[Char Jackson]

Actually my main need was to see the file PATH.

I don't just want to know that it is somewhere in my computer, but I want to
know WHERE it is.

Exactly. Everything Search does that, but in fairness I suppose all
3rd party search tools will do the same.