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Set WinXP Default Drive for My Documents

E

edjacobson

Junior Member
I just built a new computer and installed Win XP Home. I am a first time XP user, so I don't have much experiece with it and could use a hand.

When I installed XP, I partitioned my hard drive into C: and E:. My intent was to have the C: drive be for Program files, and to save all data to the E: drive. Perhaps this was a mistake as I'm having diffifculty figuring out how to do that. Windows, of course, wants to save everything in My Documents to the C: drive, but I want it to go to the E: drive. Is there a way to set the default drive for My Documents to E:? By the way, this is a computer with 6 users, so I want all 6 users to save their data files to the E: drive by default, so that everytime they save something to My Documents, regardless of whether it's a picture, a music file, or a word document, it goes to E: instead of C:.

Any ideas on how to do this?
 
You could move the 'My Documents' folder to the E: drive, then create a symbolic link to the folder on the C: drive so that when it asks you to save to 'My Documents' on the C: drive, it is actually saving on the E: drive.
 
Right click on the "My Documents" folder and select the 'Move' option. Move it to where you want it on your E: drive.

Bill
 
bsobel and rmrf, when I try to do that, it appears I am creating a duplicate My Documents folder on the E: drive.

Here is what I'm doing:

Click on Start
Right Click on My Documents
Click on Properties
Click on Move
Type in E:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents

Windows gives a message saying the "The My Documents folder is a shortcut to the target location shown below."

When I do that, it creates a new file folder on the E drive. However, the folder with the same name continues to exist on the C drive. I then created a simple Word document and Save that file in My Documents, just as a typical user would, expecting the file to be saved to the E drive rather than the C drive. I then opened Windows Explorer, and clicked on My Computer, then checked in the E: drive under E:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents, and the file appears there. Great, since that is what I wanted. However, using Windows Explorer, I checked and the file also appears on C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents. It appears to be saving the file both places. For example, I can also open up Word, select Open, My Computer, and then browse either the C: drive or the E: drive and find the file I want to open.

Is there a way to get Windows to not save the document in both places? What am I doing wrong?
 
Is there a way to get Windows to not save the document in both places? What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

I'm sure Windows isn't actually saving the file in both places, but since their is a name space extension for My Documents, it might appear that way in Explorer. Can you browse out to both paths in a cmd window and verify which one is getting the newly created docs?

Bill
 
bsobel, OK, I went back to square 1 and deleted all users and started fresh with a single user. I had made several changes in trying to set up a 6 user system, and it was hard to tell which changes might have been interfering with what I was trying to do.

Starting with a single user, I followed the procedure stated above, namely

Click on Start
Right Click on My Documents
Click on Properties

At that point, instead of clicking on Move, I simply went into the line that listed the target drive as C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents and changed the C to E and clicked OK.

I then downloaded 40 digital pictures since I wanted to track two things: (1) where the files were being stored, C:, E:, or both; and (2) consumption of hard drive space on C:, E:, or both.

This latest fix seems to have worked. The files are being saved only on the E: drive, and saving the digital photographs in this manner did not consume any drive space on the C: drive, while drive space on the E: drive was consumed. That's what I'm looking for, so I think it is working. I've added users back on to the system and made the same change to My Documents for each user. Thanks for the help. I'll post back if I encounter any other related problems.
 
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