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Question

C: full, need to move My Pictures folder to D: drive

Sep 11, 2015 5:24AM PDT

This question is firstly not about the 'how to' do the move but more about whether Windows will allow the move permanently to another internal drive.

I have an Asus ROG G74S laptop with Win7 64bit & 4 internal hard drives each approx. 350GB each. I purchased this pc specially with 4 internal drives to fill them with photos.

When I originally purchased this laptop I wanted to do this move straight away but no-one seemed capable or wanted to help me. Technicians told me I would never fill C: ! I knew I would have a huge folder size. I take it with me everywhere & really don't want an extra weight of another external hard drive to carry the photos in. I do have 4 up to 2TB external drives at home but don't want to carry 2 things around on site.

I was given some instructions about how to do it but when I got to the window in My Pictures>Properties that should have had the 'move folder' button, there was none.

That got me thinking about the legalities of actually moving the My Pictures folder from C: to D: permanently.

My photo folder is a massive 99Gb & growing rapidly. The remaining space on C: is only 50Gb & I would probably have 10GB in new photos awaiting loading tonight.

So initially I need to know whether it is 'kosher' to 'open up' Windows (as in make changes to the software) & move the complete My Pictures folder permanently from C: to D: . It's not just the photos I load, it is all the other reasons that Windows wants to access things in the pictures folder or all the other software I use that needs to know where to find or put photos.

TIA

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Before you move, backup.
Sep 11, 2015 7:22AM PDT
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Good Idea re larger drive
Sep 12, 2015 12:04AM PDT

Good idea Ron re the bigger drive & yes I do backup to external drives regularly including imaging. Via a Seagate external 2TB drive I run Memeo imaging software that updates the image each time I start up (so pretty much daily).
I'm still stumped about how to move the folder though.
Clarification regarding the number of drives.
There are 2 physical Western Digital hard drives inside the laptop, each partitioned into 2x 350GB drives.
None of those other drives (D: E: FHappy contains anything that I can't move some place else.
So for sure I could replace the 1 hard drive that does not contain C: with a new much bigger drive.
But I still need to work out how to move that one folder off the C: because it is full.

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Here's how I find out that move.
Sep 12, 2015 7:38AM PDT
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for some that ia a good idea also
Sep 12, 2015 7:27PM PDT

Ron said "For me this is nothing I ever do since I can simply create my new folder on the other drive and copy the content there. Later after I'm sure it's all good I can remove the source folder contents."

But for me needing to access & reference most of my photos each time I use that folder, it would drive me bonkers having to go to numerous files & wondering where some subject matter might be.
Plus the album software that controls the whole of my photos is Picasa & it will only source from the My Pictures folder (that I am aware of). If I start other files with photos in them outside of the My Pictures folder, it copies them to it's main albums under other titles which is just plain confusing.

http://superuser.com/questions/16883/move-the-public-folders-on-windows-7

This forum entry explains what is happening in my My Pictures> properties window when I seek to move the pictures folder. I have taken a few screen prints this morning. I'm just accessing the folder from the start button. Maybe I should be accessing it from another location?

http://i340.photobucket.com/albums/o358/claireT_2008/2015%20General%20phtos/My%20Pictures%20Properties%20window%20screen%20print%20resized%20500x.jpg

I read the Windows forum entry which was enlightening.
I think simply that the version of Win7 I have is not that advanced & those sorts of privileges or permissions are not included. That's why I was asking about whether it would be legal (according to the EULO for my version) to move the folder.

I'm not sure if I feel confident to follow the administrator command prompt instructions provided in the link I posted above incase I get it wrong. Also at the end of those instructions he says that if the user was already logged in as admin & wasn't seeing the 'move' tab, then the instructions probably wouldn't work. To best of my knowledge I am always logged in as admin & I don't know how to find out for sure. For example there is no 'security' tab in the properties window so I can't check what permissions I have. I forget stuff I learned & did after a few weeks or months these days. It is a part of my life now. So whereas I may have previously known how to log in as a user or admin, the laptop has been set to always log me in as admin so I can make necessary changes as required without having to bother my son all the time (who lives overseas& works in IT & hates MS with a passion! He wants me to use ).

Advice given to me for accessing My Pictures>Properties is to "Go to c:\Users\YourUserName\ and right click on My Pictures then click properties" but there is no 'Users' in the window that opens for C:


Another thing to report today is that I have discovered why C: filled so quickly a few weeks ago. My Win7 has downloaded the Win10 $Windows.~BT file because I have auto updates. Apart from that I struggle to understand why a 90GB folder is filling a 350GB drive even when that drive has the Windows OS on it as there should still be 270GB available for storage.

And here's another thing....today when I click properties of C: it says there is over 50GB remaining space. So it varies daily.

It sure is a mystery tour & not very magical! Grin

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Small picture but
Sep 13, 2015 6:47AM PDT

It looks like you can set the save location. To me the tools are at your fingertips to do what you asked. Since you have backups, why not set that as you see fit?

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Yes I think I know which way to go now
Sep 13, 2015 5:04PM PDT

Thanks for all the help.
I will bring the image up to date, add a restore point, then get a technician to do it via command prompt.
Just need to also make sure Picasa & all other software will know to look for that folder on the new drive.
cheers.

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Why the command prompt?
Sep 13, 2015 5:17PM PDT

The GUI looks to do this for us. Yes, it's a fine display of one's skill to command prompt change a junction but why work so hard when the GUI is right there ready to make the change?

Also, what is this about a restore point? Since there's no OS change, I wonder what benefit there is.

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Mine is Home Premium
Sep 13, 2015 9:31PM PDT

From what I read in the Windows forum & somewhere else the Win7 64bit Home Premium Edition does not contain the features needed to easily move the public folder. So it requires a different approach.

This link below had the best answers that told me why I was not succeeding on my machine after several attempts over the last 2yrs.
http://superuser.com/questions/16883/move-the-public-folders-on-windows-7

Here are some excerpts:-
How do you map folders such as Music, Pictures, Video to a different location.
[If you right click, go to properties, and look at the location tab it's not editable on Windows 7.]
[The solution posted did not work for me. The textbox within the location tab was not mutable, and there were no browse or move buttons.]
[4.Switch to the admin Command Prompt window
5.In the Command Prompt, type explorer.exe and press ENTER. This starts the Shell under elevated privileges.
6.Now you can open up the original public folders and should have full access to the location tab, including restore, move, and "find target" buttons.]
[There is an issue with the .exe & unfortunately this doesn't work for me with Win7 Home Premium x64. The resultant explorer.exe seems to keep restarting under my own profile. There isn't an account named "Administator" on this machine. Maybe that's why?]

That last part of an answer was most helpful to me.

So it is best I take it to a technician, I can stand there while the job is done & take my laptop home once it is working effectively. If it doesn't work properly, having created a Restore point prior to the technician working on the machine, it can be restored & I can try to find another solution. I well know my limitations regarding working on this machine these days & I have reached that point. There are so many variables, it's rather bamboozling.

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The thing is, System Restore would NOT undo folder changes.
Sep 14, 2015 4:02AM PDT

I've seen folk melt down over that. (Note: Edited title for typo.)

Post was last edited on September 14, 2015 4:03 AM PDT

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That's very interesting advice
Sep 14, 2015 6:04AM PDT

I will keep it in mind Ron, thanks.
We are always told to make a restore point before doing anything or making any changes to our computers.
For me it is pretty much standard practice to make a restore point first.
I think I understand why. But this late at night my head is not working that well!

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there is no actual "My Pictures" folder
Sep 14, 2015 7:08AM PDT

Just as there's no actual "My Documents" folder. It's a link that forwards to the folder that's been designated to save files into. On my wife's computer I set her My Documents folder to the D drive instead of the C drive since room was getting scarce on the boot drive.

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Yes the link is just an address
Sep 14, 2015 5:12PM PDT

but everything needs to know where to put them & where to find them & that's what I am changing if I can.
What version is your wife's computer James & what method did you use?
It seems there are just so many variables.

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windows 7
Sep 14, 2015 5:19PM PDT

I just changed the folder that My Documents was linked to and moved what files she had in the old actual folder to it. I then removed the old folder. If something needs to access it from another program, and it doesn't allow setting to My Documents, then set it to the actual folder used by My Documents.

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Answer
sounds easy.
Nov 17, 2015 7:05PM PST

Hey.there
i dont know how did you save these photo.if they are downloaded from internet .you just change the saving position to D drive.well if these photo were moved from other device like a camera.
you need to know that do not put it on your desktop,cause desktop means C drive.you just put these photo straightly onto D drive.
As for your these photos which are already in C drive.just cut them all and paste to D drive. well , for insurance.you'd better copy them and paste .then detet the original in C: