Windows 7: How can I find Windows 7 MyDocuments from command prompt?

Windows 7 will not start and I have been through the various repair and system restore processes with no success. Before doing a recovery, I have some files I would like to retrieve from the MyDocuments folder (pics, etc) but cannot find the directory from the command prompt. I have already copied some documents that were not in that folder, but I haven't been able to find the MyDocuments directory tree.

Thanks

Hi Kirby and welcome to Seven Forums. My Documents is a junction point (a super link) and you won't see it in command prompt. You need to navigate to C:\users\{your name}\Documents which is the same disk location.

At the command prompt use the commands
c:
to change to C drive if not in C drive

Then
cd\
to go to c:\

Now use the command
cd users\username\documents
where username will be your login/profile name.

You will be switched to My documents folder. From here you can copy the files to the target folder.

When I enter c:\cd\users\kirby\documents, i just get a bunch of other subdirectories, none of which contain my data files. But when I entered c:\cd\users\kirby\my documents, I get the following return text: c:\users\kirby\my documents. The problem is when I then enter dir, I get the system cannot find the path specified message. i can go further in the tree to my pictures with the same result when I enter dir. Am I missing a step here?

Thanks

Suggestion: use Linux Puppy to recover your files:

Recover files from Windows hard disk using Puppy Linux | help.artaro.eu
Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer

C: transfers you to the drive. You should substitute C: with whatever drive the files are now on.

CD\ transfers you to the root folder of that drive.

You can then navigate anywhre on that drive with further CD commands.

This is correct if you want to browse to the folder just press enter after each command highlighted in bold, but you don't need to.

Use "C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents". This will link to the My Documents folder under your user folder (C:\Users\USERNAME\My Documents).

If your pictures are under "C:\Users\USERNAME\My Pictures" use "C:\Users\USERNAME\Pictures".

My Music use "C:\Users\USERNAME\Music"

For example to copy all files including subfolders use something like this,
xcopy /qs "C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\*.*" "D:\Backup\My Documents\*.*"

And I quote Kado897 - "You should substitute C: with whatever drive the files are now on."

If your using the the Recovery Console you can also try Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console. You can do the same thing from the Open File dialog in Notepad if your using the Repair my computer from the F8 menu. Run notepad from the cmd line.

You can also try to download Hiren's boot CD or UBCD4Win ISO files, burn it to a CD and and boot in to the CD. You will get into WinPE environment, which is similar to Windows XP's graphical user interface. Using this you can find the My Documents folder and copy the required files to a USB flash drive.