Windows 7: User Folders - Restore Default Location

I used option 2 to restore. After restarting several times without the My Documents folder showing up, I created a new My Documents folder. A warning came up saying that the folder already existed, when I continued the linked folder appeared.

If I click on continue, another window appears saying that I have been denied permission to access the folder and that I need to use the security tab to gain access. However the security tab does not allow me to change permissions.

Go ahead and use step 3 in OPTION ONE of the tutorial below to have all hidden files show, then post a screenshot showing the contents of your C:\Users\(user-name) folder to see there may be another hidden documents folder.

Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide

I was able to delete the linked folder and then after restarting the normal My Documents folder appeared. Guess I was too impatient before.

Now instead of moving the user folders, I am using your tip to save HDD space by creating new folders and adding them to the appropriate libraries.

Thank you for your assistance and for posting such good information.

That's great news Arron. You're welcome.

Hello,

Thank you very much for this tutorial. I followed the second option to recover my lost \Pictures.

I was moving this folder to a different partition. I wanted to move the files manual, because it was more than 1gb of pictures. And i had duplicated files, so I was checking and merging. (visipics)

I changed the path in the location tab. Windows asked if it should move the files. I clicked 'NO'.
The location worked nice.

But when looking at the old folder, it was gone!
I tried this tutariol to get the old folder back. But it did not help. It just got back to the new location.
I rebooted several times.

I searched for deleted files with recuva, diskdigger. Recuva cant find anything. Diskdigger hangs at 50%; after about an hour I stopped it. I used both the light and heavy searches.

I began to doubt if the old folder was a the physical location or that is was a symlink already.
But I did check that, and did not see another location.
I have about 5 partitions. The userfolder is in E: and the documents symlinked already. So I have done this before and i (think i) know what i am doing

It seems the settings are ok, but the physical folder is lost and wont come back.

Is it possible for windows to remove the directory location without any trace? That even the files in it, cannot be found by recuva?
if so, is there a way to recover the dir, so the files come up again.

I have searched for hours now. I just cant find the answer

I hope someone can help me out.

Thanks in advance!
Flexjoly

Hello Flexjoly, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yep, you should have clicked on "Yes" to move the files with the folder.

You might see if using OPTION TWO in the tutorial to restore the default location may still have the file in the original C: location when finished.

Hi Brink,
Thanks for your reply.

I did not find 'option three', only one and two in your tutorial.
My user profiles are on E: , so there should be no files on C:

Did windows delete the dir?
But no files are found with recuva. Is that normal?
Or does that mean I looked wrong and the files were already in another location?
It seems too strange that the files are totally gone.

Greetz, Flexjoly

Sorry, that should be OPTION TWO.

Brink,

I've tried OPTION TWO several times and keep having the same problem: after the first restart, it appears that everything is working fine. However, after a second restart, all the registry values revert to what they were before and everything is screwed up again.

This computer is on a domain and the Music, Pictures, Videos, and Documents folder are all defaulting to the user's Active Directory Home location instead of the local path. For example, the Location tab for "My Documents" has the Location as "\\SERVERNAME\Home\username\My Documents" instead of "C:\Users\username\Documents".

None of the other computers on this network and domain have this problem, so I know it's not an Active Directory issue. When I log on to another laptop (on the same domain/network) with my username, everything is fine. shell:Personal leads to the local My Documents folder in the C:\Users folder. Only on this one computer, shell:Personal leads to the network location. And it's not just my username, any user that logs onto this one specific computer has the same problem.

Like I said, I've tried option #2, but after a couple restarts, the registry values just revert back to the network locations.

Any thoughts?

Hello gbds, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'm afraid that I have no experience with domain issues. This tutorial was intended for local accounts instead.

I wish I could help more.