Windows 7: Win 7 won't let me rename a folder to 'My Music'

My Win 7 Home Premium laptop used to have a folder called 'My Music' that was located in the root of my user folder, at the same level as the 'My Documents' folder but, for various reasons, I wanted to place 'My Music' inside the 'My Documents' folder.

However, I actually ended up moving all my music files and subfolders into a new folder called 'My New Music Folder' within 'My Documents'. All my attempts to rename 'My New Music Folder' as 'My Music' are rejected, even though I have deleted the original 'My Music' folder.

When I try the rename, I am told that 'My Music' already exists (despite it being deleted). I am offered the opportunity to merge the new version of the folder with the old version but when I agree I am told the folder does NOT exist! I am then offered the chance to create 'My Music' but when I agree I am told it is 'not accessible' and 'access is denied'! Rebooting the laptop doesn't help.

None of this makes any sense to me. Can anyone offer a solution?

David

Its not as simple as deleting and making a new folder, win 7 uses junction points to point at files so it is possible for example to move user folders to different locations and even different drives as long as the new folder location is included in the relevant library, there is a tutorial for it although it talks about moving all user folders you should get the idea
User Folders - Change Default Location

Thanks for the guidance, Pauly. I'll check that out in detail tomorrow.

David

Just having a think about your situation and i think you will need to put the original folder back where it was or windows will prob throw an error, even when moving the folders i believe the originals still need to be there although they will be empty

May be good to run an sfc scan to make sure windows is happy with all files/folders before you start moving things
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Hello David,

If you like, you could use OPTION TWO in the tutorial below to restore your "My Music" folder to it's default location with the correct name.

User Folders - Restore Default Location

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Useful sharing.

I have run sfc /scannow and no problems were found. I have also implemented Option 2 for restoring the My Music folder to its default location (ref link quoted by Brink). Prior to running that process, I created a new C:\Users\David\Music folder, as instructed. After that process, no changes were obvious.

There are currently no libraries defined for music. My C:\Users\David\Music folder (which is empty) sits alongside C:\Users\David\My Documents, which contains a subfolder called Music containing all my music files. This subfolder was previously named 'My New Music Folder'.

However, my original problem essentially still remains. I cannot rename C:\Users\David\My Documents\Music to C:\Users\David\My Documents\My Music (something I wish to do so that my laptop matches my desktop folder structure and thus facilitates synchronisation software to run without any complications). Windows is still convinced that this folder already exists, even though I cannot see it.

I must confess that I find the tendency for Windows to apparently use the folder names Music and My Music interchangeably rather confusing, though I don't know if this has any relevance to my problem. Where do I go from here?

David

You can't rename system folders...this is by design.
Use Brink's suggestion above to restore the default location.

As I said in my last post, I have already followed Brink's advice to restore the default location (though the effect of this procedure was not obvious).

I am confused by your reference to a system folder. As far as I am aware, the folder I am trying to rename, i.e. C:\Users\David\My Documents\Music is a folder of my own creation, not a system folder. I am being prevented from changing its name to C:\Users\David\My Documents\My Music on the basis that this 'My Music' folder already exists. I'm happy to accept that 'My Music' might be a system folder located somewhere else on my machine (I have been assuming that it is another name for C:\Users\David\Music) but I cannot see it within My Documents and thus do not understand why there should be a naming conflict.

David

Hello David,

Did you delete all other Music folders in your C:\Users\(user-name) folder before doing OPTION TWO?

Did you do all of OPTION TWO?

Did you restart the PC afterwards?

Sometimes it may take a bit to have the folder show as "My Music" with a "Location" tab in it's properties.