Importing My Documents from External Hard Drive - XP to Win 7

[rikkidegraz]

Up to about a week ago I had a Toshiba laptop with XP. Then I bought a new Toshiba laptop with Win 7. Here is my issue.

I am a head-hunter. I use Outlook 2007 for keeping all my contact information for both Clients and Candidates. I keep all resumes in business folder within My Documents. Each Outlook entry has a link to the candidate's folder.

On my old laptop, I backed up Outlook to a .pst file and copied to an external hard drive before formatting. I did that with all my files.

So, when I imported from the external hard drive into my new computer, I noticed something odd. When I clicked on a candidate's link in Outlook Contacts, I got the following message: cannot find C:\documents & settings\.....\my documents\business backup\........\resumes\... verify path

Furthermore, when I delete that hyperlink to recreate one, the address it shows is: C:\users\.....\Music\documents\business backup\.......\resumes\....

Music? What are my files doing in Music? They are also listed in Documents.

Can you help me to sort this out?

 

[DeaconFrost]

I don't have a suggestion at this time, but what you see is a perfect example why many of us don't use the "my" folders at all. I always use a second drive (or a partition if on a laptop) labeled as D for all of my user data, such as documents, photos, etc. If your paths were D:\Clients....then your links would still function properly.

 

[rikkidegraz]

So I deleted the document folder within the music folder. as expected, everything was deleted from document folder and the document folder within the music folder.

I thought if I started from scratch I could fix it so instead of importing the whole my document folder, I imported each folder separtely making sure not to import the music folder.

Guess what? They still showed up in the music folder. So, is there any way to create a partition without formating the hard drive?

 

[DeaconFrost]

You can use software such as Partition Wizard to shrink your current partition, then create a new partition from the unused space.

 

[seavixen32]

I agree with DeaconFrost.

Create a separate data partition and forget about using Libraries.

 

[Corazon]

It sounds like your music folder is actually a junction pointing back to the Documents folder.

As for why this happened in the first place, the system path to user folders was changed between XP and Vista/7:

• XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents
• 7: C:\Users\username\Documents

 

[rikkidegraz]

Short of reformatting and creating partitions, do I have any other recourse?

 

[Corazon]

There's no need to reformat just to create another partition (given enough disk space of course). DeaconFrost suggested Partition Wizard which is excellent and freely downloadable as a bootable CD .iso image, ready to be burned to disc.

 

[seavixen32]

Use this tutorial to partition your hard drive without reinstalling Windows.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93322-partition-wizard-use-bootable-cd.html

 

[rikkidegraz]

Thank you. I've looked at other partition programs but they all want money. I figure why spend more money when Microsoft is to blame for this screwup. Had they kept some things well enough alone, I would'nt be in this predicament.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Microsoft is hardly to blame for this. I feel like this is becoming an epidemic...people blaming Microsoft for their own system issues.

Anyway, hopefully it sunk in that you don't have to format. You also don't need to spend a dime. A simple 5 minute fix, and you can be back up and running....using good usage/operating practices.

 

[rikkidegraz]

Yes, it is to blame. I had XP on my old computer. It worked well and I was happy. However, the computer was 6 years old. I wanted a new one. Unfortunately, the new one had win 7 preloaded. I didn't ask for it, did I? I made sure to backup on an external hard drive but when I imported into the new computer, everything went weird on me. My documents are also in my music folder. The path to my files all changed. Ah, I could go on but why?

I know the Microsoft guys have to keep creating new things to sell new stuff. It would be nice to be able to have a choice when buying a new computer. I really don't need this. I'm a head-hunter and I don't have time to dick around with computers. If I don't work I don't make money.

So lose the attitude.

 

[seavixen32]

Thank you. I've looked at other partition programs but they all want money. I figure why spend more money when Microsoft is to blame for this screwup. Had they kept some things well enough alone, I would'nt be in this predicament.

Partition Wizard is free and many of us have used it successfully, which is why I gave you link to use it.

If you are so anti-Microsoft, ditch your computer and buy a Mac, but ranting on here about Microsoft just puts people off from helping you.

We've offered you a solution that is easy and cost-free, but if you choose not to use it, that's your choice.

Telling people to lose the attitude when they blatently haven't got one seems counter-productive to me.

We are unpaid helpers trying to help, but you're not making it very easy for us with your carping attitude.

 

[DeaconFrost]

So lose the attitude.

I'm not the one with the attitude and misguided anger. You bought the new computer, correct? If so, you chose Windows 7. If you really didn't want Windows 7, you could have bought one with downgrade rights, or built your own computer, using whatever OS you wanted.

Second, you didn't follow good computing habits in the first place, by using the "my folders" and also by linking documents outside of Outlook. That's always a recipe for trouble...even when switching from computers of the same OS. It's the same principle behind using Excel links to bring data from various external files stored in various locations. I've been in I.T. for 15 years now, from desktop support to Director...and those usage habits have caused issues during that entire time span.

I understand your frustration that things didn't work smoothly, but if you buy a new car and never change the oil....is it the manufacturer's fault? If you buy a subcompact car, and expect to tow a boat with it...is it the manufacturer's fault when you can't?

 

[rikkidegraz]

My apologies to one and all. I did not mean to offend.

I downloaded the minitool. Just to be safe, should I screw up as I am technically challenged, do I have a recourse?

 

[seavixen32]

I was brought up to believe that a gracious apology should always be accepted, so accepted it is.

As for recourse, of course you have it, the tutorial is well-written and should help you to solve the problem, but if there is anything you are not sure of, please ask.

It may not always be the same person who answers due to time-zone differences, but we will help you all we can.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Accepted as well, so let's get back to the issue at hand. You don't really have an undo, so to speak, but the software does show you the final results before you actually apply them. It is never a bad idea to have all of those important documents backed up off of the system anyway, but Partition Wizard has been very reliable for me. You first shrink your system volume, and once that is done and applied, you can then use Windows Disk Management to create the new, data partition from the free space.

 

[rikkidegraz]

So after I make these partitions do I just drag and drop my files and folders into them? This computer was already somewhat partitioned in that it has 3 partitions. Of course, the biggest one being C. What do I do with the Libraries? I've attached a screen shot.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I think there is a limit of 4 primary partitions on a drive.

I'll let Seavixen and Deacon comment on this, but I think you'd probably want to create an "extended partition" from the space generated when you shrink C. Then create any desired number of "logical drives" within the extended partition. An extended partition is unusable until you make logical drives within it.

Then format the logical drives and store your data on them in a normal manner.


Partition Wizard is a good tool to do all of this.

If you are going to give up on libraries (I have), you can configure Windows 7 to pretty much get them to disappear. See the tutorials on this site. Likewise, you can avoid the entire "user" heirarchy. The idea is to save directly to the final destination folder (e.g. D:\MP3\Johnny Cash - I Walk The Line.mp3 or whatever)

 

[seavixen32]

Ignatzatsonic is spot on with his advice.

You can create up to four primary partitions on a hard drive and use one of them to create logical partitions if you need more.

Shrink C to the size you want - 100GB should be more than enough for Windows and your applications - and then use the resultant unnallocated space to create as many logical partitions as you want.

Do not touch the D drive as that is HP's recovery drive, but you can delete it if you wish providing you have created a set of recovery discs. Just be aware that recovering your system to factory conditions takes a lot longer when using recovery discs instead of a recovery partition.

Partition Wizard is the ideal tool to use as it is more flexible than Windows 7's Disk Management.

Personally I don't bother with libraries. My unallocated space was converted to a logical partition and I created four folders: My Documents, My Music, My Pictures and My Videos.

Whatever you do, do not try and move your library folders to these new folders. Just move the data in them to the new location.

These new folders were then backed up to an external hard drive and are kept in sync using Microsoft's Sync Toy - http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15155

However, you can use the existing library folders if you prefer. Just include the new data folders in their respective library or create a new library.

As ever, check with WSF's excellent tutorials for further advice.