Solved How to delete default folders in User folder?

[mc510]

I want to delete the folder "c:\users\me\Videos" so that I can create a symbolic link called "Videos" that points to my secondary data drive. But when I open cmd as administrator and type "rmdir Videos" I get "Access is denied." What do I need to do?

 

[UsernameIssues]

You might try these steps:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

 

[mc510]

You might try these steps:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

I've tried that, but I don't like the results. Particularly that after asking Windows to move default folders, when I navigate to, say, c:\users\me\Videos, it jumps me to D:\Videos, rather than continuing to act as if I'm in c:\users\me\Videos while transparently acting on D:\Videos. If I replace c:\users\me\Videos with a symbolic link, I think I'll get the behavior that I want, but I'm having trouble doing it.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Did you try these steps?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/278262-mklink-create-use-links-windows.html

 

[mc510]

Did you try these steps?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/278262-mklink-create-use-links-windows.html

Not yet, because I haven't been able to delete the existing folder (C:\Users\Me\Videos, for example) that I envision replacing with a symbolic link. Windows responds "Access is denied," even when operating in an elevated command prompt.

 

[UsernameIssues]

It does not take anything special for me to delete that folder using Windows (file) Explorer. I was able to right-click and select Delete from Explorer's context menu.

If need be, use Unlocker.

 

[mc510]

It does not take anything special for me to delete that folder using Windows (file) Explorer. I was able to right-click and select Delete from Explorer's context menu.

If need be, use Unlocker.

Thanks, good to know that I *should* be able to delete that folder; I'll keep working on that.

BTW, after I manage to delete the Video folder, and create a symbolic link (MKLINK /D C:\Users\mc510\Videos D:\Videos) am I done? Or would there be additional steps to get this working properly?

 

[UsernameIssues]

After creating the link - you are done.

 

[mc510]

After creating the link - you are done.

Thanks for your help on this. I tried again today and was able to delete the Videos folder and create the symbolic link. Seems to be working as intended, so I'll proceed to do this with the other User default folders. To me, at least, this seems like the most transparent way to move data folders to a separate drive; I don't know why Windows doesn't do it this way when you use the built-in "change location" feature.

 

[boyer90]

if you are using windows 7, just make a videos folder on the drive that you want, then in the videos library, right click, go to properties, and remove the location to the c: drive folder, then add new location and select the folder you made on your other drive. after that, you can put all your videos on that drive, and when you click the videos library, you will see all the videos that are in the folder that you mapped there. thats what i did with mine, since i partitioned my drive, i have c: for os, and D: for vids, docs, etc and i just remapped my librarys to the folder i created for each on my D:

 

[mc510]

if you are using windows 7, just make a videos folder on the drive that you want, then in the videos library, right click, go to properties, and remove the location to the c: drive folder, then add new location and select the folder you made on your other drive. after that, you can put all your videos on that drive, and when you click the videos library, you will see all the videos that are in the folder that you mapped there. thats what i did with mine, since i partitioned my drive, i have c: for os, and D: for vids, docs, etc and i just remapped my librarys to the folder i created for each on my D:

Yeah, that is the standard way that Windows 7 offers to relocate default User folders. Personally, I don't like it, because when you navigate into your relocated User folders, you get kicked over the new location. I didn't want the user (Mrs. Mc510) to even know that I'd relocated the folders! This is what I did:

1. Create a new folder in the desired location (e.g., MKDIR D:\Videos)
2. Move all documents from the original folder to the new folder (I find Explorer to be easiest for this, but you could use Robocopy)
3. Delete the original folder (RMDIR C:\Users\Myself\Videos)
4. Create a symbolic link that points to the new folder (MKLINK /D C:\Users\Myself\Videos D:\Videos)
5. Repeat for other default user folders
6. Optional - create a Group Policy to hide drive D: in Explorer (User Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Explorer -- Hide these specified drives in My Computer)

So far so good. Everything looks and behaves exactly like a default Windows 7 installation, but data is being saved on my large hard drive instead of my small SSD. I still don't know exactly what the effect of this will be if I create a backup image of C: or D:, or if I upgrade to Win10, or for indexing.

For the last step, an alternative would be to remove the drive letter from D: after copying all the data over to the new folders, and then create the symbolic links using the GUID for the data drive. In fact, I was planning to do this, until I realized that I could more easily use a group policy.