Relocating gone wrong - scared of losing data

[pagallery]

Hi I'm using W7 Home Professional 64 bit and have got into a mess with Libraries/Folders etc. I'm trying to sort it out but am scared that I might delete all my data. I don't know which listing is actually my data and which is just some form of shortcut. Please excuse length of this post but I don't know how else to explain the problem.

I have 2 hard drives on my PC, Drive C has all the program files and drive D has all my data folders/files.

When I click on the Libraries icon, in the left hand panel I have the following:

Favourites (which I'd like to get rid of - there's nothing except empty folders under it)
and
Desktop

Under Desktop I have:
Libraries (which has nothing except categories under it all of which have nothing in)
Homegroup
PAG Desktop
Computer
Network
Control Panel
Recycle Bin

I must have created PAG Desktop (it refers to my desktop machine rather than the screen desktop as that is the name which appears under Homegroups on my W7 Laptop but can't remember how - I was possibly trying to rename the 'user' from c:\users\user - W7 was put on PC by hardware firm when they repaired my PC and I changed from XP to 7, they put 'user' on but I'm the only person who uses the PC)

Under PAG Desktop I have:
App Data (which has folders Local, Locallow and Roaming under it)

Contacts (which just has User.contact under it - can I delete this? there's no info in it)

Data Drive D (which appeared after I tried to move My Music from C to D. When I try to restore My Music to C using Default Location (C:\Users\User) I get a message saying Folder Redirection Failied - Failed to build the list of regular subfolders under D:\System Volume Information Access denied. It has everything showing which is listed under Data Drive D when I look at Data Drive D under computer)

Data Drive D (a second copy - comments re first copy apply to this one as well)

Desktop (which has just 2 shortcuts in it and not all the shortcuts which appear on the computer screen desktop)

Downloads (which has loads of downloads in it)

Library (which just has a preferences folder in it)

My Pictures (which has nothing under it)

Saved Games (which has an empty Microsoft Games folder under it)

Searches ( which has a copy of Saved Games)

Under Computer I have:
Program Drive C
Data Drive D - which has Downloads (which appear to be the same as the Downloads under PAG Desktop, My Pictures, My Music, My Scans etc)

Can I delete the 2 Data Drive D's under PAG Desktop without getting rid of the Data Drive D under Computer? I really don't want three references to the same set of folders - I'm pefectly happy working with the folders under Computer.

I'd be really grateful if someone could at least point me in the right direction to a tutorial or something which will help me soret out the mess I've made. I really can't face reformatting the drives and reinstalling all my programs etc, then restoring all the data from backups.

 

[richc46]

Right now, use backup and restore to back up all your documents. Then we talk.

 

[whs]

It is completely counterproductive to delete folders that were created by the system - even if they are supposedly empty. However, you may relocate use folders that have a Location tab in Properties. You must however make sure that you first create a target folder on the drive where you want to move them to. Moving them to the drive itself creates a mess and you lose the capability to restore them to the default location.

 

[karlsnooks]

pagallery,

You are your own worst enemy.

My recommendation:

By good old copy and paste method, you backup all data that is dear to your heart to an external usb drive.

Perform a complete reinstall of win 7.

Don't muck around with Win 7's decisions.

Copy back your data to the correct libraries created by Win 7.

 

[gregrocker]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

Add and Remove folders from libraries by rightclicking on them, that's all.

 

[karlsnooks]

Greg,
I've used that procedure but went away from it because not all programs would work correctly with the reparse points. I found that the more flexible approach was simply adding another folder to the Library. But either way will work for nearly all applications. Most people would have not been exercising the folder relocation method to the extreme that I did. All MS software worked correctly for me. The problems came from 3rd party software.