Restablishing Windows 7 My Documents folders

[Thronsen]

Hi there-

A couple of years ago, I moved all the 'My' folders (e.g My Documents, My Music, Downloads, etc.) from my user account to a different drive (i.e. not the system drive). I used the Properties - Location dialog box to do this.

The drive these folders was on recently crashed, and was not recoverable. I have a back up of all the files, so no worries there. What I have found though is that now a bunch of programs that I think are looking for something in those (now departed) folders are not working correctly or at all. For example, Windows Explorer no longer lists any Favorites, nor can I make more favorites. Windows Scan wont even start up, etc.

Does anyone know how I can establish a location for all the My folders? When I dont have the ability to access them and the dialog box?

Thanks,

 

[hedwar2011]

Hi there-

A couple of years ago, I moved all the 'My' folders (e.g My Documents, My Music, Downloads, etc.) from my user account to a different drive (i.e. not the system drive). I used the Properties - Location dialog box to do this.

The drive these folders was on recently crashed, and was not recoverable. I have a back up of all the files, so no worries there. What I have found though is that now a bunch of programs that I think are looking for something in those (now departed) folders are not working correctly or at all. For example, Windows Explorer no longer lists any Favorites, nor can I make more favorites. Windows Scan wont even start up, etc.

Does anyone know how I can establish a location for all the My folders? When I dont have the ability to access them and the dialog box?

Thanks,

Are you trying to recreate the link between your current "My" folders for your current user account or the backup you created a while back?

If the programs you are trying to lose are pointed to the folders that were lost, sadly there may be no resolve to that unless you reinstall the program from square one. You may be able to run sfc /scannow and it should re-establish the link because it will find it as an error.

 

[Thronsen]

Hi Hedwar-

Thanks so much for your helpful reply.

I have reinstalled most of the programs that were impacted. The only real problem is windows itself. Somewhat surprisingly, I didnt realize how much I used Favorites in Windows Explorer until it was gone.

Just trying to figure out a way to do it without reinstalling windows. But that might be a faint hope.

Thanks,

 

[hedwar2011]

Hi Hedwar-

Thanks so much for your helpful reply.

I have reinstalled most of the programs that were impacted. The only real problem is windows itself. Somewhat surprisingly, I didnt realize how much I used Favorites in Windows Explorer until it was gone.

Just trying to figure out a way to do it without reinstalling windows. But that might be a faint hope.

Thanks,

I didn't realize you were talking about Favorites within Windows Explorer. The only way to really restore those is to just recreate them. They work just like shortcuts or pinned items in Windows. They are simply pointing to the location that you use the most. [strike] You should be able to right-click whatever it is you want to add to it while in Windows Explorer and choose
Add to Library.[/strike] <~~~ Sorry brain fart. You can also browse to where you want to go, right click the Favorites header and choose Add to Favorites. You can also try right-clicking the Favorites header in the Windows Explorer side pane on the left and choose Restore Favorites links.

 

[kenrivers]

This link may help: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18583-user-folders-restore-default-location.html

This is an example of how to creating folders that were accidentaly deleted:
On Windows 7

(This might work on Vista too – if you know, please contact us
1.Go to your USERPROFILE directory and create a “Videos” folder
2.Open an explorer window and right click on the “Videos” icon under “Libraries” and choose properties
3.Choose “Include a folder” and point it to your USERPROFILE\Videos directory that you just create

Note: if you just create the folder without adding to the Videos library, things won’t work properly, so please follow the above steps.

Source: http://support.pluralsight.com/knowledgebase/articles/49113-how-do-i-restore-my-my-videos-folder-if-i-ve-del