Windows 10: Relocating User Desktop Folder Problem

I need help correcting a problem I created with the relocation of my user Desktop folder.

I am new to Windows 10, and I have limited experience with Windows7.

System:
Lenovo M725s
Windows 10 Pro, 1909 Build 18363.815
AMD Ryzen 5 Pro CPU
8 GB memory
C: SSD, D: hard file

I wanted to relocate my user Desktop folder from my C drive (SSD) to the D drive. I made a mistake in specifying the path in the relocation dialog box, and by not creating the D:\MyUser\Joe\Desktop folder before initiating the relocation.

* I did not create the D:MyUsers\Joe\Desktop folder before trying to move the folder
* I typed D:\MyUsers\Joe as the relocation path, instead of D:\MyUsers\Joe\Desktop

The net effect seems to be a merge of the Desktop and other user Folders in the D:\MyUsers\Joe folder.

How do I recover from this mistake? Some possibilities from my research on the forum.

1. Manually recreate the folders with the appropriate attributes, permissions and locations.
* * How do I do this?
* * The I've accidentally replaced my User folder with my Pictures folder
link seems to offer some try-and-retry suggestions (2018 post).

2. Create a new user account (eg Joe2) and copy the backup date to the new user account folders, delete the Joe account, and then recreate the Joe account (or just live with the Joe2 account).
* * Any way to recreate User folders w/o reinstall?

3. Use the system restore capability.
* * How do I know the date of the restore point(s)?
* * How do I restore?
* * Will the restore recreate the user profile folders with the appropriate attributes and permissions?

4. Re-image the C: and D: drive from the CloneZilla image. The images were made in Feb 2020, so a lot of recovery and application reinstallation work might be necessary.

Before making the Desktop folder relocation change I had done the following on the system.

* Installed the latest MS Windows 10 update, so hopefully I have a recent restore point before I made the folder relocation mistake.

* Backup of the user folders to an external hard drive before trying to move the Desktop folder

* I then tried to relocate the Desktop folder to the D drive so it would be easier to backup along with the other user folders.

I tried to relocate the user Desktop folder from the C drive to the D drive. This was similar to my previous relocation of some “user” folders such as the Documents, Pictures and other folders. Unfortunately I tried to perform the relocation steps from memory instead of following a set of written instructions. I did not create the Desktop folder in the D drive users directory before making the change which seems to have merged the relocated Desktop folder with the other user folders.

I will show screenshots of 2 different user accounts: Joe and Joe Admin. The Joe Admin account is an admin account, that I did not try to modify. The Joe account is the account where I tried to relocated the Desktop folder.

There is a 5 image limitation on uploading jpg files. So, I created a pdf file with the text and related images.


Thank you in advance for your assistance.

:)

 

Relocate user folders

Running Windows 10. I have 4 users using this desktop. I would like to relocate the user document folders to another drive. I've tried to put a folder named J:\Users\Steve to an external drive but it comes up J:\Documents. I would like 4 folders named
J:\Users\Steve, J:\User\Jane, J:\Users\Dale and J:\Users\Joe. How can this be accomplished. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Desktop and user folder merging

Hi,

There are different ways for you to recover the previous folder settings on your computer. One of these is by following the steps below to organize and relocate your desktop or user folder.

• Press Windows key + E to launch File Explorer.
• Right-click on the special folder that you want to restore (Desktop).
  
• Then select Properties.
• Navigate to the Location tab.
• Click Restore Default.
• Then click Apply to save the changes.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

 

Windows 10 - Relocate the Users folder Part 2 -Creating Account Issue

I decided to leave your suggestion as a last resort (before re-installation). I have my AppData folder ~ 15 GB and also my user profile is placed on the bad sectors of the drive. It took me about 5 mins to login into my desktop with a lot of disk grinding. Anyway, I tried Clonezilla in a "rescue" mode (becasue of unreadable sectors) to clone my drive. I replaced the drive with the clone and It somehow worked quite well. I am able to login and within 2 secs I get usable desktop; even Cortana suddenly came alive again and my menu shows up full. I may still have to fix some minor glitches in my profile or AppData. But everything works well and my user accounts and Program Files (that allow themselves to be installed in any locations) sit happily on the second drive.
Thank you Kari