Can you copy “My Documents” in Win 7 like you did in Win XP???

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OK, In Windows XP all you had to do was copy the “My Documents” folder and you gots all of your documents, pictures, music, and videos to copy in one easy step.

Since there is no “My Documents” folder in Windows 7, do I now have to do “4 copies” to accomplish the same as about???

So I have to copy the documents folder, the pictures folder, the music folder, and the video folder seperately in Windows 7???

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Win 7 does indeed break the old My Documents folder up to seperate folders as you have seen. I guess this allows easier configuration of seperate file types using Libraries.

If you are using the copy to back up your files, then you only have to copy those folders that have changed since the last back up. An incremental back up scheme using any number of back up apps can handle this for your automatically on a regular basis.

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Try this. Create a new library. Add the folders you wish to copy to the library. Copy the library.

Joe

--Joe

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If you navigate to C:usersyour userid, You can ctrl click to highlight the folders you want to copy, then either type ctrl c or right click on one of the highlighted folders and select copy to copy multiple folders at once.

Jerry

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What I want to do is use Karen’s Replicator program to copy the files. So on XP I only had to have 1 Job to do this. Now I guess with Windows 7, I will have to have 4 Jobs to do this. So I’m not trying to Windows Explorer like JoeP517 and jwitalka suggest.

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there is a ‘My documents’ folder in win 7. It is located in ‘users / name/my documents. The one called documents is the one the libraries use to organise it using the data in the original ‘My documents’ folder’. So should be able to just copy this folder as you did in XP.
Sorry just noticed that the my pictures, my Music and My Videos folders are not inside the my documents folder. but could be copied to My Documents folder before copying the My Documents folder.

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The Windows 7 “Documents” folder is located under your user name as curiousclive shows, as are the “My Pictures, My Music, and My Video.
All of these folders will have a “Location” tab in their respective properties that can be configured to move them to whatever location one chooses.
Just ensure that the location your moving these folders to has a same name folder in the moved to location. In essence, the documents folder can be
moved to another drive or partition and all the other folders moved into the newly located documents folder.
28672-Untitled1
As you can see from the attached photo, it’s quite easy to change locations and combine folders. This would also give you a form
of double backup, as the whole documents folder can then be coppied to yet another location like an external HDD, or burned to several DVDs.

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Moving all data to a separate partition also has the advantage that if you have to restore the OS from an Image, the data is left intact. And as Clint states, when you move the folders, you could place them all within one My Documents folder.

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Hello Ted,

When I open the My Documents folder (C:/Users/Roy/My Documents) and click Properties there is no Location pane, so how do I move this folder to another drive?

Advice would be appreciated.

Thanks and regards,
Roy

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Hello Ted,

When I open the My Documents folder (C:/Users/Roy/My Documents) and click Properties there is no Location pane, so how do I move this folder to another drive?

Advice would be appreciated.

Thanks and regards,
Roy

There should very well be a locations pane to the properties menus of these folders, if there is not one, then it is possible that you have somehow managed to break it.
The only reconciliation for this would be to do a repair install of the operating system as outlined by Fred Langa’s non destruct reinstall.
…unless someone else here has a less intrusive way to repair this sort of thing.

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Are you right clicking on the My Documents folder or opening the folder and clicking inside of My Documents? What you want to do is put you cursor directly on the My Documents folder in the left hand pane, right click on the folder and choose Properties.

28713-MoveMyDocuments 28714-MoveMyDocuments2

As you can see, I have already moved My Documents so it shows in D Drive.

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Are you opening properties on the My Documents folder or the My Documents junction point. The junction point “folder” has a shortcut arrow on its icon. See this for an explanation of junction points. You should see both your true My Documents folder and the My Documents junction point under your users directory. The junction point folder will not have a location tab in its properties.

Jerry

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I am right clicking on the My Documents folder (C:UsersRoyMy Documents), not inside the folder contents or on the junction point, and there is no location pane in Properties.

Can I use the Move To Folder option? If so and if I create a new folder on my G drive called My Documents can I set the Move to Folder option to move My Documents to G:My Documents? Will all the pointers in the system point to the new location?

I have just completed a clean reinstall of Windows, and I am reluctant to do a repair install unless I have to.

Please advise further.

Thanks and regards,Roy

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You should not have to create the My Documents folder on your G Drive. If you choose to move and select the G Drive as the target the folder will move. If you then check properties of the My Documents on your C Drive it will point to the moved folder on the G Drive. (See the screen shot I posted. As you can see My Documents on my PC is now located on my D Drive)

I cannot understand why your folder does not have a Location tab. On my system, any folder that Windows allows to be moved has a location tab. Check your Pictures and Music folders to see if they have Location tabs.

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royw: You’re probably clicking on the wrong one. If you have hidden files turned on, then when you go to C:UsersYourname, you’ll see *two* items called “My Documents”. One of them is a hidden shortcut, which is probably the one you’re looking at the properties of, as this one has no location field. The other one is a normal folder, and that’s the one you should copy.

(The folder name is actually “Documents”, but you won’t see that name in the folder. That’s because Windows automatically names it differently depending on who you’re logged in as. So, if you’re logged in as “Sophie”, then your own Documents folder will show up as “My Documents” to you, but “Sophie’s Documents” to everyone else. It’s all still the same folder, though.)

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I think Ted is working in ‘Libraries’.
You don’t get a ‘Location’ tab in ‘Computer’, which is where the real files are.

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OK, In Windows XP all you had to do was copy the “My Documents” folder and you gots all of your documents, pictures, music, and videos to copy in one easy step.

Since there is no “My Documents” folder in Windows 7, do I now have to do “4 copies” to accomplish the same as about???

So I have to copy the documents folder, the pictures folder, the music folder, and the video folder seperately in Windows 7???

This is similar to JoeP517’s suggestion to use Libraries, but a lot of software won’t work with Libraries,
You can try this if Karen’s Replicator won’t work with Libraries

Create a Folder called “My Everything”, open a command window in the My Everything folder and enter following commands

mklink /d My Documents c:users//My Documents
mklink /d My Pictures c:users//My Pictures
mklink /d My Music c:users//My Music
mklink /d My Videos c:users//My Videos

You now have 4 Symbolic Links to the 4 folders in question within the My Everything folder

Test Karen’s Replicator on the My Everything folder

If Karens Replicator wont work with Libraries and it wont work with Symbolic Folder Links then it may be time to consider something else
I suggest Windows Backup, Fred Langa’s excellent How To is here ===>>> http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/build-a-complete-windows-7-safety-net/

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