Solved My Documents no longer accessable

[Trubl]

Wow what a mess!

I tried moving my users/documents folder from its normal location, to my E drive, by right clicking on the folder and selecting "Move to"

I assumed this would move the folder, but instead it moved the contents of the folder to E drive. Oh great!

From explorer in the Admin account a directory listing shows a documents folder, but junction to My Documents

04/09/2019 01:56 PM <DIR> Documents
07/10/2015 05:33 AM <JUNCTION> My Documents [..]

I've managed to get the Documents folder visible when logged in as that user, but says access denied if I try to open it.

It seems I need to delete the junction which I assume to be a symbolic link (not sure) but have had no success in deleting the link, using rmdir although since the link seems to indicate the root of E, I'm reluctant.

A search on-line MS says delete the link like any other file, but seems scary since it refers to root.

 

[Trubl]

I created a restore point, then found 2 entries in the registry for the Current user referencing the E: for "Personal" Key


[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

"Personal"="E:\\"

I changed to %USERPROFILE%\Documents which is the value another account had for this key.
I appreciate I'm playing with fire here, I also copied the reg keys to disk prior to the edit.

Hopefully between my system restore and backed up reg keys I'll wont trash the install.

At present the documents folder is where its supposed to (empty), but its attributes are set to RSH, and I cant change the attributes, I presume this to be the result of the "Junction"

 

[Trubl]

Restored the registry to the original settings, so now documents (in library) no long visible again.

 

[Trubl]

Appears that all system folders have a junction.

Since, this the move of these folders are now located at root E, it cant be moved back in the same manner as it was moved, since there are other system files at root, which will not move ie system volume information.

This E partition is not being “System Protected” ie it is turned off on E and no restore points... the function of the System Volume Information folder.

 

[Trubl]

Believe I got it fixed.

Using the following method

1. Left-click on the folder (for those of you that still use a mouse).
2. Select Properties.
3. Click Security tab.
4. Click Advanced.
5. Click “Enable inheritance” if disabled.
6. Click “Replace all child object…” check box
7. Click OK.
8. It may take some time for Windows to change the settings.

After that change I was able to move the folders to the C:\Users\XXXX\Documents directory. Programs using that data seem to work and save there now.

The question has become, can I now turn the "Inheritance Off"?

Need to leave inheritance ON ... done


FINIS

 

[Trubl]

Prior to this Explorer did NOT show "Documents" but "E:\"

 

[Trubl]

Clearly my mistake!

I incorrectly assumed since I was altering the properties of a folder, the effects would impact the entire folder not merely its contents.
Had I performed the move to a different folder in lieu of root, I would not have had this problem.

The "move" clearly states this moves the contents NOT the folder itself.

RTFD

Homer Simpson