SOLVED Confused over Pictures Folder Actual Location

[Tony Armalis]

Some time ago I moved folders like Pictures and Documents to a D drive to save space. Recently I had to reinstall Windows on my C drive doing a clean install. Now I am confused as to where things are. I also use One Drive so I understand that my files are being backed up there. Now, looking at File Explorer I see a folder called Pictures and the properties say the location is C:\Users\tonym\OneDrive. If I look at the Pictures folder on my D drive the location is D:\, but it seems a lot of the subfolders are empty so I have some work to do.

I'm thinking the folder on the C drive is a result of the new Windows Installation setting it up from OneDrive. What's interesting is each photo also has a copy and they each show the same path in properties. So, based on what I see I have these questions:

1. Do the files with OneDrive in the path actually reside on my C drive?

2. I'd like to delete the copies, but that would be an arduous task doing it one by one. Is there a way or command that I could use to delete copies? I have no idea why these copies are there.

3. Is there a program that could compare folders between the disks so that I could see what pictures need to nbe moved to the D drive.

4. Once I get the all my pictures moved to D and assign D as the location, I'm assuming I can delete the Pictures folder from C. If I do will OneDrive keep putting these back?

Hopefully, I've explained this well enough.

Thanks

 

[Bighorn]

I've found the folders or Libraries in the Navigation panel above the C: drive icon are merely shortcuts to the actual System folder for the logged-in user listed in C:\Users\USERNAMEHERE\ as shown in right-click and Properties of each one showing the actual location. Deleting those shortcuts probably will not be an issue but I simply collapse the Quick Access list to help shorten it. I have no need for OneDrive so remove it from my computers but there's no guarantee it won't come back at a future Version Upgrade or maybe Build update. Quick Access now is called Home on Win11.

 

[Tony Armalis]

So, basically those are just pointers to what’s on OneDrive?

I did find out I could search using the wild card, *copy.jpg and that would bring up all the pics that are copies, then I could delete them. I still not understand how this happened as the folders on my D drive do not have the files marked copy.

I also found a program that will compare multiple folders and tell which are different.

 

[Tony Armalis]

Admin, you can delete this. I didn't realize this was a Windows 10 forum, must have navigated to the wrong place.