Files/Folders/etc saved/placed on data partition appear on desktop

[jjbarnone]

Hello Windows Ten Forum Members,

I have spent the last few hours searching a variety of forums and Internet sites, but can not locate a solution to my problem.

I recently re-installed Windows 10 Home edition on my Dell Inspiron laptop which is a few years old. Prior to the installation, I did a complete DBAN/format of the hard drive so I can perform a totally clean installation which I’ve done a few times over the past few years.

This time around, I decided to partition the 600 GB hard drive into two parts: C Drive to contain Windows 10 and all of the programs, and J Drive to contain all of my data (My Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, etc).

I am able to set the default to save everything on the J Drive via going into the Settings/Storage/”Change where new content is saved” section. At least I think I’m doing that part correctly.

The problem that I am experiencing is as follows:

Whenever I place any type of file/folder/etc onto the J Drive, it immediately shows the file/folder/etc on the desktop as well. If I attempt to delete the file/folder/etc on the desktop, it deletes it on the J Drive as well – these are not shortcuts that are being created on the desktop.

Prior to this re-installation when I had only 1 partition of the C Drive, I never experienced this occurring when everything was stored in the My Documents, Music, Video, etc folders. They would be in their folders, not showing on the desktop, which I am accustomed to on Windows 10, 7, Vista..heck, even back in the 3.1 days...lol.

So in short:

1. I would like to prevent files from showing on the desktop when saving data on the J Drive...making the J Drive hidden, thus hiding the files on the desktop is not a solution for me – if that is even a viable option.

2. Within about 100 files/folders (just a guess) saved on the J Drive, the desktop will be completely covered with icons.

Any help to resolve this would be greatly appreciated.

jj

 

[Trouble]

Open file explorer.
In the left hand navigation pane, expand "This PC"
Right click "Desktop" and choose "Properties"
Select the "Location" tab along the top.
Take note of the path in the text box

 

[jjbarnone]

Thank you for the quick reply, however, I must be losing my mind because I do not see Desktop under This PC...I could have sworn it was there previously....

 

[Trouble]

What do you see??
Can you use the snipping tool and do a snap of the file explorer windows as I have above, so we can be sure we are on the same page.

 

[jjbarnone]

I must have really screwed something up because I can not locate Desktop anywhere within File Explorer or if I go to save a document and quickly click on "Desktop" to save...it's just no where to be found. Here's a clipped screenshot...

 

[Trouble]

Yep..... Your "J" drive has the desktop icon, which suggests that somehow you've made your J:\ drive your Desktop location.
I've seen this on multiple forums including this one and I'm not sure I've seen a definitive solution.

My first suggestion would be to look for a System Restore point that pre-dates the change and see if that remedies the issue.

 

[jjbarnone]

Thanks for the reply. I'm unsure how I created this fiasco and will go back to a restore point. If all else fails, I will just re-install windows and forgot about the whole partitioning possibly..lol.

If the restore point goes smoothly, do you have steps to suggest to set this up correctly? (Or, do you even suggest partitioning the hard drive in the first place?)

If I keep the partition, would step one be what you mentioned initially, make sure the Location/Target states D:\Users\JJdrive\Desktop (example). Step two, go into the Settings/Storage/”Change where new content is saved” and set it to the J Drive...etc, etc........any help so I do it correctly this time around and don't mess it up. Thank you.

 

[Trouble]

One other thing that might work.
Right click on the J:\ in your libraries area of the navigation pane and choose properties, select the location tab and see if clicking the "Restore Default" buttons will set things right.

 

[jjbarnone]

It's giving me the error of:
Failed to build the list of regular subdirectories under "J:\System Volume Information".
Access is denied.

 

[jjbarnone]

When I have time tomorrow, I'm going to go with a restore point. If all else fails, I'm just going to re-install the whole enchilada and keep the hard drive with one partition (aside from the hidden/recovery partition Windows makes).

 

[Trouble]

Or, do you even suggest partitioning the hard drive in the first place?)

It depends on your goal.
Generally speaking, keeping things on the same drive, just on another partition, doesn't accomplish much.

Generally relocating to another physical drive (which is what I do) is done for a specific reason or list of reasons
Small primary OS drive as is in the case with some SSDs
To facilitate some kind of sophisticated Backup strategy
To protect against some type of catastrophic physical failure of the primary drive.

What I always do (and it involves a separate physical drive)
IS manually create a data structure on my D drive ( a 1 TB spinner) that duplicates the same data structure on my C drive
So when I'm done I have
D:\Users\Randy
\Contacts
\Desktop
\Documents
\Downloads (etc. etc. etc.) as seen below

I then go to C:\Users\Randy and use the Properties -> Location -> Move
to relocate them to where I want them.
I DO THIS because I have a 256 GB SSD as my OS drive and my Downloads folder alone is 226 gigs.

It also helps with my backup strategy and with general system performance as my OS Drive C:\ is using 33 gigs with 189 gigs free

Hope this helps.
You'll have to decide for yourself whether a second partition on the same physical drive is going to help you at all.

 

[jjbarnone]

Everything you said and shared makes sense. I have been looking into an external SSD and may pick up one at the end of the month for Black Friday/Cyber Monday specials...thanks again.