Can someone help me untangle this - moved desktop

D

David689

Gold Level Poster
Hi,

This is a question relating to Windows really, but it is on a PC Specialist machine and I know there are some knowledgeable folk here. Please remove the post if it is inappropriate.

I will post the machine details at the end of this post. I am now using Windows 11 Home.

I wanted to put my desktop somewhere where I could regularly backup the files on it using drag and drop. So I did some Googling and changed the location of the desktop. However, I suspect I have done something wrong somewhere.

I created a .txt file on my desktop and in properties - location it shows O:\$RECYCLE.BIN\Desktop

If I open This PC, with show hidden files selected and then open the O: drive it shows the folders I expect on the O: drive and also one called $RECYCLE.BIN which is ghosted and inside that are Desktop and Recycle Bin and a ghosted file whose name starts with S1-5-21-197808385 and has further digits after this. Double clicking on it gives an error message "access denied".

Have I somehow managed to move something somewhere it shouldn't be? If so, how can I correct this.

My knowledge can, in the words of Steve Earle "get you into trouble but it can't get you out".

Thank you.


Original machine specs:

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.9GHz/72MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo
Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/au0Cmdn8Aj/
 
T

TonyCarter

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Why did you need to move your desktop folder? Why couldn't you drag and drop from the old location?

The 'ghosted' folder is just telling you it's a normally hidden folder...and it sounds like you've got some files/folders in the $Recycle.Bin folder...which is normal if you've removed/deleted something.

Normally you'd just move your entire [user] folder rather than individual folders...
www.windowscentral.com

How to move user folders to different location on Windows 10

You can move the default user folders to a new location, and in this guide, we'll show you how on Windows 10.
www.windowscentral.com www.windowscentral.com
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Every drive has a hidden recycle bin on it that you won’t have access to, that’s normal

David689 said:
I wanted to put my desktop somewhere where I could regularly backup the files on it using drag and drop. So I did some Googling and changed the location of the desktop. However, I suspect I have done something wrong somewhere.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure I understand what you mean by this. The desktop is in the user profile folder on C. It’s automatically backed up to OneDrive if you have that enabled. If you wanted to back it up locally, you can either set an automated scheduled task which is built into any backup program, or you can copy and paste. You’d never cut and paste as obviously that’s deleting it from your desktop directory
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Martinr36 said:
As @SpyderTracks said the desktop is backed up to onedrive, so just change the location of onedrive, on the Berserker in my signature I've a drive dedicated too onedrive, so none of my documents, photos etc are anywhere near three C drive
Click to expand...
100%
ANY data should never be on the C drive, the first thing you do when setting up windows is move any user libraries to your data drive
 
D

David689

Gold Level Poster
I should maybe explain better.

I don't store any data on my C: drive.

I store it all on an internal SSD that due to various changes is my O: drive.

I don't use the user libraries pictures or documents user libraries (and I don't use OneDrive because it doesn't play nice with Lightroom Classic (LrC)).

The root of my O: drive has a small number of folders that I have created, eg documents, photographs. The Photographs folder contains my 30,000 pictures, in various subfolders. Most of my other data is in subfolders in the documents folder (a poor choice of title by me - I should have called it data).

My backup regime consists of frequently and regularly dragging and dropping all the folders on my O:drive onto one of two portable external M2 drives. I alternate the two drives and keep one in a fireproof safe at all times.

However, I sometimes have small short term projects such as creating a greetings card and I like to keep that on my desktop - I use it as my work in progress site - rather like an actual desktop.

What I wanted to do is to have the desktop file as a high level folder on the O:drive so that when I am dragging and dropping from my O: data drive to my backup drives I can just drag and drop (copy) it to the backup drive.

I followed a procedure along the lines of one of these to achieve this:


What confused me was that in windows explorer, the files that I can see on my windows desktop were listed in O:\$RECYCLE.BIN\Desktop - if I emptied the recycle bin on my desktop the desktop files were still showing in O:\$RECYCLE.BIN\Desktop.

But I think I have now solved the problem. I think when I was clicking move as the final step in moving the desktop to the O:drive I shouldn't have answered yes to "do you want to move the files in the folder".
So I deleted all my desktop files and rebooted and ran the procedure to move the desktop again and rebooted.

I now have what I wanted - anything I put on my desktop is stored in O:\desktop (a folder I created).

I hope this makes sense?

Thank you to everyone who has read and commented.

(Edited to improve spacing, for readability)
 
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