Move "Documents" to a safer location
If you have a hard drive that is already partitioned (divided into 2 or more drives), or even better another physical hard drive, you can permanently move your "Documents" folder to one of them for safety. Everything you save you your "Documents" folder by default will automatically be saved there from then on. In the event that your Vista operating system becomes corrupt or unbootable and you're forced to format and re-install your operating system, your documents will remain intact on the other partition or second physical hard drive.
- Click on the "Start" button (bottom left in your toolbar)
- Navigate to your clickable profile name (top right just under the little picture)
- When your profile folder opens, right-click on the "Documents"folder
- Click on "Properties" of the menu that pops up
- Click on "Location" tab (4th one at the top)
- Click "Move"
- Click on "Computer" (on the left)
- Choose the hard drive or partition you want (on the right)
- Click on "New Folder" (above)
- Name your folder "Documents" or anything you want (it doesn't matter)
- Single-click on that folder and then "Select folder" (bottom right)
- Click "Apply" and you'll see a dialogue box that asks "Do you want to move all the files from the old location to the new location?"
- Click "Yes" and when it's finished moving your files, click "OK" and you're done!
Your "Documents" folder is now located on the safer partition or 2nd hard drive by default. Every time you now save your documents in the default "Documents" folder will automatically be saved there.
*You can save your "Contacts" folder, "Favorites" folder, "Music" folder, "Pictures" folder and "Saved Games" folder the same way! I highly recommend it!
*If you wish to move your important email messages permanently to a different location, the procedure is different. Just click here and follow the steps on this page.
To restore “Documents” folder as the default one after re-installing Vista, click here.
