Win 7 Folder vs sub folder frustration

TheWildInside

Posts: 24   +0
I can find nothing, either in Win 7's Help (64-bit on a Dell Vostro 3550 laptop) or at Microsoft's forums, about a frustrating Win 7 issue and am hoping someone out here can tell me if there's a setting to fix this or if I'm just going to have to learn to deal with it.

I have a LOT of folders beneath my primary "My Documents" folder. I have a small jewelry business, I help coordinate a local Arts Fest, I have photos, recipes, correspondence, health, family-related stuff, and on and on. Recently I had several folders containing a lot of files that I felt could be better searched by adding sub folders separating out smaller categories beneath the main folder (I.e. My Pictures has sub folders for jewelry, home, dog, historic, etc.). What I discovered was, I thought I was MOVING these files from the primary folder into their appropriate newly created sub folders only to later discover when I went back at a later time that ALL the files separated, neatly I thought, into their tidy sub folders, had somehow reappeared beneath the primary folder. What this means is that all of these files are now taking up twice as much space. One file in the primary folder and a copy in the sub folder. This maintains the primary folder as a bulky and awkward place and useless to me for file searching (I used to keep stuff in the primary file that didn't fit into a sub folder category, and/or if there weren't enough of these misc sorts of files to warrant creating a new sub folder), but if I try to DELETE the file from the primary folder, the copy also disappears from the sub folder and I have to go out to the recycle bin and "restore" .. and, of course, it restores the files to both places!

I've still got plenty of space left on the laptop, but that's sort of beside the point. My whole point was to tidy up the files, and while I can search through the sub folders, the continued presence of all those files in the primary folder makes me crazy. Is there something I'm missing, setting wise??

Losing hair in northern NY
Karan
 
Be careful; My Documents, Documents and Library get confusing.

get a CMD prompt and enter explorer %USERPROFILE%
this will position you at your root and using the TREE view, you can get to the correct My Documents.

I too like structure, but windows is limited on the nesting depth of folder\folder\...\filename.ext

The sum total length of (c:\folder\folder\...\filename.ext) on windows can not exceed
260 character
( see this )

Too much structure and you get into trouble.
For product organization, don't add subfolders for size, color variations, let the product itself be a folder and the details to be contained in the files within it.
 
Be careful; My Documents, Documents and Library get confusing.

get a CMD prompt and enter explorer %USERPROFILE%
this will position you at your root and using the TREE view, you can get to the correct My Documents.

I too like structure, but windows is limited on the nesting depth of folder\folder\...\filename.ext

The sum total length of (c:\folder\folder\...\filename.ext) on windows can not exceed
260 character
( see this )

Too much structure and you get into trouble.
For product organization, don't add subfolders for size, color variations, let the product itself be a folder and the details to be contained in the files within it.



Thanks, J.O. - will print and get into it a little deeper when time permits. I'm certain there's no issue with "sum total length", but the confusion of library vs My Document could possibly be an issue!
 
My advice would be to abandon Microsoft and use your own storage location. Just ignore Microsoft's so called user friendly storage location. I can tell from reading your first post, you would have no trouble at all managing your own data location. I have never understood how people could manage not loosing data while using Microsoft's predetermined location. Puts me in mind with someone trying to stay safe while standing in the middle of a battlefield. Store your data somewhere isolated away from the operating system. It makes things much easier, not having to worry about where your files are during system recoveries.
 
Store your data somewhere isolated away from the operating system. It makes things much easier, not having to worry about where your files are during system recoveries.
Great policy to segregate the USER from the SYSTEM. Use some form of Replication to create the secondary copy.
 
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