changed drives....now no access to previous spreadsheets

[Fish1414]

I have Windows 7 laptop. The C drive was 99.5% full and D drive was empty. Followed instructions to move all My Documents from C to D.

Now the previously saved documents are inaccessible.

Can anyone help? I'm not real pc savvy, and this has been frustrating.

[6StringJazzer]

First, this is not an Excel problem, and there is probably not enough information here to diagnose your problem. But here's what I would look at if I could sit at your computer.

Your title refers to spreadsheets. Was it all documents that are affected, or only spreadsheets?

Followed instructions to move all My Documents from C to D.

What instructions did you follow? Did you simply move the contents of the folder, or did you relocate the My Document folder to reside on D?

Now the previously saved documents are inaccessible.

What do you mean by "inaccessible"? If you go to Windows Explorer (or whatever it's called in 7) do you no longer see a My Documents folder at all? Have you tried looking directly at the D drive and see if they are visible at all?

[Fish1414]

Thank you for answering.......I did do a horrible job of explaining.....sorry.

It is all my documents. These were the instructions:

Q: I have a Dell Inspiron 1564 with Windows 7 Home Premium and my OS (C drive is almost full. I was wondering how do you use the Local Disk (D drive to store other files instead of the OS drive since I don't want to lose files from the OS drive?

A: OK, here you go:

1. Click Start
2. Click your logon name. You will see a bunch of folders.
3. Right-click "My Documents".
4. Left-click "Properties".
5. Click the "Location" tab.
6. Type d:\My Documents and click Apply.
7. When prompted, allow the files to be moved.
8. Click OK.
9. Repeat Steps 3 to 8 for your other folders.


To gauge the success of your operation, you should run diskmgmt.msc before and after going through the above steps and check the amount of disk space you use on drive C:.

Before I did this my C drive was 99% full and the D drive was 0% full. The documents are listed, but when I try to open one, it states that it cannot be found and it lists it as C:\(name of document).

The documents folder is still there.

[Fish1414]

OK, sorry for the confusion here......just went to "my documents" file and everything there pops up normal when clicked upon.

I was trying to quick access these docs by going to the Office Button in the upper LH corner and using the recent document feature.

Now if I open a doc, it's there at the top of the list and opens just fine. Just a matter of cycling those old views out now.

Does anyone reading know how to switch MS Outlook from C drive to D drive??

[6StringJazzer]

I was trying to quick access these docs by going to the Office Button in the upper LH corner and using the recent document feature.

Yes. Office looks for the file with a full path name for the file. And of course, it's not in that location anymore. This is one of the problems with Windows. It has these "special" directories like My Documents but the file system doesn't use that as a link in the underlying file resolution, just on file dialog boxes.

Does anyone reading know how to switch MS Outlook from C drive to D drive??

Outlook stores all items in a single file called outlook.pst. To find out where this file is located, go to the Mail view on the left (most people have this up by default), and right-click on Personal Folders, then Properties, then Advanced. The next box will show you where the file is located. You can move the file, then use this same dialog box to update the location to where you moved it.

Also, what version of Outlook? I am using 2007.

[Fish1414]

Outlook stores all items in a single file called outlook.pst. To find out where this file is located, go to the Mail view on the left (most people have this up by default), and right-click on Personal Folders, then Properties, then Advanced. The next box will show you where the file is located. You can move the file, then use this same dialog box to update the location to where you moved it.

Also, what version of Outlook? I am using 2007.

I have Outlook 2007 as well. I found the location by using your described method above, but I'm not sure how to move it.

If it matters the location is:

C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook1.pst

(I used x's instead of my real name.....not sure if that's a security issue or not?)


Finding the location as you described above does not allow me the opportunity to use the same step by step method I used before.

I can also get to the program by using search from the start menu, but when I left click "properties" I do not get a location tab. The only tabs listed are: Security, Details, Previous Versions, General, Shortcut, and Compatibility.

So, I'm not really sure how to "move" it form C drive to D drive.

I know we have gone way beyond Excel help. With your previous help things are way better. Thank You so very much!!

[6StringJazzer]

Finding the location as you described above does not allow me the opportunity to use the same step by step method I used before.

No, it's completely different. My Documents is a special case.

The easiest thing to do is to bring up Windows Explorer and navigate to the file. You can even paste the pathname into the address bar, using the path that you showed above (it is generally not a security issue to show just your name, though some people prefer to remain anonymous). Then drag with the right mouse button to where you want it on D, then select Move when prompted for what action to take. It's just like moving any other file. Then go back to Outlook and update the path.

BTW after you moved My Documents, what was the % full on C? For most people data files are not what takes up the most space. Video is particularly piggish, and also music and photos if you have a lot.

[Fish1414]

No, it's completely different. My Documents is a special case.

The easiest thing to do is to bring up Windows Explorer and navigate to the file. You can even paste the pathname into the address bar, using the path that you showed above (it is generally not a security issue to show just your name, though some people prefer to remain anonymous). Then drag with the right mouse button to where you want it on D, then select Move when prompted for what action to take. It's just like moving any other file. Then go back to Outlook and update the path.

BTW after you moved My Documents, what was the % full on C? For most people data files are not what takes up the most space. Video is particularly piggish, and also music and photos if you have a lot.

I couldn't get that method through Windows Explorer to work for me. Able to get there and paste the path name into the address bar, but the "dragging" part wouldn't work. It was lit up in blue while pasted, but each time I tried to drag......it wouldn't.

I've never really moved any files before and can't afford to screw up my email.....too important to me as it's a business account.

Once I moved my documents, pictures, and music from C to D......I was left with the following free disk space:

C: 13 of 58.5 GB or 22%
D: 215 of 229 GB or 94%

All of this is still confusing to me. I've never experienced the need to move files to free up a drive. I'm close to 50 years old so I have been around pc's for a while, but I'm still pretty ignorant about them.......as anyone can see!!

I'll probably take the laptop into Best Buy or something similar for help/advice. It's only 1 year old.

[6StringJazzer]

It may be balky if the file is in use. To make sure it isn't in use by Outlook, make sure Outlook isn't running. Then make really sure. Sometimes its ghost survives a shutdown. Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and then select Task Manager. Look under the Processes tab, in the Image Name column, and if you see OUTLOOK.EXE, click on it then press End Process.

If you still can't drag the file over to D, then something's weird. At very least you should be able to copy it.

By today's standards your disk sizes are small. My C drive is 600G, and I have external drives that are 600G and 2T.