Windows 10 "documents" folder missing

[PoyntingVector]

Hi all,
I have 2 drives, an SSD and a hard drive.

Windows is installed on my SSD, but I moved my documents folder to my hard drive in order to save space on my SSD.
This worked fine, but my hard drive is showing problems and I wanted to move my documents back to my SSD in preparation for when I replace my hard drive.

The problem is, I can't find my documents folder on my hard drive ( I do have all the sub folders with the different files that were supposed to be in it just not the main folder)
Is there a way to create a new documents folder and have it as the default folder (preferably with the special documents icon)?

Thanks in advance,
PoyntingVector

 

[dustymars]

The only issue I have with OneDrive is that it seems to have taken over my PC. I deleted two folders in OneDrive, "Documents and MS Visual Basic," so when I went to open a doc file they were gone!!!!! Oops, looking in my recent backup disk I noticed my documents were all going to OneDrive. I did not knowingly put them in OneDrive nor would I have if I knew MS fixed Windows to do so. Maybe Windows 11 changed how I stored files or something. Anyway, I copied my documents and MS VB folders from backup to C: drive and now I'm happy. Where did I go wrong?????

 

[Neemobeer]

This is normal behavior for OneDrive. The idea is to sync all of your standard 'user data' locations. This enables you to have all of your data on all devices.

The important caveat is if you delete something it will be removed from all devices (there is typically a file version history stored in OneDrive, so you have about a month to restore)

 

[MikeHawthorne]

I guess I just don't get what you are talking about…
I created a new Documents folder, I called this one Documents Two, and now I have two Documents folders, both are in the same location, I can't find any difference between them, as far as utility goes, and they are both accessible from the Quick Access list.

I just don't see any difference between these two folders?

 

[dustymars]

I am a bit puzzled as to shy OneDrive is maybe a cloud operation where MS or the CCP can hack into it and have everything I chose to store on my PC. If you don't think it is possible then more power to you, but I certainly do not trust any of them. Hacking is a game for underpaid MS employees. No, not paranoid, just cautious. Anyway, I transferred all my documents from OneDrive to my drive and cut OneDrive off. Not sure why MS would change such a simple file storage system.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Yes, I don't use One Drive either.

 

[Neemobeer]

For example in a business environment the "location" of the Documents folder tends to get changed to a One Drive directory in your user profile.

The Documents folder is considered a 'special folder' in Windows. Special folders have GUIDs associated to them. For example Documents is technically 'Documents.{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}'

If you open the run dialog and type '::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}' it will open the real documents folder

 

[MikeHawthorne]

OK, I guess I get it, when I did that it opened the My Documents folder that I expected.
So the one I created didn't have some special instructions attached, but they don't show anyplace. My One Drive folder is empty.

I did find this, maybe it's what the original poster needed.

Redirecting

answers.microsoft.com

 

[dustymars]

Not sure how it fixed itself but after running “Free Window Registry Repair” both Excel and WinWord (Office 2003) started opening the file dialog box and all is well! I did some other things off the top of my head, many years of guessing and hitting the wrong keys, but not sure what did it. Sometimes guessing (shot gunning software) works. The original problem I have forgotten what it actually was, just got to involved in the cure, and got lost as usual. Not to worry, I did this for a living for 62 years! The problem was when attempting to open the file dialog window it froze up forever and I had to use task manager to stop it.