Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

I have two hard drives on my PC. The C drive is getting rather full, yet the D drive is nearly empty. So what I want to do is move all my image and video files over to the D drive.

I did this in the past when I was using Windows 95, and it messed up some of the links. So my question is that if I do the same using Windows XP, will any links automatically be changed by Windows?

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

You can move your "My Documents" folder from C: to D: without causing problems - in theory. :)

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

Yeah, it's the 'in theory' bit that I had problems with last time.

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

I tend to divide a physical drive into several virtual drives and keep anything I need to keep on any drive other than the C drive (so any reinstals of Windows won't trash anything). Plus defragging or virus scanning becomes a lot faster!

I think Windows can keep track of programs that move (or it will search for them and update the linkages), but not so for misc stuff, unless you have a shortcut to those files on the desktop or whatever.

Even if it loses them it's simple to right click the shortcut and manually update the linkage.

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

:D Yeah I've been there, done it and got the tee shirt, several times over.

Easeus ToDo Backup Free (you might have to deactivate the web protection component of your AV to download - I did using avira)

Make yourself an Image of your C: drive and store it somewhere safe like on a usb drive. Then you can play about till your hearts content safe in the knowledge that should you screw up you can get back to square one with just a few clicks and a bit of time.

Strangely things don't go tits up so much when you've got a backup. Sod's law I suppose. :)

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

Wish me luck, I'm going to give it a go :erm:

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

Moving your My Documents/Pictures/Music folders et. al. is trivially easy on Windows 7 and impossible to mess up these days.

Moving program and application data folders is a big no-no unless you understand cross-filesystem symbolic linking and are comfortable using it.

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

What about on Windows XP?

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

Slightly harder (in that it's not completely automatic) in some ways but easier in others (no faffing around with libraries). For your My Documents folder (which already contains your My Pictures, Music, and Videos) then it's pretty simple - move the folder then tell Windows you moved it.

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

You store your data on the boot OS partition? Are you insane??!! :D

How did it go then?

Re: Will moving huge files mess up links?
 

No problem at all. I just change each shortcut as I find a broken one.