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I have messed up my File Manager settings

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Belenus
Belenus Posts: 2,753 Forumite
Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
edited 25 February at 4:04PM in Techie Stuff

This is a bit complex to explain properly.

Windows 10 Laptop. 512 GB SSD and a 1 TB Hard Disk

(C) Drive 512 GB SSD Windows and Apps

(D) and (E) drives on 1 TB Hard Disk

2 partitions Data on (D) 63.8 GB partition. Music and videos on (E) 867 partition.

See picture 1 below.

My Download folder was on the (C) drive. I decided to move the Download folder to the (D) drive by clicking on Properties – Location.

Instead of just moving the folder and its contents as a single folder it moved all the contents and spread them amongst the folder and files already on the (D) drive. That completely changed the way I want my (D) folder to look like. Instead of looking like picture 2 below. It now looks like picture 3 below. If I click on Name or Date Modified it shows everything by date and not alphabetical order as I want.

I have been able to recreate a Download folder on the windows © drive and that works as before but I cannot get my (D) drive to display as it did before.

Any suggestions of how I get my (D) drive to look like it did before.


A man walked into a car showroom.
He said to the salesman, “My wife would like to talk to you about the Volkswagen Golf in the showroom window.”
Salesman said, “We haven't got a Volkswagen Golf in the showroom window.”
The man replied, “You have now mate".

Comments

  • Eyeful
    Eyeful Posts: 935 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 25 February at 5:46PM
    1. Leo, at Ask Leo.com:
    Keeps telling people to do regular system image back ups. Especially before making changes to their system.
    This make recovery easy when trouble strikes. 
     
    2. Did you make a system image backups? 

  • Vitor
    Vitor Posts: 598 Forumite
    500 Posts First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 25 February at 6:15PM
    The Downloads folder isn’t just a normal folder; it’s a special shell folder with a unique system path. When you change the location of such a folder, Windows doesn’t just move it—it redirects it to the new destination.
    When the OP set \D: as the new location for Downloads, Windows redirected Downloads to \D:\ itself instead of creating a \D:\Downloads folder. As a result, all files in Downloads were placed directly in \D:, and Windows treated \D:\ itself as the Downloads folder.
    If the OP had chosen something like \D:\MyDownloads instead, Windows would have moved all contents into that folder. But because \D:\ was chosen as the destination, Windows merged the contents directly into the existing structure instead of creating a new subfolder.
    The OP needs to restore Downloads to it's default as a special shell folder to avoid further problems.
  • paradigital
    paradigital Posts: 37 Forumite
    10 Posts Photogenic
    Right click some white-space on your D drive and make sure grouping is set to none.  That will at least get your files and folders sorting by name or date modified (when clicking the relevant column header).
  • Belenus
    Belenus Posts: 2,753 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Right click some white-space on your D drive and make sure grouping is set to none.  That will at least get your files and folders sorting by name or date modified (when clicking the relevant column header).
    That worked, Thank you very much. Very much appreciated.  :)

    Is there a downside to having grouping set to none?
    A man walked into a car showroom.
    He said to the salesman, “My wife would like to talk to you about the Volkswagen Golf in the showroom window.”
    Salesman said, “We haven't got a Volkswagen Golf in the showroom window.”
    The man replied, “You have now mate".
  • paradigital
    paradigital Posts: 37 Forumite
    10 Posts Photogenic
    None at all, it’s just a cosmetic change (that I also hate, so disable grouping any time Windows decides it wants to apply it).
  • Belenus
    Belenus Posts: 2,753 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Eyeful said:
    1. Leo, at Ask Leo.com:
    Keeps telling people to do regular system image back ups. Especially before making changes to their system.
    This make recovery easy when trouble strikes. 
     
    2. Did you make a system image backups? 

    I do have system image backups but my problem is not related to the system. It relates to a data only partition and, as above, that has now been fixed.

    Thanks
    A man walked into a car showroom.
    He said to the salesman, “My wife would like to talk to you about the Volkswagen Golf in the showroom window.”
    Salesman said, “We haven't got a Volkswagen Golf in the showroom window.”
    The man replied, “You have now mate".
  • Belenus
    Belenus Posts: 2,753 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Vitor said:

    The OP needs to restore Downloads to it's default as a special shell folder to avoid further problems.
    Thanks.

    I think I have already managed to do that.
    A man walked into a car showroom.
    He said to the salesman, “My wife would like to talk to you about the Volkswagen Golf in the showroom window.”
    Salesman said, “We haven't got a Volkswagen Golf in the showroom window.”
    The man replied, “You have now mate".
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