Error Moving File or Folder XP MCE SP3

Hi first time poster here. I've been a lurker for years and found this site the most helpful of all the IT Tech sites out there so when I've finally run across a problem I cannot fix by searching for the answer I decided I should join this fine forum and post my problem here.

System specs:
XP Media Center Edition V 2002 SP3
Celeron D CPU 3.20ghz
448 MB RAM
A few things I have that might help me solve this prob: I have several other XP systems in the house that are running perfectly. I have USB pendrives if I need to transfer important files from one to another. I have a DVD burner and blank DVDs if I need to create backups or all in one recovery disks [which I already did in fact.]

Recent changes I've made to my system that may have contributed to this problem:
For a while now I've had my HD partitioned into the following arrangement:
[1.95gb] P: for the pagefile
[55gb] C: for the OS
[48.9gb] J: for Programs
This worked fine for a long time.

Recently decided to try Ubuntu and so began the process of preparing to do a full install of Ubuntu from DVD [the alternate version without the LiveCD].

Turned off system restore, cleaned up junkfiles, uninstalled progs I didn't need, defragged all partitions, backed up irreplaceable data, the usual malware scans, etc.

THE PROBLEM:
So now I needed to prepare some empty space for Ubuntu to create a partition or two for itself. So I figured I'd move all of My Documents over to J: where My Programs is kept. That way I can have Ubuntu installer take space from C: for itself and all my data will be on another partition where it could be shared between the two OSs. That was the plan.

But when I tried to move My Documents from C: to J: I get the error: "Error Moving File or Folder."

I checked to make sure my account had administrator privelages - it did.

I checked to make sure the folder was not a shared folder - it wasn't.

I checked to make sure it wasn't set to read only [the strange thing about that is that when I uncheck read only the files or folders that were read only are always checked again when I go back to make sure the change took but usually that is not an obstacle to copying or moving files].

I searched online for the problem and found many similar problems discussed, even one or two in the Microsoft db but none applied to my specific case.

And I tried all the possible solutions I found mentioned on other forums that might apply here but nothing has worked so far.

I simply cannot move or copy the My Documents folder to another partition and cannot move or copy certain folders and files in it separately either.

I did manage to move 6 gigs of music and other files from My Documents over to Jocs but that was all it would allow me to move or copy. There is still 6 gigs left over I need to move or copy and delete.

One thing I did try that worries me is compression. I had avoided compression for many years remembering the danger from the time before NTFS even though I know the XP NTFS built in compression is supposed to be perfectly harmless. But I finally got greedy enough for space to try it out. So I set the entire My documents folder to compression.

I tried to change it back but when it started it gave me ridiculous estimates of how long it would take to finish uncompressing it. Like days. I let it run for a couple days but then I got impatient and stopped it rationalizing to myself that it shouldn't take that long and would probably never finish. But when I check to see if compression is still on for the My Documents folder it is unchecked still. So I dont know if that has something to do with it or not.

 

First create a folder/directory on J called My Documents (not Docs or My Docs).
Next Click start and in your listings right click My Documents and click Properties. In the target tab, change the target listing from C:\My Documents to J:\My Documents and click the move button.

If that doesn't work, I'll suggest a work around. Plug in a USB pendrive and copy everything in My Documents to the USB drive. Then explore to J:\ and find My Documents and move everything from the USB drive there.

After you are sure everything is in J:\My Documents and correct, you can go back to C:\My Documents and remove all the files from it.

 

Thank you for volunteering for this one plodr! Ok I tried your first suggestion. Problem there. No Target Tab! Tabs I get are:

General | Sharing | Customize

I will now try the workaround. Though I am still curious as to why I am missing a tab!

 

Aww hell. This is just ridiculous now. I have had no problems with using these pendrives at all untill just now when I really really need to use one. Now freakin XP forgets how to install the dang driver for it! It has worked automatically the dozen other times I've stuck one in the usb slot! I know it is suggested to use a rear slot because you can get more power to it that way than a front slot. But that is a pain in the butt when your Tower is fitted nice and snug into its own little cubby hole in a very large very heavy computer cabinet with all the wires fed through a hole in the back and neatly tied up!

Anyway, I am using 2 GB Kingston Data Travelers which the specs for at the manufacturer's site says you do not need a driver for because Windows XP is supposed to install them automatically. Well. What happens when all of a sudden XP decides to lose it's driver and you need to find a new one to install it? What then Kingston??? They have no answer to that one. They provide the 98SE driver as a free DL but not the XP driver. Figures. So anyone know the name of this mysterious XP driver for pendrive support so I can search for it? Damn. I can't even use a pendrive to transfer the dang driver from one of my good XP systems to this one. Guess I'll have to just copy it to the shared folder and grab it there. Still need to find out the name of the DLL though.

 

OOPS! Sorry. I wasn't seeing the TARGET option because I was right clicking My documents from within Black Box's shortcut to it which I thought was Black Box's actual My Documents icon. I found the right one in a little BBIcon box I seldom use. And found Target there. Trying first suggested method now. Still don't know why USB pendrive isn't installing though.

EDIT: Ok I changed Target to J:\My Documents [after first creating the new My Documents folder of course] and applied the settings. It seemed to accept it with no questions or complaints. However I thought it was strange that there was no progress bar for the moving of 6gbs of files from one partition to another. I checked and they haven't moved though the default My Documents is now in J:. I tried moving them manually again but still same error.

 

I started moving the remaining 6gigs of the old My Documents folder on C: to the new one on J: one file and folder at a time. Sometimes I can move whole folders while others I have to create the folder in J: first and then individually move each file one at a time to see which ones I can move and which ones I can't. So far I've moved most of them. There is about 1 gig of immovable files and folders. They are so random I cannot see any pattern to it at all. I just dont get it.

Many of them say access denied. Some just say filename too long. I can't believe how some web page designers name their web pages! Why would anyone in their right mind sit there and type out a whole page of text to name a single html file?!?!?! Its crazy. So to move those horrendously named files I have to open each on in Firefox and Save As giving them reasonable names. ugh. But there are still those files that say access denied. No clue. How can files be denied access to Administrator accounts?

 

Today's Update:

I found info from Microsoft on How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP. I also found a more readable version of it from WinXPTutor's XP Resources.

This did help me move a few more files and folders but not all of them. I believe the remaining ones are long or invalid file names of html pages with graphic folders associated with them. Now I find out I cannot even open them to Save As - rename them!

Anyway I turned off simple file sharing - found the security tab for the folder and files and made sure I had ownership rights to all the contents. I'm not sure how this made any difference since right away I could see that as Administrator I already had full access to the whole My Documents folder but I went ahead and had it apply ownership to all subfolders and contents. After that I was able to move more folders and files. I am still stuck with one folder that has 50 mbs in it. It contains 230 folders and a little over 1500 files. All are web pages I had saved to a folder called Library in My Documents.

 

Initial problem SOLVED!

I've successfully moved all of My Documents from C:\Documents & Settings\Owner\etc... to the new My Documents path in partition J:\. What the problem was I found out was somehow related to the length of the paths and not actually the extremely long and extremely bad naming scheme of the HTML files themselves.

I found that I could actually move the files along with their associated attachments to an already existing folder within the same path but beneath itself or lower in the path. So I cut all the folders that were way out there at the end of an endless series of folders within folders and pasted them directly into the root of it's own path which is the original My Documents folder in C:\.

That worked fine. From there it was as easy as right-click-drag-n-drop into the new My Documents folder on J:\ and presto! Finito! <fanfare> <the peasants rejoice!> Man am I glad that part is over.... Now I just have to figure out why my pendrives all of a sudden stopped getting along with XP.

See, all of these Annoyances are why I am switching to Linux. Unfortunately, there are still some programs that I use regularly which only work in an x86 environment and do not work well enough in WINE. Dungeon Craft and Photoshop CS2 are probably the only things keeping me from deleting XP altogether. I do plan on deleting XP temporarily though once Linux is running. Then I can install Tiny XP in the partition left over after the bloated old XP behemoth has been nuked and vaporized. Ding dong the witch is dead - the wicked witch! :-D

 

good luck, i thought the same with all the annoyances, but while fooling around with ubuntu for some time, i found that the windows annoyances were at least familiar, and i wasn't willing to go down the same path with the new annoyances in ubuntu. just not enough time an energy like i used to have...

 

I don't run XP (yet). I still run 2K and PCLinux and the silly distro on the eeepc. Xandros/Debian etch hybrid
I expect to install Mandriva 2008.1 spring (yup I'm always a few editions behind; but by the time I get there, most of the bugs are history!).