Need to get desktop back onto laptop from hard drive

Hi there,

I was moving a load of files from my laptop to an external hard drive (F). When I tried to use the laptop the next day (when disconnected from the hard drive) I got an error message saying "F:\MW\Desktop refers to a location which is unavailable..." and I could not open any files using word, excel etc. I assumed that somehow I had moved the desktop folder to the hard drive.

When connected to the hard drive the laptop functioned fine and I could see the desktop folder on the hard drive, I then tried to move the desktop folder from the hard drive to my desktop a few times, this created a kind of circular reference with the error message now saying "F:\MW\Desktop\Desktop\Desktop\Desktop refers to a location which is unavailable..."

Does anyone know how to get my desktop back on the laptop?!

Thanks and regards,

Dogegg

 

Sorry I should add -

Toshiba Satellite Pro U300 running Vista SP2
Seagate 500GB external hard drive

 

The so called 'special folders', My Docs, Pics etc that appear on the Start menu, have to be moved through their Properties, not by cut and paste or the like, so if any of these files are in those folders you may have messed things up a bit, but it will be recoverable.

It would help if you told us which operating system and service pack? There are differences between XP, Vista and Win 7 in the way these folders are moved. OK - it's Vista, thanks. I'll post the method in a mo.

 

OK, if you want to move any of the special folders in Vista just go into Properties and use the Location tab to move them. You will probably have a bit cleaning up to do in Windows Explorer, getting rid of any duplicates you may have created etc. It is not a great idea to move any of the special folders to a removable drive.

 

Thanks Earthling,

I will try this now. I didn't want to move this folder at all so it was just an unhappy accident.

dogegg