2 HDDs, 2 different Windows versions, any way to combine 'My documents'-Folders?

[Comrade Isbariya]

Well as the title says, this is not about general gaming, but maybe here's someone around who knows the answer to this - and if, even how to do it if it is possible. 

 

My current setup is the following: 

Drive C - Windows 10

Drive E - Windows 7

(Running both versions as administrator)

Both have their own my document folders on the same drive they're installed. The folders go by the same username, but if I try to save something to the folders on drive E, that belong to Win7 while I'm running Win10, I'm denied permission to write to these folders, while I can however move files over there by hand. Windows 7 on drive E instead lets me write to the my document folders that belong to Windows 10 on drive C. 

 

SO the question is, is there a way to combine the folders on ONE drive, making both Windows versions use them as their original my documents folder? (At least music, picture and video folder, as I don't want to have all of them on each drive) I assume it won't work for all folders, as the hidden appdata folder contains files for both windows versions seperatly, and the my documents/documents folder contains stuff programs installed on both windows versions need to have access to, and I think it would slow everything down if they were on another drive. 

 

Anyway, the only way I would know of would be to move music, pictures and videos to one drive, and make every program on the other side use that folder for their media library, while keeping the original folders on the other drive empty. But that's only a bad workaround. I'd rather want access to these folders, no matter on which version of Windows I'm logged in atm, by simply clicking on My documents folder. And I want both Windows versions to use these folders as their original destination if I save something to My documents/Music or Pictures or Video. 

 

Phew... I hope you understand what I'm talking about. 

[gregathit]

I'd recommend having a portable 1 or 2TB portable HD.  USB 3.0 is really fast and you can store your pictures, music and personal files on it and neither OS will squawk about it.

 

Baring that, make a clean set of folders on a portion of one of your drives that you create a new partition for.  Again, since it isn't an OS, windows won't squawk.   There are other options of course.

[Guest]

The problem is that the users from the two OSses, also if they have exactly the same name, will not get the same ID so they are different users.

 

Greg's answer is good, you can have a shared drive/partition with the files you wanna share. But be sure to set the permissions to these folders to "Everybody", or the two OSses will conflict accessing them.

[Comrade Isbariya]

Thanks for the answers, both of you, although I wanted to avoid that, because I like to use the usual library folders of Windows.

 

But, I got it working the way I wanted it without even having to change permissions.

 

I deleted all my documents files on drive E, while keeping the original files on C. (except for the users\my name\documents folder, as it contains gaming stuff and other things several programs threw inside. 

Then I renamed both 'saved games' folders to data, and moved all document files (word docs and other stuff added by myself) there. (I needed to do it that way, because folders created by myself and not belonging to windows originally wouldn't let me alter their path.) 

 

Then I went ahead and changed the paths of the music, video, pictures and favorites, as well as the newly renamed data folder on E to point to the folders going by the same name on C. (Windows tells you that they don't exist if you type in the path yourself, however, using 'find path' and clicking through to the right folder, and then copying the path as text from the address line, and then paste it to where you are supposed to type in the new path works just fine.) Windows 7 then asked me, is I wanted to move any data left on E to the new destination on C. Ad I deleted everything it didn't matter at all. 

 

The result now is, that I have full access to the user folders that belong to Win10 on C while running Windows 7 on drive E, using the standard library of Windows 7. Opening a folder correctly points to the folders on C, saving, altering or deleting files works without any exception. As well as I do have full access to the folders running Windows 10, even to the files added from Windows 7. None of my Windows' asks for permissions at all.

 

So I think I can say that tey both share their my documents library now. (Only the redirected folders, off course.) 

Which is the perfect solution I was looking for. I still wonder that Windows 10 doesn't cry about permissions at all but well, good for me. 

 

The only exception is - it wouldn't work the other way round. (redirecting Win10's folders to the ones of WIn7) as I mentioned before, that WIn10 doesn't want to write to Win7's folders for heavens sake. ^^ 

[WraithSlayer]

Is using junction points an option here? If so, you should be able to merge both document folders by detouring them into a common folder both Windows installations have full access to, which will avoid the permissions problems.

[Comrade Isbariya]

Thank you for all your answers, I appreciate it.

I got it sorted out though, without having to use a 3rd party program, and even without messing around with Windows' permissions. 

 

For anybody interested:

It was in fact quite simple. (I did the following running Win7 on drive E) 

 

First, I took care of the users\my name\saved games folders, as I do not use them anyway. I renamed them to 'data', to have a 'new' shared documents folder, as the original 'documents' folder contains files each Windows needs to access seperately. Then I moved all my docs I added myself (files I want to keep, worddocs and all that stuff) to that folder on C. This was necessary, as the way I did it only works without any third party stuff, if you use the default folders Windows created.

 

Then I went ahead and deleted or shifted any files I had in my Music, Pictures, Data, Video and Favorites Folders on E (Win7) to C's Win 10 user folders with the same name. 

 

Finally, I rightclicked any of the above mentioned folders on E, and redirected their paths to the folders that go by the same name on C. (Typing in the path manually resulted in Windows telling me, that the folder doesn't exist, and if I want to create it. I had to pick 'find path' (or search path? Dunno my Windows is in German anyway) and click through the folders on C manually until I was in the right one, and then copy the path as text out of the current window's address line.) By hitting ok, Windows did now ask, if I wanted to move any left over files from the folder on E to C. As I deleted everything and shifted it to C already it didn't matter anyway.

 

Windows did however create an empty folder with the default folder icon for Music, Pictures and Videos in my users\my name\ directory. As they are not needed, and don't need to be shown (They can't be deleted!) I simply hid them and refreshed. They're now 'gone' and my library looks cleaner than ever before. I used to have a true mess of folders, that are now tidied up and grouped under subfolders in my newly renamed data folder to allow easy access from both Windows versions. 

 

Changing folder paths did only work for Windows' default library folders, not on folders created by myself.

 

Now, whenever I access my library from within Windows 7, I am correctly directed to Windows 10's user folders. I have FULL access to them, I can read, write and change them to my liking, and Windows 10 doesn't even have a veto on anything. (well how should it, if it's not running anyway, hehe) Saving files to the my document folders will automatically throw the files onto C, as it should too. Any programs using the WIndows library (as a media library or whatever) are correctly redirected to C and work fine) 

 

I did a reboot and logged into Windows 10 after that, to check if Windows 10 has any objections, but it hasn't. It still accepts its own libraries as what they are, and doesn't even complain about files added to them from within Windows 7. No need to alter any permissions or stuff. 

 

There is only ONE exception for the whole thing: It only works THIS way - redirecting Win7's folders to the one of Win10. It does NOT work if redirecting WIndows 10's folders to the ones of Windows 7, as Windows 10 would still refuse to write to them, which would lead to partial inaccessibility of the my document folders from within Windows 10. (read only - files have to be moved manually, can't be saved though the 'save as' menu etc.) It might have worked that way, if I changed Windows 10's permissions, but as I wanted my files on C anyway and the least trouble I could get, I didn't check that any further.