Replacing a failed D drive with my Windows library user folders

You don't need any apps to copy photos from the phone, you can use the phone like a usb flash drive.

On #2, plug it in, grant access on the phone, and then open up the photo folder manually (may take several minutes depending on size) and then copy and paste the contents to windows whichever drive you want.

Thanks for the reply about issue #2.  My Samsung phone should have connected the way you described.  And it worked like that on two of my other computers.  On the Alienware, Windows was trying to connect to my phone and dropping the connection.  It was flashing a device or driver error.  I spent a couple hours troubleshooting it and it appears that the Alienware did not like the USB cable I was using, although the other 2 computers did not have a problem with it.  So the Alienware is now connecting with a different USB cable.  Thanks!!

You should have a backup, so use it. Or make one now.

I've never been a fan of this Windows-data remapping business.

Your C-Drive is usually a SSD now-days and very reliable. Let your small data-files save to C-drive. It has a bit of space for some data (email, vital doc/pic files, your accounting software data-file, etc.).

Create similar folders on D-Drive. Save large files or music/videos/whatever there instead. It's just one extra click and you can even create Shortcuts or Pin to QuickAccess in Explorer.

D:\Media
D:\Media\Music

D:\Storage
D:\Storage\Documents
D:\Storage\Photos

Thanks for the reply.

I had already mapped my library user folders to my D drive.  And now the Alienware tests indicate that the D drive is bad.  I just received a new drive from Dell.  (That was fast--less than 24 hours.)  So my question was, when I pull the original D drive out and replace it with the new drive, and then copy all of my files back to the new D drive, will Windows still recognize that my Library user folders are on the D drive?

It's kind of an academic question now.  I had not received a response, so just to be safe I went in to my D drive folders and in the Properties | Location options I remapped them back to the default Library location on the C: drive.  I'm now ready to pull the drive and install the new drive from Dell.  And then I will map my user folders back to the new D drive.

Thanks

Not sure, since it's a different drive. Maybe it looks at drive serial number or whatever.

So, now you keep most stuff on C where it defaults to and really belongs. I suggest you setup the D-Drive the way I said. If you want to add a Shortcut inside C-Pictures, that points to D-Pictures, you can ... would be an easy way to jump over to proper location on D when you want to.

No, I would not do a permanent re-map to D . That makes you depend on 2 drives (and sounds like one is an old-school spinning HDD) when one is better. Your C-drive SSD is much faster, more-reliable, all that. If you must do it again ... I would start backup/imaging the whole computer (all internal drives) to a (3rd) external-HDD or off-site cloud service, etc.