# Windows 10 help: Directory with all top-level HDD directories? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 30, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211 "2017-06-30T17:36:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/1 "2017-06-30T17:36:22Z")
So, my windows box has a bunch of hard drives in it, and my files are scattered across several of them. I never remember where I put things, and what I’d really like is to have a single directory that has links to all the top-level directories in all my drives. Then I wouldn’t have to remember which hard drive I put something on. I’d like this to auto-update. I could make a single directory on the desktop with links to the current top-level dirs on all drives, but then I have to remember to update it when I add another. This seems like a common-enough thing to want. In fact, maybe it’s common enough that it’s built into the OS, but I don’t know where to look for it. Help? Windows 10. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/2 "2017-06-30T17:48:05Z")
Couldn’t you just make a folder containing a link to each of the drives? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/3 "2017-06-30T17:50:07Z")
Isn’t that what the “This PC” is? You can pin that to “Quick Access” and/or to the Start Menu. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/4 "2017-06-30T18:32:11Z")
Can I suggest one better? Windows 10 comes with full-drive indexed search. That means it already knows where everything lives and you don’t have to browse for them through a deeply nested tree. You just tap the Windows key and start typing, either a folder name or a file name. It should find it, no matter the drive or folder. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/5 "2017-06-30T18:40:41Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Couldn’t you just make a folder containing a link to each of the drives? > [@scr4](#): > > Isn’t that what the “This PC” is? You can pin that to “Quick Access” and/or to the Start Menu. Those both give me a list of drives. But I want to skip the drives, and have a list of the top-level directories in each drive. Because the drives do not have useful names. And I can’t really give them useful names, because the drives are not logical heirarchical organization points, they are simply the hardware that my stuff is on. > [@Reply](#): > > Can I suggest one better? Windows 10 comes with full-drive indexed search. That means it already knows where everything lives and you don’t have to browse for them through a deeply nested tree. > > You just tap the Windows key and start typing, either a folder name or a file name. It should find it, no matter the drive or folder. It’s way too slow and inaccurate. For example, one of the top-level directories I have is called “Public”. It’s a public-viewable shared dir that I put things into when I want to transfer a file to someone on my home network. When I searched “public”, the top match is “Public Storage”, the storage company. The rest of the results are stupid web-search suggestions. Nowhere is my actual directory returned. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/6 "2017-06-30T20:06:00Z")
Windows 10 Disk Management allows you to create (eg) a Dynamic Spanned Volume, which does what you want. Totally built in. Problem is, reinitializing the drives will wipe out all the data on them, so you will need to reload it from backup. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/7 "2017-06-30T21:38:12Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Windows 10 Disk Management allows you to create (eg) a Dynamic Spanned Volume, which does what you want. Totally built in. Problem is, reinitializing the drives will wipe out all the data on them, so you will need to reload it from backup. Sorry, but please do NOT do this. Spanned volumes are JBOD - Just a Bunch Of Disks. Lose one drive and you lose everything. If you have 4 drives, your chance of any one drive killing the volume is now 4x higher. You can mount an NTFS volume in an empty directory instead of or in addition to using a drive letter. From the Windows menu, type _partition_ and you can right click on a volume and change the drive letter assignment. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/8 "2017-06-30T22:46:08Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > For example, one of the top-level directories I have is called “Public”. It’s a public-viewable shared dir that I put things into when I want to transfer a file to someone on my home network. When I searched “public”, the top match is “Public Storage”, the storage company. The rest of the results are stupid web-search suggestions. Nowhere is my actual directory returned. Sounds like the drive with the “Public” folder isn’t being indexed by Windows. Go to Control Panel -\> Indexing Options, click on Modify and add those drives. Once Windows is done indexing those drives (which may take a while), folder names should come up immediately when you search for them by name (or part of the name). ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/9 "2017-06-30T22:53:23Z")
That is all true, and I hope the OP is using a decent backup strategy. However, I do not think he or she wanted to mount the volumes in different folders, rather to create a union view of all the folders contained among all the volumes. Here is another suggestion: create a custom Windows Library, and add all the folders to it. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/10 "2017-06-30T22:59:02Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Here is another suggestion: create a custom Windows Library, and add all the folders to it. But it sounds like the OP wants the list to automatically update when a new top-level folder is created in any of the drives. I don’t think your solution would do that. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/11 "2017-06-30T23:10:26Z")
Sorry, I meant add all the root folders (C:, D:, etc) to the Library. Then, when you open it, you will see an up-to-date view of all the top-level folders, not links to different volumes. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/12 "2017-07-01T01:43:12Z")
You could also write a PowerShell script to iterate through the root of each drive and create a [hard link](https://learn-powershell.net/2013/07/18/create-a-hard-link-using-powershell/) for each directory. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/13 "2017-07-01T02:47:39Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Sorry, I meant add all the root folders (C:, D:, etc) to the Library. Then, when you open it, you will see an up-to-date view of all the top-level folders, not links to different volumes. This was what I was going to recommend. Libraries let you combine a bunch of folders into a single view. This is a lot easier than any other solution. If the OP needs help doing this, I can, once I get access to my Windows 7 computer (someone else is using it right now) work out all the steps. (Of course, if someone wants to beat me to that, that’d be fine, too.) ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2017, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/14 "2017-07-01T11:41:01Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Sorry, I meant add all the root folders (C:, D:, etc) to the Library. Then, when you open it, you will see an up-to-date view of all the top-level folders, not links to different volumes. I think the OP wants a NTFS _junction_ as opposed to a _hard link_. [Hard Links and Junctions](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365006(v=vs.85).aspx) ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/15 "2017-07-03T04:58:28Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Sounds like the drive with the “Public” folder isn’t being indexed by Windows. Go to Control Panel -\> Indexing Options, click on Modify and add those drives. Once Windows is done indexing those drives (which may take a while), folder names should come up immediately when you search for them by name (or part of the name). The drive it’s on is in the list of things to be indexed. Maybe Windows search just sucks? > [@DPRK](#): > > That is all true, and I hope the OP is using a decent backup strategy. I am. > [@DPRK](#): > > Sorry, I meant add all the root folders (C:, D:, etc) to the Library. Then, when you open it, you will see an up-to-date view of all the top-level folders, not links to different volumes. Yes! This is almost exactly what I want. The contents are still sorted by drive. I’d rather they just sort all together, as though they were all just in one directory together. Any way to do that? If not, this is still a very good solution. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/16 "2017-07-03T08:34:06Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I never remember where I put things, and what I’d really like is to have a single directory that has links to all the top-level directories in all my drives. Then I wouldn’t have to remember which hard drive I put something on. I’d like this to auto-update. I could make a single directory on the desktop with links to the current top-level dirs on all drives, but then I have to remember to update it when I add another. Apart from the auto-update, as others have noted, this is what a Library in Windows does. This would have the advantage of only listing the data folders and not including folders like \windows, vidia, etc. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/17 "2017-07-03T16:11:59Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > The drive it’s on is in the list of things to be indexed. Maybe Windows search just sucks? Windows search works very well for me. I just tried searching for top level folder names and it comes up immediately. Are you sure all your drives have been indexed? When you go to Indexing Options, does it say “Indexing complete”? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/18 "2017-07-03T17:40:10Z")
What you need is this little free program: [Everything](http://www.voidtools.com/) It will instantly find any file, on any drive, as you start to type the name - similar to autocomplete. (And wildcards, etc.) It’s very, very fast, and takes up minimal disk space and system resources. It also instantly updates its index when you add new files, rename them, move them, etc. I’ve been using it for years, and I find it indispensable. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/19 "2017-07-03T17:41:09Z")
Windows search has some stupid algorithm. It’s not an indexing problem, it’s a problem of what it chooses to float to the top. If you type “public” and then choose “filters” in the upper right and “folders”, it’ll be right there… but that’s a lot of extra steps. Better yet, I wish you could just turn off the internet search option and only have it search locally. Then public would probably appear. I thought you used to be able to do that but I can’t find that setting for the life of me… ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211/20 "2017-07-03T17:45:45Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Better yet, I wish you could just turn off the internet search option and only have it search locally. Then public would probably appear. I thought you used to be able to do that but I can’t find that setting for the life of me… Try going to the “Cortana & Search settings” and unchecking the “History View”, that seems to have the same effect now. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-10-help-directory-with-all-top-level-hdd-directories/790211.md?page=2)