Restarting for days !?

A friend asked me to add storage to her computer, so I installed a 1TB Sata SSD to augment the 256GB motherboard SSD.

She assured me she wasn't using OneDrive... but eventually the computer told me she was. I'm still running Windows 10, and I guess Windows 11 turns on OneDrive by default?

She also said McAfee was annoying her, she had WebRoot installed. So I ran the McAffe uninstaller, but didn't reboot at that point, as I was doing the next item concurrently.

I tried to relocate her profile folders to the new drive using the Location tab. Most of them moved quickly and easily. 3 of them complained that they couldn't be moved, which I searched on the error, and it said because OneDrive was backing them up, and explained how to turn that off, which I did. Then I relocated (less quickly, because they were bigger), Documents, and Pictures folders. Only Desktop remained. I began that relocation, and it said there would be over 10,000 files to be moved! So I walked away. Hours later, it was 68% done, and would take another day to complete. More hours later, it was 68% done, and would take another day to complete. I noticed a pause feature, and clicked it. Hours later, it was still "Pausing..."

Foolishly, I restarted the computer, and now, 3 nights and 2 days later, it is still restarting.

I'm guessing that the Location feature uses the "reboot safe move" feature of Windows, that I read about years ago, and have forgotten the exact name of, but I recall that it makes a registry entry to do stuff on reboot. Can that be confirmed?

I'm guessing that for whatever reason the original Location operation stuck for hours, is now the reason that the "restarting" operation is stuck for days. What should I do next?

"I tried to relocate her profile folders to the new drive using the Location tab."

This may have done it as user folders and their registry hives need to be handled with care.

In any case, you need to get out of that restarting loop , shutdown, restart the system and then post the result.
More specs on the system being used along with the Windows build would also be beneficial.

OAT said:

"I tried to relocate her profile folders to the new drive using the Location tab."

This may have done it as user folders and their registry hives need to be handled with care.

Click to expand...

My understanding from reading posts about relocating user folders is that using the Location tab in folder properties IS the careful technique for relocating user folders? And that one shouldn't attempt to relocate the folder "users" itself, nor the following folders immediately under it (which are named by the user names). So I was just relocating the set for this user, which include, all at the same level, Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Videos, Music, and some others I forget... all targeted at subfolders with the same names created on the newly installed SSD.

Is there some other technique I didn't find?

OAT said:

In any case, you need to get out of that restarting loop , shutdown, restart the system and then post the result.

Click to expand...

Restarting loop? It is just one continuous "Restarting..." message on the screen. It doesn't seem to be restarting more than the once I initiated. Rather it seems to be a loop or hang inside the restart, preventing it from finishing.

OAT said:

More specs on the system being used along with the Windows build would also be beneficial.

Click to expand...

Off the shelf Dell Insprion 3910, plus the new SSD I just added. I assume it was upgraded automatically on patch Tuesdays or so, but can't tell the build number while it is stuck restarting.

wineleven_user said:

My understanding from reading posts about relocating user folders is that using the Location tab in folder properties IS the careful technique for relocating user folders? And that one shouldn't attempt to relocate the folder "users" itself, nor the following folders immediately under it (which are named by the user names). So I was just relocating the set for this user, which include, all at the same level, Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Videos, Music, and some others I forget... all targeted at subfolders with the same names created on the newly installed SSD.

Is there some other technique I didn't find?



Restarting loop? It is just one continuous "Restarting..." message on the screen. It doesn't seem to be restarting more than the once I initiated. Rather it seems to be a loop or hang inside the restart, preventing it from finishing.



Off the shelf Dell Insprion 3910, plus the new SSD I just added. I assume it was upgraded automatically on patch Tuesdays or so, but can't tell the build number while it is stuck restarting.

Click to expand...

1- Is there some other technique I didn't find?
Something obviously went amiss. This site does not provide instructions which lead to system errors such as 'This file can't be moved'.
Too late now.
2- Restarting loop?
Power OFF/ON the system.
3- In your profile, add your system specs please when available.

wineleven_user said:

My understanding from reading posts about relocating user folders is that using the Location tab in folder properties IS the careful technique for relocating user folders? And that one shouldn't attempt to relocate the folder "users" itself, nor the following folders immediately under it (which are named by the user names). So I was just relocating the set for this user, which include, all at the same level, Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Videos, Music, and some others I forget... all targeted at subfolders with the same names created on the newly installed SSD.

Is there some other technique I didn't find?



Restarting loop? It is just one continuous "Restarting..." message on the screen. It doesn't seem to be restarting more than the once I initiated. Rather it seems to be a loop or hang inside the restart, preventing it from finishing.



Off the shelf Dell Insprion 3910, plus the new SSD I just added. I assume it was upgraded automatically on patch Tuesdays or so, but can't tell the build number while it is stuck restarting.

Click to expand...

here is a pretty in-depth breakdown of how to remove onedrive AFTER it has been used

i would hard power cycle the pc and troubleshoot anything that MAY arise after in regard to the profile...
you did the correct thing in using the location tab for each. onedrive tends to royally stuff up

OAT said:

This site does not provide instructions which lead to system errors such as 'This file can't be moved'.

Click to expand...

have you read the 48,908 threads in reference to onedrive that are cluster of people's opinions instead of facts?

@dacrone,
have you read the 48,908 threads in reference to onedrive that are cluster of people's opinions instead of facts?


I was referring to instructions, not threads, nor opinions a.k.a Tutorials.
I should have been clearer, my apologies.

OAT said:

@dacrone,
have you read the 48,908 threads in reference to onedrive that are cluster of people's opinions instead of facts?


I was referring to instructions, not threads, nor opinions a.k.a Tutorials.
I should have been clearer, my apologies.

Click to expand...

i assumed, but not all new members can always decipher at first glance. there is tons of garbage about onedrive floating around and half of it is useless. but back to OP's issue. we'll get it sorted when OP comes back after rebooting it.

dacrone said:

there is tons of garbage about onedrive floating around and half of it is useless.

Click to expand...

Sadly, you are right.

Windows 11 build 26100.

So I powered off, powered on, selected Windows Boot, and it came up. The Desktop hadn't been relocated, but thousands of Desktop files had been copied to the new location I had selected... but not all 10000+, only 6000+.

I used File Explorer to move two large folders from (old) Desktop to (new Drive, but not in Desktop).

I used TaskManager / Startup to disable OneDrive from starting automatically, restarted, and was able to finish relocating Desktop.

CloneMaster reports 6000+ duplicate files between the copy of the large folder I made, and the copy that had been partially transferred before the system hung at 68% done with relocating Desktop (the first problematic symptom). I don't like the way CloneMaster won't select the first duplicate for deletion, even when it matches the regular expression of where to delete, so I'm looking for a more flexible option. Will try AllDup next. Are there better options?

With OneDrive configured to backup those 3 folders (but it had reached the 5GB limit long ago), what are the chances of any data in the OneDrive cloud being useful?

wineleven_user said:

Windows 11 build 26100.

So I powered off, powered on, selected Windows Boot, and it came up. The Desktop hadn't been relocated, but thousands of Desktop files had been copied to the new location I had selected... but not all 10000+, only 6000+.

I used File Explorer to move two large folders from (old) Desktop to (new Drive, but not in Desktop).

I used TaskManager / Startup to disable OneDrive from starting automatically, restarted, and was able to finish relocating Desktop.

CloneMaster reports 6000+ duplicate files between the copy of the large folder I made, and the copy that had been partially transferred before the system hung at 68% done with relocating Desktop (the first problematic symptom). I don't like the way CloneMaster won't select the first duplicate for deletion, even when it matches the regular expression of where to delete, so I'm looking for a more flexible option. Will try AllDup next. Are there better options?

With OneDrive configured to backup those 3 folders (but it had reached the 5GB limit long ago), what are the chances of any data in the OneDrive cloud being useful?

Click to expand...

do you plan to use onedrive? if not, i would go to the web, download all as zips, then delete and go into the onedrive recycle and empty it. that way its off on the pc and no data online..

wineleven_user said:

Windows 11 build 26100.

Click to expand...

Too vague. Latest 24H2 is 26100.6899 or something higher.

wineleven_user said:

I used File Explorer to move

Click to expand...

I would copy first instead of moving and instead of slow File Explorer I would use latest "Teracopy 4.0 RC 2" or something else that's as feature packed, quick, allows to keep original folders and files creation and modification dates unchanged, see log file and to verify copied files.

wineleven_user said:

CloneMaster won't select the first duplicate for deletion, even when it matches the regular expression of where to delete

Click to expand...

Then contact developer, maybe they will confirm, explain or fix it.

wineleven_user said:

Are there better options?

Click to expand...

Have to try all similar software to find what's most reliable and got the right features working correctly.

I like "Duplicate Files Search & Link", after scan you can filter results by location or name etc and then you can select them all to delete.

Otherwise maybe some open source software can be more feature backed and seem more trustworthy. I once tried "czkawka", but didn't like the available interfaces text sizes.

wineleven_user said:

what are the chances of any data in the OneDrive cloud being useful?

Click to expand...

Nobody knows the value of your files, if and when you suddenly get drive failure, notice file modification, file corruption, file leak or disappearance.

It's always good to have multiple backups of the most important things.

If you keep small files in archive files, then moving files to multiple places in future can be quicker and will take less space and some archiving softwares even allow to split, add extra data retention (recovery record) and password lock. WinRAR and maybe some others even keep original dates when extracting files.