My machine has Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS running side-by-side on a single hard drive with GRUB bootloader, each with 500 GB storage. I keep my personal documents on a separate 1TB hard drive so they remain isolated from any changes I make to the OS drive, but when Ubuntu starts it does not seem to notice my documents drive. While I've installed and worked with Ubuntu 12.04 Server x32 before, using it as a desktop OS is new to me. I use my documents drive for all of my personal data, including wallpapers and music, so it is imperative that Ubuntu recognize it on startup.

Concerning the two specific examples: Ubuntu loads with the default blue-colored desktop instead of my desired picture of the spectacular Carina galaxy. When I right-click the desktop and select "Change Desktop Background", it wakes up from its amnesia and loads the proper background. As for my music, Rhythmbox defaults to an empty library upon reboot, forcing me to reload the settings manually each time. This gets quite tedious because I certainly can't work to my full potential without my music.

The second thing I would like to address is making Ubuntu point the documents directories in ~ to their appropriate counterparts on the 1TB documents drive. I realize that this question is not new, but when I create the symbolical links, they established themselves inside the directories and did not convert the directories themselves into symbolical links. I also prefer not to move the files themselves from their current location on the 1TB drive. I believe this would also help the Rhythmbox library problem as well considering it's a default directory for the music player.

Excerpt from fstab:

proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0 # / was on /dev/sdb6 during installation
UUID=057ac83e-76ad-460d-86e5-b6d46e9b1d80 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 # swap was on /dev/sdb7 during installation 
#UUID=1183df90-23fc-44e4-aa17-4e7c9865d5cb none swap sw 0 0 /dev/mapper/cryptswap1 none swap sw 0 0

That's enough content for one question. I really like the Ubuntu experience so far since it doesn't treat me like an idiot out of the box (can't say the same for Windows) so I can't wait to hear from the community! Thanks for your help in advance.