Duplicate Files

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Flatley
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J

John Flatley

I'm running Office XP and Windows XP.

I just discovered a duplicate file structure of my personal Word files.

At installation/setup time I elected to put all my Word files in directories
I setup under a JACKS DOCUMENTS directory, which was under MY COMPUTER
directory.

This afternoon I was browsing the JACKS DOCUMENTS directories and files
under the MY COMPUTER using Windows Explorer when I "discovered" a duplicate
and identical set of JACKS DOCUMENTS directories under MY DOCUMENTS.

I have no idea how or when these duplicate files were created. (a dozen or
so files I checked appear to be exact duplicates; at this point I don't plan
on a file by file comparison for every file pair.) About a month or so ago,
I had an significant increase in the number of files AD-AWARE counts when I
run to it to scan for cookies. But other than that increase, I have nothing
to indicate when or why or how I duplicated my files!

(I back up my Word files 2 or 3 times a week. I back up Quicken every time
I use it. Word, Quicken, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and Parson's
Address Book account for 99.99% of my system use.)

I've spent a bit of time tonight browsing www.microsoft.com including the
Knowledge Base, and didn't find anything that seemed to fit.

Any thought on the cause/causes? Suggestions or direction for recovery?

Jack Flatley
Jacksonville, Florida
 
G'Day Jack,

Your "problem" has its origins in Windows' ability to cater for
multiple users.

Suppose there are multiple users - Tom, Dick and Harry.

Windows Xp will create folders called:
"Toms Documents",
"Dicks Documents" AND
"Harrys Documents"

Supppose Tom is logged in. He will see "My Documents"
as HIS OWN (Toms) Documents, and will hopefully be
satisfied with this. If he browses the File System he will
also discover "Toms Documents" (his own), "Dicks Documents"
AND "Harrys Documents" as locations apparently separate from
"My Documents".

(If he looks under "C:\Documents and Settings\<Tom, Dick
OR Harry>" he may become even more confused!)

However (in your case) "My Documents" is only a POINTER
to "Jacks Documents" which really contains your files - the files
exist only once (under "Jacks Documents"), but are also
accessible as "My Documents" when YOU are logged in.

If you have "customised" this (and I always do because I have
a second HDD, and I want "My Documents" on "D:\"), then the
picture becomes a trifle more complicated. The bottom line is that
the files exist only ONCE.

You can check this out by renaming a document in either location,
and if you check you will see it ALSO renamed in the other.
 
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