My Documents

  • Thread starter Thread starter JohnAP
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J

JohnAP

I have Windows XP. After some crashes and a couple of re-installations I find
that I have 'My Documents' situated several different locations - 1) under
'desktop'; 2 under C Drive, where there are more than one set of 'My
Documents' nested within My Documents. This primarily affects 'My Pictures'
where the multiple copies seriously affects the available space on C Drive.
I have been dragging and dropping and deleting but am not sure where the main
location for 'My Documents' should be. I need to know the basic directory
structure and whether I should have complete duplicate My Documents at
'desktop' as well as under C Drive
 
Hi John,

The My Documents folder on the desktop is usually a shortcut to the actual
target. There should be only 1 My Documents folder. The path to the folder
is C:\Documents and Settings\'Your Name'\My Documents.

I've never had your problem but you can try to delete the nested My
Documents folders from the main My Documents folder.

Hope this helps.

Wy
 
You access the default "Administrator" accouint in Safe Mode (F8 on restart).
With this account, and all existing system account you have created, go to
start/run, to type:
%userprofile% These folders are the 'active' My Documents sets, and all
others are passe'. (It's possible that they contain some data files you might
move to the new set.)
 
JohnAP said:
I have Windows XP. After some crashes and a couple of re-installations I find
that I have 'My Documents' situated several different locations - 1) under
'desktop'; 2 under C Drive, where there are more than one set of 'My
Documents' nested within My Documents. This primarily affects 'My Pictures'
where the multiple copies seriously affects the available space on C Drive.
I have been dragging and dropping and deleting but am not sure where the main
location for 'My Documents' should be. I need to know the basic directory
structure and whether I should have complete duplicate My Documents at
'desktop' as well as under C Drive
Click to expand...


It sounds like you're referring to the way that the My Documents folder is
referenced twice in the left hand pane when you open My Computer with Windows
Explorer. By default, the folder tree you see displayed on the left will list My
Documents directly under Desktop at the top. If My Computer is expanded, you'll
also see an entry for My Documents listed at the bottom of this branch of the
tree. If you right click on both entries, and select Properties from the menu, I
think you'll find that they both point to the same location.

Take a look at this image from a Microsoft web site.

http://www.microsoft.com/library/me...ng/setup/hwprograms/67440-explorer-window.gif

Note the My Documents entry at the top of the tree. This entry echoes the
Documents folder listed in the My Computer branch for the currently logged on
User.

Now, if when you open your My Documents folder, you see a folder inside named My
Document, that would indicate that you have a second copy on your system. That
nested My Documents folder can be deleted.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
That sounds a bit scary. I have Canon Zoom Browser and can see My Documents
(with all its sub files including My Pictures) under Desktops then under
Local Disk C I have Documents and Settings and at same level as that is My
Documents with more subfiles amongst which is My Documents again, and below
that My Documents again. It seems that I will have to examine every file and
folder to make sure where exact duplicates exist and then delete them. It is
such a mess that I lose track of which level I am looking at. That is why I
need to be sure of what the structure should be so that I end up with only
one My Documents in the right location. Wyman's post actually looks most
useful. but all the replies answer my question in different ways Thank you
all very much.
 
Hi!

I have started at the bottom of all the nested copies of My Documents and
using drag and drop have arrived at one copy under Local Disk C>Documents and
Settings>my name>My Documents and in the process have gained over 4 Gb of
free space on the disk.
After defrag everything is a deal faster.
There are still oddities: I can follow through all the directory tree from
My Computer in the start menus, yet when I look at it in Canon Zoom Browser
there is no folder called My Documents under 'my name'. Also in Zoom Browser
I see the full My Documents with all its subfolders as a subfolder of
'desktop'
If I click on desktop from the folder listed under Local Disk C all I see
are the icons for the different items visible on the desktop.
However, I have gained 4.5 Gb free space

Now I cannot access my emails without a freeze-up, and this at server level.
Computers are such a wonderful means of saving time, aren't they!!

John
 
Nepatsfan said:
It sounds like you're referring to the way that the My Documents folder is
referenced twice in the left hand pane when you open My Computer with Windows
Explorer. By default, the folder tree you see displayed on the left will list My
Documents directly under Desktop at the top. If My Computer is expanded, you'll
also see an entry for My Documents listed at the bottom of this branch of the
tree. If you right click on both entries, and select Properties from the menu, I
think you'll find that they both point to the same location.

Take a look at this image from a Microsoft web site.

http://www.microsoft.com/library/me...ng/setup/hwprograms/67440-explorer-window.gif

Note the My Documents entry at the top of the tree. This entry echoes the
Documents folder listed in the My Computer branch for the currently logged on
User.

Now, if when you open your My Documents folder, you see a folder inside named My
Document, that would indicate that you have a second copy on your system. That
nested My Documents folder can be deleted.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
Click to expand...

Folks and Experts,

I am helping a guy with the exact same problem...after a reload of the
operating system, he has ended up with nested Documents and Settings folders,
and nested My Documents folders. The errant folders, which are protected
names, can not be deleted even after moving all the files out of them.
"Search" locks up the whole system, and files are not reliably saved in the
highest level Documents and Settings/MyDocuments folder. Quite a mess.

Anyone have a clue how to resolve this short of wiping the drive and
starting over?

Thanks kids,

Kip
 
Kip said:
Folks and Experts,

I am helping a guy with the exact same problem...after a reload of the
operating system, he has ended up with nested Documents and Settings folders,
and nested My Documents folders. The errant folders, which are protected
names, can not be deleted even after moving all the files out of them.
"Search" locks up the whole system, and files are not reliably saved in the
highest level Documents and Settings/MyDocuments folder. Quite a mess.

Anyone have a clue how to resolve this short of wiping the drive and
starting over?

Thanks kids,

Kip
Click to expand...

Just in case this is not a typo, it should be 'C:\documents and
settings/username/my documents'. This is the proper location.
Everything else is a link to it
 
Big Al said:
Just in case this is not a typo, it should be 'C:\documents and
settings/username/my documents'. This is the proper location.
Everything else is a link to it
Click to expand...
 
Kip said:
Big Al,

Thanks for weighing in. This is a total mystery to me too, I have never seen this and would have told anyone that it was impossible.

Nevertheless, therfe it is...this guy re-installed his Windows and then copied his documents back over to the drive from a backup, and he has three layers of Documents and Settings/lewis/My documents, nested inside each other.

I have moved the files up to the correct place for him, but the folders themselves refuse to be deleted (which I think is a Windows rule, can't delete files with these names?)

Windows Search hangs the computer up, I believe because it is trying to look first in My Documents but finds too many pointers to it--or some such thing.

Any clue?

I have verified that the extra folders actually exist and are nested inside the others, using the Properties function of the Windows Explorer windows.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Kip
Click to expand...

I can understand the copy issue. Its not hard to drop things in the
wrong place. Other than rightclick on the offending folder and see if
you have the readonly / system settings set. And remove them. And
propagate them to the subfolders. I've deleted my "fonts" folder and
had a bummer of a time getting that special folder back in.
 
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