xp search finds 3 files

  • Thread starter Thread starter MashMan
  • Start date Start date
M

MashMan

When I search for a specific file in Windows Explorer, XP finds the file 3
times. Everything is identical, the Name, In Folder, Size, Type, Date
Modified, etc. How can I configure Windows XP Home Edition to show me just a
single file?
 
We can't provide specific information if you won't tell us the full path
names of the file you have in mind.

In general: Many files with the same name exist. Sometimes they are
different versions of the same file. Sometimes they are intentional
duplicates or triplicates. This does not mean there is anything wrong
with your computer.
 
I scanned a document called "TurboTaxOffer.pdf" and filed it in my
"E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\family\Taxes" folder. Is
"E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\family\Taxes" the full path
name you were talking about? When I performed a search on
"TurboTaxOffer.pdf", WINXP Home Edition found this file 3 times. All 3 files
were in the "E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\family\Taxes"
folder. All 3 files had the name of "TurboTaxOffer.pdf", a Size of 284 KB, a
file Type of "Adobe Acrobat Document" and a Data Modified of "2/22/2008 7:51
PM. All this tells me is it found the same file 3 times in the same folder
but when I go to that folder the file is only listed once. This makes sense
because you can not have multiple files of the same name in the same folder.
 
I've never scanned something into my computer, so I have to hand you off
to someone else, I'm afraid.
 
Hmm, that is interesting. Yes, those are the
paths you were asked about, but to be complete the
filename has to be at the end of them.

e.g. ."E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My
Documents\family\Taxes\TurboTaxOffer.PDF" THAT
forms the complete path.
The TurboTaxOffer.pdf might be different
between them? You have to be very specific and
very precise when talking about paths to programs.
I might expect 3 nearly identical files, like:
1. The once above in My Documents.
2. The one above but with "Recent" somewhere in
the path.
3. One more, but not in My Documents, being the
"real" path to the file.
So they will look similar, but not be exact.
The Recent means it's a recenetly used command,
then there is the real file, and then the mirror
of it in My Documents.
E:\My Documents is actually the same path as
the one you gave; it's just a way to get to it
easier and with a lot less typing, that MS set up.

But ... are you positive those paths are written
EXACTLY the same? There isn't an added
\recent or somethign similar appended to one,
and/or the Drive letter isn't actually E: each
time but instead D on one, E on the other?
Check them very carefully from start to finish
to be sure they are exactly the same all the way
through the filename and its extension.

Maybe the above sounds dumb, but I've never come
across anything like what you have, so I'm looking
for the "stupid mistake" a lot of us make by
looking at the same thing time after time and not
seeing the differences, etc..

Have you tried a Restart? It could be just a
glitch that will go away on Restart. Better than
Restart, actually Shut Down and physically remove
the power cord from the computer for 30 seconds,
then start it again and see if it shows anything
differently.

HTH at least a little,

Twayne
 
I just used scanning "TurboTaxOffer.pdf" into my computer as an example. I
have maintained a file called "Documents Needed_Running Totals.xls" for many
years. When I perform a search on "Documents Needed_Running Totals.xls"
WINXP Home Edition finds what appears to be 3 copies of it but they are all
in "E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\family\Taxes". Again,
Everything is identical, the Name, In Folder, Size, Type, Date Modified, etc.
Why is WINXP showing me 3 versions of the exact same file?
 
OK, I saved, shut down and removed the power cord for a few minutes. I
restarted, opened my windows explorer and performed a search on "Documents
Needed_Running Totals.xls". I got 3 results. They are (I cut/pasted each of
them from the Windows Explorer search window, separately):
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\family\Taxes\Documents
Needed_Running Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\family\Taxes\Documents
Needed_Running Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\family\Taxes\Documents
Needed_Running Totals.xls
I checked the properties on each of the 3 'apparent' different files and
found that the Type of file:, Opens with:, Location:, Size:, Size on disk:,
Created:, Modified:, and Accessed: was identical on all 3 files. The date
stamps were identical, down to the second on each of the 3 files.

I have seen the 'recent' reference in past searches on other files but it is
not present at this time for this particular search. The searches that I
have conducted today have all been from My Documents.

This is where things start to change. I broadened my search so that
ANYTHING on the E:\ drive was included in the search. This search got 5
hits. Four of them had the 'recent' reference to them but were only 1 KB in
size. They all were of a 'Shortcut' type of file and the 5th one was of a
Microsoft Excel Worksheet Type. The complete path is:
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Documents and Settings\Mark
Ash\Recent\Documents Needed_Running Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\family\Taxes\Documents
Needed_Running Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent\Documents Needed_Running Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Documents and Settings\Mark Ash\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent\Documents Needed_Running Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Recent\Documents Needed_Running Totals.xls

The created dates are different on these 5 files. They are:
Sunday, October 05, 2008, 6:24:32 PM
Sunday, February 11, 2007, 2:45:47 PM
Monday, December 29, 2008, 8:29:39 PM
Sunday, October 05, 2008, 3:14:29 PM
Monday, December 29, 2008, 8:29:36 PM

The Modified and Accessed dates are slightly different. The dates are all
1/31 but the exact timestamp is slightly different.

The more I dig into this the more confused I get. FYI - I rebuilt my
computer from scratch several months ago. I had a sector or something that
went bad and had to recover my files from a back-up drive. I recovered using
'security points' or something to that effect. I think that this has
something to do with my problems but not 100% sure.

Any of this help???
 
OK, I saved, shut down and removed the power
cord for a
few minutes. I restarted, opened my windows
explorer and
performed a search on "Documents Needed_Running
Totals.xls". I got 3 results. They are (I
cut/pasted
each of them from the Windows Explorer search
window,
separately):
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My
Documents\family\Taxes\Documents Needed_Running
Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My
Documents\family\Taxes\Documents Needed_Running
Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My
Documents\family\Taxes\Documents Needed_Running
Totals.xls
I checked the properties on each of the 3
'apparent'
different files and found that the Type of
file:, Opens
with:, Location:, Size:, Size on disk:,
Created:,
Modified:, and Accessed: was identical on all 3
files.
The date stamps were identical, down to the
second on
each of the 3 files.

I have seen the 'recent' reference in past
searches on
other files but it is not present at this time
for this
particular search. The searches that I have
conducted
today have all been from My Documents.

This is where things start to change. I
broadened my
search so that ANYTHING on the E:\ drive was
included in
the search. This search got 5 hits. Four of
them had
the 'recent' reference to them but were only 1
KB in
size. They all were of a 'Shortcut' type of
file and the
5th one was of a Microsoft Excel Worksheet Type.
The
complete path is:
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Documents and
Settings\Mark Ash\Recent\Documents
Needed_Running
Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My
Documents\family\Taxes\Documents Needed_Running
Totals.xls
E:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent\Documents
Needed_Running
Totals.xls E:\Documents and
Settings\Owner\Documents and
Settings\Mark Ash\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent\Documents
Needed_Running
Totals.xls E:\Documents and
Settings\Owner\Recent\Documents Needed_Running
Totals.xls

The created dates are different on these 5
files. They
are:
Sunday, October 05, 2008, 6:24:32 PM
Sunday, February 11, 2007, 2:45:47 PM
Monday, December 29, 2008, 8:29:39 PM
Sunday, October 05, 2008, 3:14:29 PM
Monday, December 29, 2008, 8:29:36 PM

The Modified and Accessed dates are slightly
different.
The dates are all 1/31 but the exact timestamp
is
slightly different.

The more I dig into this the more confused I
get. FYI -
I rebuilt my computer from scratch several
months ago. I
had a sector or something that went bad and had
to
recover my files from a back-up drive. I
recovered using
'security points' or something to that effect.
I think
that this has something to do with my problems
but not
100% sure.

Any of this help???
Click to expand...

Hmm, maybe, but not sure. Based on your very last
paragraph, I'm wondering now if the 3 identical
files weren't either operator error or a glitch
during the restoration process. I don't *think*
I'm grabbing at straws here. Yet<g>.

BTW, if my assumption here is correct, you might
find other files that exist 3 times each like
that, unless you only recovered one file. There
might be several of them.
What program was used to do the backup and
restore?
In theory, you should not be able to have 3
identically named files in the same
directory/folder. Windows is supposed to append
"Copy 1 of (path/name), Copy 2 of (path/name) when
that happens, but I have seen restores create
identically named files in a directory a time or
two; not very often, but I have seen it. What
happens is the filenames get saved in what's
called short_format or 8.3 format, meaning the
names are actually something like
Documen~1.xls, Documen~2.xls, and Documen~3.xls,
but windows is trying to display them in long name
format and doing so incorrectly due to the Restore
operation; it's confused.

I assume each of the files can be opened using
Excel for the .xls, right? Let's see if we can
separate them out.

Before you start, empty the Recycle Bin. It will
get used to hold "safety copies" of deleted files
later in this process and if it's empty it's a lot
easier to find them to restore them.

First: Copy any one of a triplet, preferably the
..xls, to another folder or better yet a CD, so you
have it in a safe place where it cannot be
damaged.

After doing the copy, did 1 or 3 files appear
at the destination folder or CD? There should be
only one copy of the file there. I'm guessing it
will be there, either under the name you expect,
OR possibly somethign like Documen~x where x = 1,
2, or 3.
Open the file and make sure it's readable and
functional and that nothing is wrong with it.
Then, forget about that file; it's your safety
copy in case things go wrong in the next steps.

Method (don't do this yet, just read it for
reference in case you're not familiar with it):
_To rename a file_: Right click on the file and
choose "Rename" from the list of options.
Then place your cursor in the highlighted area
and click after the "s" in "Totals".
Modify the name as indicated below.
Press Return, and the file will be renamed.
Done renaming that file.

OK, now follow these steps:

Go to the directory where the 3 identical files
are.
-- Rename ONE of the files. Rename it to, say,
Documents Needed_Running Totals OLD1.xls .
-- Were either of the other two files also
renamed? I'm hoping, and suspect, not.
-- Now choose a second of the identical copies
and rename it to, say, Documents
Needed_Running Totals OLD2.xls .
-- I'll assume only the one file changed names
again.
-- Now you have ... OLD1.xls, ...OLD2.xls, and
....Totals.xls for filenames instead of the 3
identical names.

That process should be all you need to do. If
everything went as I described, then I am right
about the cause of the problem and it's not really
any "problem" w/r to windows being corrupted or
the files being corrupted, etc..
If things do NOT follow what I said would
happen, then we're chasing a wild goose<G>.

All in all, It means that, for this file, and
for any other triplets of files the Restore might
have created, two of them can be safely deleted
without damaging the one remaining because they
are in reality separate files. TEST CAUTIOUSLY,
making sure I'm right before you go blindly
deleting files. For the first few, watch the
screen closely and make sure everythign I said
continues to happen. If it does, then you should
be able to go ahead and delete two of each triplet
and be assured you won't lose anything.

An easy way to delete the files is to just
highlight them and press DELETE key. That has the
advantage of temporarily storing the deleted files
in the Recycle Bin just in case you need to get
them back.

Next click the column header for Filenames, to
sort them into alphabetical order. Now it should
be easy to spot whether there are other
identically named triplets in that folder. Just
makes it easier to see them. This tripletting
might occur for every folder that was restored
:-(.

If things do NOT go as I suggested, please try to
describe exactly and precisely each step and
where/when things went astray. I have one more
idea we might try out, but I need to think more
about it. So let's try the above first as it's
pretty easy and isn't nearly as complex as all the
words make it sound<g>.

This is an interesting challenge.

Regards,

Twayne
 
Strange as it seems, it appears that emptying the recycle bin may have
resolved my duplicate file issues. After a emptying the recycle bin and a
few system restarts I am unable to find any duplicate files. I have searched
on several files that 'used' to have duplicates and now I see only 1 of each.

As for the restoration methode, I used the one that came with WINXP H/E.
Although I have created several 'backup' files I have never had the need to
'restore' one. I think I may have checked some wrong boxes when I restored
the files and caused some 'user-error' problems.

Thank you for your assistance.
 
That is interesting; I'll have to remember that
one.
Thanksf for the update!
Glad it's squared away.

Twayne
 
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