Wrote over "Shared Pictures" with "My Pictures"

[Karin Stiles]

Hi all--

I've done a search and while I've found others who did my exact same thing
(at least I'm not alone in my carelessness!), I couldn't find a solution.
Here's what I did...

I'm running Windows XP Home Edition. I use an admin user account. The
exchange student I'm hosting uses a regular user account. I wanted to give
her access to my "My Pictures" folder, so tried to "share" it but windows
said I couldn't do that, I had to put it in "Shared Documents". So I dragged
"My Pictures" over "Shared Pictures" (or maybe just into the "Shared
Documents" window...) and I should've realized something was wrong when I
got a "Are you sure you want to replace...?" box, but I just said Yes.

So now "Shared Pictures" is named "My Pictures" and I no longer have a "My
Pictures" in "My Documents". I tried just moving it back to "My Docs" but I
get an error: My Pics is a wondows system folder and is reqd for Win to run
properly. It can't be moved or renamed...

So how can I get it back to the way it was?!? My camera used to download
new pictures into "My Pictures." I just tried to download new ones, but
don't know WHERE they went... Searched for them, but looks like they didn't
actually download anywhere - maybe because they couldn't find "My Pics"
where they expected to find it?...

Thanks for any insight,
Karin

 

[GHalleck]

Hi all--

I've done a search and while I've found others who did my exact same thing
(at least I'm not alone in my carelessness!), I couldn't find a solution.
Here's what I did...

I'm running Windows XP Home Edition. I use an admin user account. The
exchange student I'm hosting uses a regular user account. I wanted to give
her access to my "My Pictures" folder, so tried to "share" it but windows
said I couldn't do that, I had to put it in "Shared Documents". So I dragged
"My Pictures" over "Shared Pictures" (or maybe just into the "Shared
Documents" window...) and I should've realized something was wrong when I
got a "Are you sure you want to replace...?" box, but I just said Yes.

So now "Shared Pictures" is named "My Pictures" and I no longer have a "My
Pictures" in "My Documents". I tried just moving it back to "My Docs" but I
get an error: My Pics is a wondows system folder and is reqd for Win to run
properly. It can't be moved or renamed...

So how can I get it back to the way it was?!? My camera used to download
new pictures into "My Pictures." I just tried to download new ones, but
don't know WHERE they went... Searched for them, but looks like they didn't
actually download anywhere - maybe because they couldn't find "My Pics"
where they expected to find it?...

Thanks for any insight,
Karin

Hmmm...another hapless Windows user lead astray by dimwit
programmers who follow Bill Gates' philosophy of dumbing down
computing. Well, the only way to find out where the pictures
went would be to use the Windows search engine. Search the
entire hard drive, using the file extension for the picture
files, such as *.jpg, *.tif, etc. And for the future, learn
how to set up and use discrete folders instead of dumping
everything into the generic Windows My Documents and its
subfolders.

 

[Malke]

Hi all--

I'm running Windows XP Home Edition. I use an admin user account. The
exchange student I'm hosting uses a regular user account. I wanted to
give her access to my "My Pictures" folder, so tried to "share" it but
windows said I couldn't do that, I had to put it in "Shared
Documents". So I dragged "My Pictures" over "Shared Pictures" (or
maybe just into the "Shared Documents" window...) and I should've
realized something was wrong when I got a "Are you sure you want to
replace...?" box, but I just said Yes.

So now "Shared Pictures" is named "My Pictures" and I no longer have a
"My Pictures" in "My Documents". I tried just moving it back to "My
Docs" but I get an error: My Pics is a wondows system folder and is
reqd for Win to run properly. It can't be moved or renamed...

Do a System Restore to before you made the mistake.
Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore
"Restore my computer to an earlier time"

What you want to do is make folders in the Shared Documents folder and
put your pictures in there. Copy over any data from My Pictures into
the Shared Documents folder by opening the My Pictures folder and
selecting the items. Right-click/drag is a good way to copy.

Malke