Duplicate files in My Computer?

[Phantom of the Bosque]

I am posting this to two NG in hopes of finding someone who may be able to
help.

I have a new compter with OEM XP Home. I am familiar with XP Home because
my previous computer had this operating system.

When viewing my directory tree in Windows explorer I see the following:

John & Debbie's Documents (that is me)
It shows as directly under My Computer not as a sub of anything. It
contains all it should, pics, music, etc.


I am confused because further up the directory structure, under local
disc/documents and settings, there is another folder called
John & Debbie.D11JJV31. It contains the same files as previously mentioned.

The directories or folders apparently are the same. They each take about 4
gig HD space.

I know of nothing I did to duplicate these files. Can anyone help me with
information as to why this may be. The folders that I first mentioned to
not give delete as a right click option. The ones that I mentioned second
do give delete as a right click option.

TIA for any insight on why this has happened and what can be deleted without
data loss or corruption.

 

[John]

Could you or the little woman have accidentally
clicked "Save As" at one point, vice "Save"?

 

[Phantom of the Bosque]

Well, I can't say with 100% certainty that we did not do that. I don't know
how one would have been clicking "save as" for an entire folder with dozens
of sub folders though.

On a trial basis I tried to delete into the recycle bin the one that had
John & Debbie.(the series of numbers).
A dialog box came up telling me that those were system folders that could
not be deleted.

I deleted the second set of folders into the recycle bin but then by
desktop, scr saver, etc were gone. I supposed the second set is the one
that is used for such settings.

I restored them to their original place till I can get some additional
feedback as to what is going on.

I think that I will delete the second set into the recycle bin again and
redo some of the personal setting to see if all works ok. I guess that if
everything seems to work then I don't need to worry about the second set of
folders.

I am mystified by this since I have used XP before and did not have this
issue. I am still looking for any comments that others may have.

 

[Wislu Plethora]

-----Original Message-----
I am posting this to two NG in hopes of finding someone who may be able to
help.

I have a new compter with OEM XP Home. I am familiar with XP Home because
my previous computer had this operating system.

When viewing my directory tree in Windows explorer I see the following:

John & Debbie's Documents (that is me)
It shows as directly under My Computer not as a sub of anything. It
contains all it should, pics, music, etc.


I am confused because further up the directory structure, under local
disc/documents and settings, there is another folder called
John & Debbie.D11JJV31. It contains the same files as previously mentioned.

The directories or folders apparently are the same. They each take about 4
gig HD space.

I know of nothing I did to duplicate these files. Can anyone help me with
information as to why this may be. The folders that I first mentioned to
not give delete as a right click option. The ones that I mentioned second
do give delete as a right click option.

TIA for any insight on why this has happened and what can be deleted without
data loss or corruption.

I am immediately concerned when I read, "John & Debbie's
Documents (that is me)." Do you mean to say that you are
John *and* Debbie? Perhaps this is personal information
that is unrelated to your (other) problem. What you need
to do is stop nosing around in things you don't
understand. Deleting things just to see what happens is
bound to result in grief for both you and Debbie. Suffice
it to say that the condition you describe is normal, and
the disk space is not duplicated, just reported in two
different places. Leave well enough alone--both of you.

 

[Tim Quinn [MSFT]]

The one listed at the higher level (under My Computer) is just a shortcut or
link to the actual location in the file system under "documents and
settings". The files are not duplicated.

 

[Phantom of the Bosque]

Thanks for the replies and the information. I will take your advice and
leave well enough alone.

 

[Frank Jelenko]

What is causing the extension .D11JJV31 he is seeing?

Thanks

 

[Phantom of the Bosque]

The more I think about it, the more that it does not seem right to have
this.
I have used XP ever since it first came out and this is the first time that
I have
seen this. On my previous computer with the same op system, I did not have
this issue.

I have a fairly large HD so it is not a crises but I would like to know if I
can
rid myself of the duplicated folders.

 

[ppw]

You can always use tools designed to find duplicated files, for example
"MMD DupFinder", http://www.mmds.republika.pl/dfsetup.exe