Explorer - Documents folders - several 'mirrors' - delete any?

[xylophone]

I run XP SP2. In (1) My Computer/Local Disk (C)/Documents and Settings/my
full name/My Documents I have my documents. In (2) Local Disk (C)/rosemary
harrison's documents (no capitals) I have the same documents as in My
Documents: Properties merely state size, which is same as (1): there is no
delete button on the rt click menu. In (3) My Computer/My Documents I have
the same documents as in (1): I can rt click to delete this folder and it
says in Properties it is a shortcut to (1). When I add a file to (2), it
appears simultaneously in (3): haven't looked to see if same happens with
(1). My questions is this : I have three folders all containing gigabytes
of documents - can I safely delete any of these and which ones? I seem to
recall something about one of the folders being a failsafe if the nerdy user
wrongly deletes one, so that he still has the other. Please advise.

 

[Gordon]

(1). My questions is this : I have three folders all containing gigabytes
of documents -

No you don't - each one is just a different "view" of the same folder.....

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I run XP SP2. In (1) My Computer/Local Disk (C)/Documents and Settings/my
full name/My Documents I have my documents. In (2) Local Disk (C)/rosemary
harrison's documents (no capitals) I have the same documents as in My
Documents: Properties merely state size, which is same as (1): there is no
delete button on the rt click menu. In (3) My Computer/My Documents I have
the same documents as in (1): I can rt click to delete this folder and it
says in Properties it is a shortcut to (1). When I add a file to (2), it
appears simultaneously in (3): haven't looked to see if same happens with
(1). My questions is this : I have three folders all containing gigabytes
of documents - can I safely delete any of these and which ones? I seem to
recall something about one of the folders being a failsafe if the nerdy user
wrongly deletes one, so that he still has the other. Please advise.

No, you do *not* have three copies. You have one copy with three ways
of getting to it. If you delete a file in one of them, you will delete
it in all three places.

 

[xylophone]

Thanks, guys. Just as well I asked!!

No, you do *not* have three copies. You have one copy with three ways
of getting to it. If you delete a file in one of them, you will delete
it in all three places.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks, guys. Just as well I asked!!

You're welcome. Glad to help.