XP has Mirrored my User Accounts

[Guest]

My PC has 5 current users. I have also set up the computer with a 'Computer
Name'. Now when I look at the directory structure in the folder C:/Documents
and Settings, I now have all user account folders listed as the user account
name PLUS I have additional user account folders that are named with the user
account name and the computer name. For example 'User 1' on computer named
'Home' produces the following folders 'User 1' and 'User 1 Home' in
'Documents and Settings'. It appears that XP has duplicated or mirrored each
individual user folder.
How do I stop this happening? I have not been game simply to delete the
unwanted folders as I am unsure to which folder XP is saving user's material
although it appears that the same material is being saved to both the user
folder and the duplicate.

Thanks (in advance)

 

[Mark Dormer]

This is not unusual.
If windows loses access to your profile it creates a new one
As yours exists, it appends the computername to it.
If that already exists it appends .000, .001, .002............
eg
mark
mark.computername
mark.computername.000
mark.computername.001


Why? The profile was corrupted. Permissions were changed. Power Failure,
abnormal shutdown..........


To determine what profiles are being used by your installation, check the
AllUserProfile and DefaultUserProfile values in the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

 

[Guest]

Thanks - I have established which user accounts are active. Now how do I
remove the unwanted folders in 'My Documents and Settings'? Alternatively how
do I switch back to using the original folders i.e. switch from using the
profile 'User1.Home' to using 'User1' only and deleting 'User1.Home' folder
from the directory?

 

[David Candy]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileListUnder here are the users, and under each user is the ProfileImagePath. This is the path to the users folder if CentralProfile is blank else the path to the local cached copy of the profile listed in CentralPath (and then it becomes a roaming profile). If you change it while logged on as that user it writes the current session profile to the new folder/name on logoff.

Type Copy Profile in Help for help on copying profiles about.