Two folders with identical (i.e., duplicate) names

Anonymous
2010-05-14T20:19:28+00:00

When I look at my drive E in the Windows Explorer, I have two folders named \Users in the root (using Vista with the lastest updates). When I look from a cmd box, I only see one.

I think the second one was created when I used Vista's robocopy to backup my C files onto E (e.g. "robocopy c:\Users\Steve e:\Users\Steve"), but (1) I didn't think you could end up with duplicate names in the same folder and (2) how can I specify which of the two files I want to copy files to?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2010-05-14T20:50:22+00:00

You can't have two folders with the same name in the same directory - something must be different (maybe an underscore at the end of one or something else).  I have no idea how or why this happened.  When you scroll through each of the folders are they identical in terms of contents (same folders, same files, you can open files from both folders,...)?  I'm not familiar with robocopy so I'm not sure if that was responsible (though it seems likely).  If  they are identical in all respects, just delete one and use the other one (or better, remame one to something else and save it elsewhere "just in case" - at least until you're sure the folder  you selected is working properly and there are no problems.  I'd give a month and then delete the other folder.

If you see only one in cmd then move some file to a different directory and then ccheck on Windows Explorer to see in which folder the change occurred (and verify it didn't occur in both).  Then you'll know which folder to use  and which to rename are indicated above.

I hope this helps.

Good luck.

Lorien - MCSE/MCSA/Network+/A+ --- If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-07-28T09:22:32+00:00

    I have a similar problem, so do not be snippy.  Somehow I have two identical folder called Download in my user directory.  This happened when I moved the folder using Properties Move and then moved it back.  They are absolutely identical with the same contents in the same user (my) user directory.  They both act as library files.  They cannot be deleted witout both of them being deleted...and then all of Windows Explorer will not even launch.

    This is a horrible bug.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-02-07T08:21:34+00:00

    oookay, fine. Semantics are lovely, and if someone official marked Lorien - One's post as "the answer," that's even worse than if he had done it himself.

    And I think it's completely appropriate to post in a 9 month-old thread.  Because a dead thread that has an "answer" marked--that isn't an answer for an issue that persists for other users--is useless to both users and support personnel.  Because a 9 month-old dead thread marked as "answered" would lead the unwary consumer & support personnel to believe that the issue is solved.

    When it clearly is not .  And considering the volume of similar posts/questions to this one, all without real answers... this issue is far from solved.

    And I did start my own thread.  Except the clunksocial.answers.microsoft.comst, as well as replies to several other similar threads.  I'm actually surprised that my post to this thread worked, as this was the second or third thread (regarding this issue) that I posted to, and the only one that actually went through and posted.  I'm sure my issues getting posts to actually, y'know,post , are unrelated to this bizarre duplicate folder name issue, but that's the reason why my post actually appeared here for you to give me that oh-so-trenchant advice.

    I think it's lovely that you could put so much effort into giving me advice on starting a new thread (to go with the others all commenting on this problem or ones similar to and/or related to it), rather than actually addressing the problem.

    But then, since the question is marked as "answered," there's no real reason to put any effort into fixing the problem, is there?

    See how neatly that works out?  There's a reason why consumers try to be "squeaky wheels": otherwise, they'd never get greased.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-02-07T05:00:16+00:00

    Lorien - One, you haven't answered the question.  Please don't mark this as answered.

    I'm having a similar issue, in Win 7 Pro 64-bit.  I used xcopy at the cmd prompt to create a duplicate directory tree, copying off all my RAW photo files to the new tree.  I then used xcopy to copy off all my JPG/TIF/PNG files to another duplicate directory tree.  I then wanted to change the old directory tree to a different name (i.e., from "H:\Photos" to "H:\Photos - Archives"), change the name of one of the new trees, and point the User "My Pictures" folder/link to the new tree.  Unfortunately, I have ended up with three directory trees that show up with the same names in Windows Explorer (but not at the cmd prompt), but their location paths are the original paths.  I cannot change the names of any of directories to match the path that's in the User folder.

    So, in thesocial.answers.microsoft.comave multiple folders with the exact same name, but different locations (DOS directory name differs from Windows Explorer displayed name) in their properties.  I can't change the folder names, because that just changes the name displayed in Windows Explorer.  I can't change the location in the folder properties, because if I do that, it'll just merge the directory trees together--which would undo all the work I just did with xcopy in the first place.

    Given that this is a Vista and a Win 7 issue, and it's not about malware, viruses, or anything else (because I'm doing this on a brand-new clean install), this seems to be an issue with Windows Explorer not actually changing folder name/path information.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-11-14T14:16:18+00:00

    I have the exact same problem. This question is not "Solved".

    I think it can have something to do with how windows register the user folders. When I open my users folder (in norwegian Windows 7) the folder is called c:\Brukere -the norwegian word for Users .  But when I check the registry files it's directed  to %systemDrive%\Users. Even though that folder does not exist in the file browser -it's called c:\Brukere.

    That also means that I can make a new folder calledBrukerenext to the other folder with the same name without any problems or "Folder already exist"-message.

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