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
    2011-02-07T15:25:18+00:00

    You are using Windows 7. The OP is running Vista. If you don't want to ask new question in a Win7 forum, suit yourself.

    P.S. This is a peer to peer forum. Most of us are volunteers and do not work for Microsoft. And nobody here fixes any problems wit operating systems. Microsoft does that.

    Leave Windows 7 Feedbackhttp://mymfe.microsoft.com/Windows%207/Feedback.aspx?formID=195 

    I am ignoring this thread.

    Bruce Hagen

    MS-MVP Oct. 1, 2004 ~ Sept. 30, 2010

    Imperial Beach, CA

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-02-07T05:07:17+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.

    Lorien - One did not mark this as answered,  Lisa- Support Engineer  did.

    Lorien - One has not been posting here in months. Instead of trying to resurrect a 9 month old thread with a "similar" issue, you would be a lot better off starting your own new thread.

    Bruce Hagen

    MS-MVP Oct. 1, 2004 ~ Sept. 30, 2010

    Imperial Beach, CA

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-01-27T21:18:01+00:00

    I have encoountered a similar problem after using Robocopy on Windows 7. I had no issues using xcopy to external terabyte harddrives that I use for backups. The only folders that I have experienced problems with are in my user account. Other folders that I copy outside of the User location all work fine, without exception. There appears to be some difference with Windows 7 versus previous operating systems. Is their a different preferred syntax for accessing user folder information using Robocopy?

    Thanks...

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