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

Anonymous

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?

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Anonymous

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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57 additional answers

Anonymous

2017-12-30T00:16:04+00:00

Just happened to me. I also thought it was impossible to have identical folder names until now. You are not alone.
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Anonymous

2017-12-08T22:11:19+00:00

I had similar problems with folders copied from a Linux webserver. SSHing into the server discovered there were two folders for the same user but one of them had a space on the end. Was able to see as in Putty the names were highlighted. Trying to delete from shell with quotes didn't work but then found this which did work:

Genus Pongo Nov 8, 2012 at 3:20 AM

I can help you get rid of the files; you need the 8.3 file name to get rid of those files and you find it by using the "/x" switch on the "dir" command.
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Anonymous

2017-04-13T23:05:12+00:00

A Windows10 update this week now allows me to create multiple files of the EXACT same name in a single folder...! Why? How do I stop this and get the normal "file exists, do you wan to replace it?" message?
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Anonymous

2017-02-09T06:40:11+00:00

The way to fix this involves understanding the Master File Table of the NT File System documented here:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc781134(v=ws.10).aspx#w2k3tr_ntfs_how_dhao

You then need a program capable of writing a single 8 bit byte to the MFT using only the cluster, track, and offset information. Such a tool is possibly Partition Guru Pro from Eassos (note the double S and beware of the imitation product of the same name from EaseUS - single S), but you may need to give it elevated privileges to write to the MFT.

It costs about $70 from http://www.eassos.com/partitionguru.php. Do NOT be tempted to 'crack' the free version because the 'crack' will get access to the very core of your disk and Recovery Software is absolutely the perfect target for ransomware 'cracks'.

Then you have to search for one of the file names in both the MFT's and finally change a single byte in the filename to make it unique (exactly the same filename & byte for both MFT's). (See http://www.eassos.com/partitionguru/manual/Summary.php)

Or maybe wait a few more years for someone to write a click & fix program for the same price.

Either way, is this problem even worth fixing? You can just ignore it you know. Its no worse than a couple of bad sectors. Just mark (rename) the files to <filename>.BAD and forget them. Solved.
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