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
    2013-03-04T00:05:52+00:00

    I wonder if you could have renamed the name from the command prompt using RENAME.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-03-04T09:49:05+00:00

    I wonder if you could have renamed the name from the command prompt using RENAME.

    No, RENAME will rename both files, and that's the problem. I think this was already mentioned.

    Didnt someone have a look at Hirems boot CD yet for a way to solve this? (sigh) Ok. I just happen to have some spare time - I'll see if there is a utility to fix this.

    wikiwebs.com.au

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-03-04T10:50:18+00:00

    Thanks for the informative post and "I want it fixed real bad"!!

    Unless a BIOS Int13H disk sector read/write utility can be found it needs someone to write a simple C or assembler program. 

    I no longer have the development tools to do this, or time to hunt them down for that matter.  If any C/C++ coders want to have a crack at this problem, this site has 90% of the code needed to fix it...

    http://www.datadoctor.biz/data_recovery_programming_book_chapter9-page20.html

    The program cant be run from Windows - you need to run it from Dos - V3.3 would be a good choice.

    The code simply needs to read thru the File Control Blocks and display them in hex/ascii to help the user find the sector number that has one of the duplicated filenames, then alter the filename in the buffer, and write the sector back to the disk.

    There was a utility in the 80's that could do this really well - but I've forgotton what it was called. It was either Nortons Utilities Disk Doctor before Symantec bought it, or one of its competitors - maybe a sector editor included in Paragon Partition Magic  - anyone know what I'm referring to ????

    wikiwebs.com.au

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-03-04T11:04:11+00:00

    http://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

    See ya!

    Now, back to the issue. This is more a problem with the file system, not Windows.

    If you have this problem, please note which file system you are using. The choices are:

    FAT (Win 3.1 to Win98)

    FAT32 (Win95 on)

    NTFS (Win XP/NT on)

    Ta

    wikiwebs.com.au

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