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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

3 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

57 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-08-20T23:19:36+00:00

    I have the same problem as Steve did (except that I have THREE copies each of My Pictures, My Documents, and My Videos). When I tried to move one of them into the 'Libraries' folder (I'm using Windows 7 Professional), I get an error message telling me that the destination folder and the source folder are the same. From that point, I attempted to delete ONE of the 'My Videos' folders and by deleting one, I deleted them ALL, as well as all my videos. Fortunately, I was able to perform an "Undo Delete" and got them back, but my question is the same as Steve's How do I get rid of these additional 'copies' of these folders? BTW...I checked and DOUBLE checked and there is absolutely no difference in the file names whatsoever.

    Please help if you can!

    Thanks,

    J Blair

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-08-22T22:07:52+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?

    Ok, contrary to statements by others in this thread you CAN get exact duplicates in the file system, that are not just shortcuts or files with non printing characters in the filename (etc). 

    The Master File Table (MFT) can become corrupted by (probably) unsafe removing a USB drive, or power failures (etc). This can lead to exact duplicates and/or partially written files with duplicate names (etc).

    Chkdsk /r can also create lots of duplicates, not necessarily duplicate names but lots of duplicate data in temporary files it recovers. Robocopy (which started life before Windows 95) was also known to be a creator of duplicates when I looked at it many years ago.

    To identify and remove exact duplicates try this:-> http://www.mindgems.com/products/Fast-Duplicate-File-Finder/Fast-Duplicate-File-Finder-Download.htm 

    Otherwise you will have to use recovery options to rebuild or restore your MFT. Ensure you take a full backup first. Given that duplicates are usually just an annoyance, it might be more trouble and risk than its worth to use recovery methods. If you get it wrong you can lose everything.

    Hope that helps. Don't forget to help others on this thread by marking this post Helpful if it solves your issue.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-08-23T18:35:08+00:00

    You are EXACTLY right. And this continues to be a big problem for me with Windows Vista and RoboCopy.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2014-08-23T22:41:04+00:00

    EllsworthT said:

    You are EXACTLY right. And this continues to be a big problem for me with Windows Vista and RoboCopy.

    Not having the problem makes it hard to find/write code to fix it. You need to find existing software that will read/write the MFT instead of using the OS for file IO. Probably the best chance at this problem is to boot Linux from a CD distro like LinuxLive (see:

    http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/377416:the-five-best-linux-live-cds  

    ) and run the NTFS tools that should be included (see:

    http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-manual/

    ) to find and rename and duplicate path/file names on your Windows NTFS drive. This will not have the windows OS to do the file IO and does have its own MFT driver, the combination of which could be the answer to this problem.

    I think HIREMS Boot CD could maybe help as well, but you really have to know what you're doing. There is a Duplicate File FInder here that might delete one but not the other:

    http://www.hiren.info/downloads/freeware-tools/duplicate-file-finder  

    and you can check out some of the other File Management and recovery tools, but unless they read/write to the MFT (advanced and specialised operation) then they will tend to use the OS File System calls and have the same problem of deleting/renaming both files.

    If none of the above work then its a case of modifying a sourceforge (eg) project like Duff:

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/dff/files/?source=navbar  

    to do the smarts. Duff is in C++ and has a lot of Window GUI going on, so its a serious effort just to go in there and find where the relatively few changes needed. Assuming you are setup to develop in C++ that is. If so, here is some useful reference info on the MFT:

    http://nabiy.sdf1.org/index.php?work=ntfs  

    Good Luck!

    Not_a MVP

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments