Duplicate Documents and Settings Folders

[Phoenix]

I am a new XP user and have had a few problems that required repair
installs. In the process of correcting these problems I have had
several duplicate Documents and Settings folders show up, they are
exact copies and all contain the same information.

Does anyone know how to delete or integrate these into one Documents
and Settings folder?

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

I think what you are saying is that within the Documents and Settings
folder there are a number of similarly named folders, such as user and
user.WINDOWS or user.000 or user.computername and you are wondering
what's up with that?

There are a number of folders, besides your account folders, that are
contained in Documents and Settings and should not be deleted:

Administrator
All Users
Default User
Guest
LocalService
NetworkService

and then there are your account profiles:

user
user.WINDOWS
etc

To see which profiles are active, logon to each account and enter
%userprofile% in the address bar and you will be taken to that account's
profile folder. Any profile folders that are not active in any account
are orphans from a previous installation.

Generally what happens when you reinstall is that you create a new
account that is the same name as an old account, but the old profile is
still present. Rather than re-use that old profile, XP creates a new
profile with a suffix for the new account.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"Phoenix" > wrote in message
om...
> I am a new XP user and have had a few problems that required repair
> installs. In the process of correcting these problems I have had
> several duplicate Documents and Settings folders show up, they are
> exact copies and all contain the same information.
>
> Does anyone know how to delete or integrate these into one Documents
> and Settings folder?

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

I think what you are saying is that within the Documents and Settings
folder there are a number of similarly named folders, such as user and
user.WINDOWS or user.000 or user.computername and you are wondering
what's up with that?

There are a number of folders, besides your account folders, that are
contained in Documents and Settings and should not be deleted:

Administrator
All Users
Default User
Guest
LocalService
NetworkService

and then there are your account profiles:

user
user.WINDOWS
etc

To see which profiles are active, logon to each account and enter
%userprofile% in the address bar and you will be taken to that account's
profile folder. Any profile folders that are not active in any account
are orphans from a previous installation.

Generally what happens when you reinstall is that you create a new
account that is the same name as an old account, but the old profile is
still present. Rather than re-use that old profile, XP creates a new
profile with a suffix for the new account.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"Phoenix" > wrote in message
om...
> I am a new XP user and have had a few problems that required repair
> installs. In the process of correcting these problems I have had
> several duplicate Documents and Settings folders show up, they are
> exact copies and all contain the same information.
>
> Does anyone know how to delete or integrate these into one Documents
> and Settings folder?

[Thorsten Matzner]

(Phoenix) wrote:

>I am a new XP user and have had a few problems that required repair
>installs. In the process of correcting these problems I have had
>several duplicate Documents and Settings folders show up, they are
>exact copies and all contain the same information.
>
>Does anyone know how to delete or integrate these into one Documents
>and Settings folder?

Usually the folder with the newest date stamp is the one that is used
currently. You may want to move all other copies out of the way while
you run Windows in the Safe Mode. If this does not cause problems in
the Normal Mode you can delete these folders later (after checking
them for data that you want to keep).
"A Description of the Safe Boot Mode Options in Windows XP"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315222)

--
(tm)

[Thorsten Matzner]

(Phoenix) wrote:

>I am a new XP user and have had a few problems that required repair
>installs. In the process of correcting these problems I have had
>several duplicate Documents and Settings folders show up, they are
>exact copies and all contain the same information.
>
>Does anyone know how to delete or integrate these into one Documents
>and Settings folder?

Usually the folder with the newest date stamp is the one that is used
currently. You may want to move all other copies out of the way while
you run Windows in the Safe Mode. If this does not cause problems in
the Normal Mode you can delete these folders later (after checking
them for data that you want to keep).
"A Description of the Safe Boot Mode Options in Windows XP"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315222)

--
(tm)

[Phoenix]

Kent, i do not mean that, I mean there are several Documents and
Settings folders in the root directory. I have ten of them there at
this time.
I will email you the screen shot.

Phoenix


"Kent W. England [MVP]" > wrote in message >...
> I think what you are saying is that within the Documents and Settings
> folder there are a number of similarly named folders, such as user and
> user.WINDOWS or user.000 or user.computername and you are wondering
> what's up with that?
>
> There are a number of folders, besides your account folders, that are
> contained in Documents and Settings and should not be deleted:
>
> Administrator
> All Users
> Default User
> Guest
> LocalService
> NetworkService
>
> and then there are your account profiles:
>
> user
> user.WINDOWS
> etc
>
> To see which profiles are active, logon to each account and enter
> %userprofile% in the address bar and you will be taken to that account's
> profile folder. Any profile folders that are not active in any account
> are orphans from a previous installation.
>
> Generally what happens when you reinstall is that you create a new
> account that is the same name as an old account, but the old profile is
> still present. Rather than re-use that old profile, XP creates a new
> profile with a suffix for the new account.
>
> --
> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>
>
>

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

Check %userprofile% path on all your active accounts and see which
Documents and Settings folder is being used.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows


"Phoenix" > wrote in
message om...

> Kent, i do not mean that, I mean there are several Documents and
> Settings folders in the root directory. I have ten of them there at
> this time.