Windows 7 duplicating Users folder on a separate partition

MacOs6 · 16 Nov 2011

Hello everyone,

I have a 2TB drive that is split into 2 partitions, Partition A has a fresh install of Win 7 Ultimate on it, Partition B is a copy of all the info from my old hard drive. For some reason the Windows 7 install Users folder with all the data in it is being copied to the Windows\Documents & Settings\ folder of the old data. Also another weird thing is if I delete any of the mirrored files from Partition B x:\Windows\Documents & Settings\XXXX on they will also be removed from Partition A's x:\Users\XXXX. Its driving me a little crazy, if anyone knows what could be happening please let me know whats going on. One more thing, I have unmounted Partition B to see if the files are sym linked from Partition A, but it doesn't seem like the folders are sym linked as the files still accessible while Partition B is unmounted. One more thing is that the only data being replicated is the Primary User account and everything that resides in it.

Neutron16 · 17 Nov 2011

In Windows 7 Documents and Settings became a virtual folder.

Usually, if you will try to open C:\Documents and Settings will be redirected to C:\Users. It is not the only one. Another example would be Application Data. If some application will try to install some files to th folder C:\Documents and Settings\User1\Application Data\ it will be redirected to C:\Users\User1\AppData\Roaming\. This was made for compatibilty purposes.

Now, what happened in your case is something weird. It was not a clean install, there was an old installation, something got messed up on the way, I guess.

gregrocker · 17 Nov 2011

Check if you have Backup center or an installed backup program saving to the second partition.

Uncheck everything in msconfig>Startup except AV and gadgets it you use them; do the same in msconfig>Services after Hide all MS services is checked. Check back periodically to make sure nothing is writing itself back in or turn it off in its Program Prefs or Uninstall it.

Move the data you need off the second partition and delete it in Disk Mgmt, recreate it as Logical data partition and give it another letter altogether.