Documents and My Documents got swapped; win7 pro x64, hppro dtpc

[seekertom]

Using windows explorer to do all of this...

Not realizing how this file system works, she deleted all files in Documents because many dupe files made it look like they were accidentally copied there multi times. On realizing what she had done, I promptly restored the recycle bin, hoping everything would return to normal, but all files went into the My Documents folder while the Documents folder ended up with a bunch of (mostly) empty folders originally from My Documents.

Normally, all you see in the Documents folder are documents, but in My Documents there may be sub-folders as well as files. After the gyrations, there were folders in the right pane of explorer under Documents, and only files in the right pane under My Documents, as if Documents and My Documents got swapped around. To make it more confusing, rt clk on My Documents, properties showed the number of files plus 66 folders! But no folders show up in either explorer pane.

I copied everything from the two folders to another folder for safety, then tried restoring the two folders. The result was to have only files in My Documents and folders in Documents as before, so, no help. No backups either. oye!

Any help will be gratefully accepted. tom

 

[Ranger4]

Hi seekertom, welcome to the Seven Forums.

These Seven Forums tutorials might help you.


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/580-library-hide-show-navigation-pane.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/581-libraries-restore-default.html

 

[seekertom]

learning more about w7 structure.

Well, my problem began when my friend deleted everything while looking at Documents. I saw things unfamiliar to me and left the track, so to speak. Now I'm back on track, thanks to this forum!

What I have learned so far is this: w7 Documents shows available document files from all locations. NEVER delete a file from here!
w7 My Documents shows document files that I, as logged user, have created.

Both folders display according to "arrange by" setting, upper right part of screen. If Folders is selected, then both folders will display any folders involved. If by name is chosen, then both folders show files and no folders.

My pcs have been set as name for Documents and folder for My Documents. When these were accidentally changed, it through me into chaos. Now, after reading stuff from here and listening to y'all, I have un-chaossed myself and am able to focus on the real issue: re-collecting my data files and putting them back into My Documents as necessary.

In short, viewing files from Documents and My Documents is controlled by "arrange by" selection.

 

[UsernameIssues]

For what it is worth:
There is no "My Documents" folder. The "My Documents" name is an alias for the "Documents" folder.

The real name of the folder appears if you select the address bar in Windows (file) Explorer:




If you set Windows (file) Explorer to show protected system files (and display more file extensions), you should see the desktop.ini file as shown below:




Deleting that desktop.ini file and closing/re-opening the Windows (file) Explorer should get rid of that stupid/confusing alias naming scheme.

 

[seekertom]

Thanks. Adds more to my knowledge base. Understood about not really a folder.... actually I preferred the olden ways of calling them directories and sub-directories, but either way, my learning quotient is determined by the depth of my errors and mistakes. Thanks for the added info. tom