Why are files in so many places?

[gale]

Sorry if this has been asked before-I did a search but didn't find it. I just got windows 7 after having xp. It was a new install on a new hard drive. I have 32 bit. I use carbonite so I did a selective restore. Now it seems like some files are in more than one place. I'm not talking about the libraries-I understand how those work. I'm talking about going to my c drive. For instance I have home videos that I am in the process of copying to dvd from vhs tapes. I ran Auslogics dupe finder and it shows them in 3 different locations. C:userswner:video (I know I don't have all the symbols in there-this is just to give an idea of where) and also C:userswner:documents:my vidoes and also c:documents and settingswner:videos. So I selected files that were in the 2nd and 3rd location to delete and when I did, they also deleted from the first location. So are they not in all 3? If so why does Auslogics show that they are duplicates? I am restoring them now but I would like to avoid duplicates because it only makes my carbonite backup bigger than it should be. The same is happening with other files too. Are they all just mirrored with different paths somehow?

 

[logicearth]

Did you alter file/folder permissions at all? (Security tab in properties)

 

[gale]

Not that I know of but I have it all set for full sharing because of our home network. Also I forgot to mention what prompted me to check in the first place. Carbonite is backing up a certain file but I was sure it was already backed up. So I check and sure enough, there is a green dot indicating that it's backed up. But then I went to another file path and found the same file but not yet backed up (but it is in the queue to be backed up). So Carbonite is backing them up separately. But if I delete one from one folder, it also deletes in the other folder. This is so confusing.

 

[logicearth]

They are called Junctions, links in my signature could explain more. To be able to access them you would have to alter the permissions that prevent this very issue you are seeing from happening. Every Junction point used for compatibility is given a specific permission: Everyone, DENY, List folder / read data. DENYing this specific permissions avoids this issue all together. I'm going to assume the sharing that you setup altered these permissions.

 

[gale]

ahhh my head is spinning. OK so I think I understand. I understood the libraries to be places that point to the actual location but thought that anything beyond that was actually in the locations shown in the path. I set my entire c drive so that I could alter/copy/etc files from any folder on the other computers but is there a better way? My kids do lessons on the other computers (and this one too) but since carbonite only backs up this one, I transfer their backup files for lessons to this computer and then it backs them up. Sometimes I also transfer other files from one to the other on the network.

 

[gale]

OK how do I set it all back to the default? Then I can selectively set permissions on certain folders that the kids use for backups?

thanks so much-I have been stressing over this for a month now (since I got my new HD).

 

[gale]

I found this-is it safe to do it this way or should I do it manually?
How to reset all Windows 7 or Vista Security settings to its default values | The Windows Club

 

[gale]

OK i just set my documents & settings folder for deny to see what happens and it looks like everything can still be accessed from the network. I think that when I first got this, I went to that folder and panicked when I couldn't get into it and set the permissions. BUT I just looked on our laptop, which is Win7 64 bit, and there is no documents & settings folder on the c drive.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Hi,

Documents and settings is not a real folder. It is called a junction point and is used for legacy program interface.
Your data will be in C:\USERS\<your user name>\Appdata. This is a hidden folder. This the same in Vista as well.

Source here


OS

 

[karlsnooks]

I recommend you do a complete clean install.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

In the future, use Win 7 Backup and Restore.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

 

[gale]

Thanks. I'm going to try to get by without doing a new install. I had to reinstall everything in June when my motherboard died and again in September when my HD died. I'm all burned out. For now it seems fine. My Carbonite backup seems to be fine (although still too big-I think I have duplicates on it) and so far it appears that I can access all of my files on this computer and on my network as well. I'll set up the win7 backup utility too, and have it back up to my EHD. I was planning to do that once all my backup was restored through Carbonite (which it is now-it just took about a month). Thanks to everyone for the help. It really did clear things up for me.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Glad we could assist

And please don't hesitate to stick around and view our tutorial section and maybe even offer some advice yourself

 

[gale]

Thank you. I have, in fact, been reading a ton of threads here and it has helped me tremendously to customize and use windows 7. At first I hated it with a passion but once I read some tutorials here, and was able to fix it up the way I like it, I am happy with it. This is now the first place I go to find out what to do when I have a problem-and usually I can find it without having to ask.