My Documents after reinstall

Hi all,

I'm working on a Compaq laptop. Did a reinstall.

There are now three My Documents folders for each user in Documents and settings (one of each is Username, Username.compaq, Username.computername). How can I can get one folder for each user with the old files? Transfer the old files to the new folder and delete the old folders or try taking ownership of the old folders (but the username will be the same as the new folder).

Just looking for the most painless method.
Thanks if you can help.

Matt

 

mattman--Maybe I misunderstand. But when I run a Search on My Documents, I get 5-6 hits. Only one, however, is the one that contains my personal documents. In my case that is C:\My Documents. The others contain stuff that Windows installed and I never use them.

 

Hi Jim,
Are you running XP Home? This system is XP Pro (and so is my home computer and work computer). The folder I am referring to is C:\Documents and Settings. The individual My Documents folders for each user are contained in it.

It seems that there has been 2 reinstalls and a new My Documents folder has been created for each user account after each reinstall (that makes 3 including the original install of Windows).
So for example, if the user accounts were Administrator, Elvis and MsX, there are now folders under C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents for
Administrator; Administrator.Compaq; Administrator.computername
Elvis; Elvis.Compaq; Elvis.computername
MsX; MsX.Compaq; MsX.computername
The .computername folders are where My Documents currently opens, but the the original files are in the Administrator, Elvis and MsX folders.

ANYWAY...I had to give the computer back today for the weekend, so I just moved all the original files to the .computername folders and they then showed up under My Documents from the Start menu.

I was thinking about trying to "claim ownership" of the original My documents folders, but I now realise that this would probably not work because the registry entries for Start -> My Documents would point to the .computername folders.

I think the old folders are now empty of personal files so to tidy things up I might try putting the old folders in the Recycle Bin, but Windows may balk at putting system folders in the Recycle Bin. I'll try and report back if I am successful.

Matt

 

mattman--(Thoughout the comments below I refer to C:\ since that is my SystemRoot. If you have assigned a different drive letter, then change accordingly.)
I only have one Documents and Settings folder and that is in C:\.
I run WindowsXP Pro SP2.
My Documents and Settings folder is a somewhat complicated folder since its subfolders are, to a great extent, created by Windows, whereas the contents of C:\My Documents are created by me.
In my case Documents and Settings contains subfolders of MyUserName (which leads to many important subfolders like History and Temporary Internet Files) , Favorites, Cookies, SendTo, NetHood, PrintHood, etc. I do not think I decided on any of that.
I have no idea whether I would have more than one Documents and Settings subfolder if I had more than one MyUserName. Or vice versa, whether I would have more than one Documents and Settings\MyUserName subfolder if I had other users. I am the only user of the PC. And I have only one User account (which has Administrator privileges, in addition to the elusive "Administrator" account).

I guess I really do not understand the problem.
Is it getting back the old files? Or are you questioning why you have three My Documents folders for each user in Documents and Settings? My C:\Documents and Settings folder has a My Documents subfolder, but it is empty.
As mentioned the My Documents folder which has all my personal data is in C:\, not C:\Documents and Settings. If you have a C:\MyDocuments folder, perhaps you can just ignore the MyDocuments folders under Documents and Settings? I certainly do.

 

Jim, I did not have much time to work on it today. I looked under C: (Local Hard Drive) and only found the Documents and Settings Folder. I did a search for "documents" and found My Documents was only listed inside that folder. Why it is different to yours, maybe the sevice packs have changed the way setup/installation works (?) I have seen different logon methods on different computers running XP.

I did an experiment of copying the contents of the old folder All Users\Start Menu to the new one. The Start Menu now shows all the old programs, but those that need to have registry links will not work. It gives us a guide for which programs need to be reinstalled (luckily there are not a lot).

I love this aministrator stuff, but maybe I should not try too many fancy tricks or I will be
I'll let you know when I have broken it

Matt

 

mattman--Does this help you install a My Documents folder that contains personal data?
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_mydocs.htm

I do not think the contents of a My Documents file is shown in the Registry. You usually are only storing files, images, etc., executables.

 

That link helps a great deal Jim. I still am unsure if I take ownership of a My Documents folder from a previous install (reinstall) if it would conflict with the current My Documents...mainly because both folders would have the same title, in this case, Elvis's Documents or MsX's Documents...and I am unwilling to try on somebody else's system. I will try on a test system in the future

I have probably made myself totally unclear here
I make changes to the Start Menu folder all the time. On this Win 98 system I would have more than a hundred programs installed. To find them in the start menu I change their shortcuts in the Start Menu folder to main folders. Working in the Start Menu folder I cut program shortcuts and paste them into new folders entitled Tools (where I put the utilities), Applications (major programs) and Games, Audio, Internet tools, etc. When I look at Start Menu -> (All) Programs, I can find the program by category. The downside is that the shortcuts are no longer deleted by using Add/Remove (Uninstall) Programs if you cut and paste them to a different location in the Start Menu folder from their original location (the uninstall log has been changed).

That has probably made it more unclear

The registry links I spoke about were for third party programs. Under Documents and Settings, I have amalgamated the old Start Menu folder shortcuts with the new ones. The old shortcuts to programs will not work if the program is run through the registry (the registry was overwritten during the reinstall).

Jim, you may not see what I mean unless you are looking at a system that has had a reinstall done (all the old files are still there, but are not accessable unless you find them and relocate or "take ownership" of them).

MS (actually Compaq/HP) might want to make a tutorial... "How to recover from a reinstall ".

Matt

 

mattman--I am not sure I have helped much or if you have made any progress from your first post.
Anyway, as you have said, you would not be able to put a new My Documents folder in a folder where you already have a My Documents folder.
However, I believe you should have a My Documents folder for each User, which would be accessed by logging in as the individual user. You also can create a Shared Documents Folder, so all Users can see its contents. (Right click on My Documents folder|Properties|Sharing tab.)
You can make copies of any of the contents in one User's My Documents folder and put them into another User's My Documents or in the Shared Documents folder.
So, except for good housekeeping, I would not care about all the existing, different My Documents folders. I don't. I just know that if I want to save something and want to access it easily, I put it into the REAL My Documents folder that I know has all the other saved stuff I care about. REAL is decided by me, I use the one to which Windows already provided the shortcut in Start. (That would include copying anything out of those other My Documents folders in the REAL My Documents.) WindowsXP gave me all the other My Documents folders and I never look at them. And I have no shortcuts leading to them.

P.S. I am a little confused by your last post, since it says you are using Win98. Earlier posts have mentioned WinXP and you have posted in the XP forum. Maybe that explains the differences in folders and locations.

 

I believe I understand the problem you are having. You did a reinstall of XP, and all the C:\Documents and Settings\<user> are not accessable from the previous install. You do need to take Ownership, and then copy the files out.
If you have XP Home, you need to boot into Safe Mode, then log in as Administrator to do this. Set your password for Admin while you are here.
If you so desire, you could reassign Permissions for those folders rather than copy them out, but that would involve much more work.

...mainly because both folders would have the same title,

They already have different names for the user folder, else they could not exist at the same time with the same name. I would just get my files out, then delete the old folder.

 

I have moved the files, although some pictures got lost. I needed to put the pictures in the shared folder (which is "All Users" in Documents and Settings) and direct the Kodak program to find them. All seems well.
They were using Norton Internet Security which was running out of trial period so I did not reinstall it and got AVG, Zonealarm, Spybot, etc. They say it runs very well compared to the way it worked before.

Just rereading your suggestions and I may have come up with something.

From here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555308/en-us
another version:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310147/en-us

SO, if the location of the current My Documents folder is C:\Documents and Settings\Elvis.computername\My Documents
what I should have done was to change it to C:\Documents and Settings\Elvis\My Documents
the original folder...no moving files!
Change the target of the shortcut.
That would have saved me a lot of work.
Windows 1, Matt 0 (Matt scored an own goal)

Thanks for sticking with me on this, especially you Jim.

Matt

 

mattman--Your idea is a good idea. Thanks for posting back with it.
I gather you still had to copy over the contents of the other two MyDocuments.X folders.
P.S. I see from the links you provided that the default location of My Documents is C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents. That, of course, is what you said yours was. On my PC, that folder exists but is completely empty. I must have changed the location of My Documents to C:\ one night when I was sleepwalking. I wonder what I had to drink that prior evening if I also managed to "take ownership ".
Perhaps "take ownership" is only needed if you do not have Admin rights.

 

Jim, a BIG reason why I looked for those links is the information you provided. I would not have looked otherwise.

Matt & Jim 1, Compaq 0.


Matt