Deleting duplicate files in XP

I'm not very knowledgeable about this stuff so hopefully this isn't a real dumb question, but...

Each time I add a document to 'My Documents' (Under Drive C, Documents and Settings, 'myname', My Documents), this activity is copied into a separate file listed under 'My Computer'. The second file is labelled 'myname's documents' and I think it was created when the people who assembled my system transferred some files from my old system to this new one. This is just speculation.

At any rate, I can't see a purpose in this second file, but when I attempt to delete anything in it, I also delete the same data from 'My Documents'.

Is having this second file 'normal' and if so, why? If not, how can I delete the contents of this file (and the file itself) without impacting My Documents? As well, how do I stop adding future documents to this second file?

 

doubleu The files aren't really being duplicated. That's just the way XP indexes your personal files so that you have easy access via the "My Documents" applet. Both areas you mentioned point to the same files.

You can easily prove this by doing a "Find" for one of the files and see how many times it is listed. Don't count any .lnk listings since those are merely shortcuts.

BTW, that's not a dumb question at all.

Regards.

 

Zephyr.... thanks for your response. I understand what you're saying but I don't understand MS's rationale for doing this. I suppose, however, I'm not unique in that. At any rate, I'll just ignore that second file. Thanks again.