Vista - Personal User Folder - Restore Missing Folder

Hello Wild Bill, and welcome to Vista Forums.

The only thing I can think of for it to not work right now is that they may have done it from the Start menu and not from the C:\Users\(user name) folder location. I always preferred Method Two below.

Personal User Shell Folders - Move Location

Shawn

Hello, I'm having a very strange problem that is possibly related to this thread.
Instead of having a duplicate folder like Contacts or Desktop, my ENTIRE user profile folder (as in the "username" folder) repeats itself within it.

So basically, when I double-click "username" on the desktop to explore it, I see another folder called "username" within it. The second folder is at the location D:\username\username (I keep username in D: drive), but all data are exactly the same and even updates the same, meaning that the two folders are the same.
However, in the second folder there is no "username", which is a weird occurrence.

Furthermore, when I access "username" through My Computer->D:\, I don't see the second folder but when I go through Desktop->"username" or Start Menu->"username", I see the second folder.

I also noticed my computer suddenly lagging with all programs, taking a second or two sometimes to open things, as this problem emerged.

Can someone please help me? This problem is driving me crazy.... >_<

Thank you!

Hello Jinz, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Having moved the C:\Users\(user name) folder to the D: drive location instead is what is causing this problem. You will need to move it back to the default C:\Users\(user name) location instead by reversing the whatever method you used to move it.

If this still does not fix the problem, then see if doing a System Restore using a restore point dated before this can help. If not, then create a new administrator account, copy the files from your old user folders over to the new account, then delete the old user account from within the new one.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hello, thanks for the fast reply.
I have tried multiple system restores but none have helped.
But how come I haven't had a problem for the past 2 months?
Will changing the directory back to the original location fix the problem then?
I have also posted screenshots to illustrate the issue.




Thank you in advance.

Changing it back to the default C:\Users\Kin Kim location instead of D: may fix it for you.

Hmm nope it still doesn't disappear...
For some reason it's ONLY there if it is opened as a user folder (as in with the blue icon) but not there when it is open as a normal folder (yellow icon, such as when I go through D: drive).

Um ok, try changing it to the default location from both locations to see if that makes a difference for you.

Hi Brink,

I've read all your posts about duplicate folders in Vista and all.

I have a duplicated desktop folder in a different location. I've tried to delete them, restore to the default location, used meyhod 2 and 3 and nothing. There still 2 desktops and no contacts.
I hope you can help me.
Thanks,
Pedro

Hello Pebu, and welcome to Vista Forums.

See if this may be able to help.

• Make sure that Desktop and other folders have the default location set for it in the registry.
• Go to the C:\Users\(user-name) folder, and delete all instances of the Desktop folder.
• In the Start menu search line, type shell:desktop and press enter. Next type shell:contacts and press enter.
• Restart the computer to apply. You may need to restart a couple of times though.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

OK there was a system restore last nite on a dell laptop and on the picture folder for example its says there are 953 files there but when you open the folder it's empty, which would be the best method for recovery.