Vista - Documents & Settings/ all users

i am at a loss to understand " Documents & Settings/ all users/ " i seem to
have "/application Data " files some 20 + directories deep. whilst there are
only 2 users on my PC myself as administrator and my wife as a separate
loggin. What have i done wrong and how can i correct it. Stupid as it might
seem i was contemplating deleting Documents & Settings/ all users/application
Data/application Data/application Data at the 5th Directory.
Can any one advise me what to do and what to correct so that it dose not
happen again.
--
alexanderd

Hi, alexanderd.

Something "does not compute", as they used to say on the old TV show. :>(

Vista does not have a "Documents & Settings" folder. That was in WinXP. In
Vista, the file structure has been changed. Now, you should find all your
documents and settings under the various C:\Users\{username}\Documents
folders. There should be one Users folder for each user, plus others for
Default, Public, etc.; some of them are hidden.

Vista does have a directory entry for "C:\Documents and Settings
[C:\Users]", but it is not actually a folder. It is a "Junction" pointing
to the new locations; it is here just for the benefit of legacy programs
that have not yet been updated to recognize the new scheme.

For more information, click Start | Help and Support, and search for
"documents".

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

"alexanderd" <alexanderd@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news17E5BEE-D9A7-47ED-88CB-971F671ACFF3@xxxxxx

i have a similar issue -
c:\documents and settings\user\appdata\local\application data\application data\... 12 levels deep and using 24.9Gb
c:\documents and settings\user\local settings\application data\application data\... 12 levels deep and using 24.8Gb
c:\documents and settings\user\application data consuming 65.3Mb
c:\documents and settings\user\documents - using 4.77Gb
c:\documents and settings\user\my documents - using 4.77Gb
c:\users\user\local\application data\application data\... 13 levels deep and using 27.2Gb
c:\users\user\application data\application data\... 13 levels deep and using 27.0Gb
c:\users\user\documents - using 4.77Gb
c:\users\user\my documents - using 4.77Gb

it appears there are duplicates consuming a very large space!
I did find that the documents and settings doesnt show unless i use explorerxp, so i believe this to be a mount of the users folder. i changed a file in one and it showed in the other.
The real question is why is the application data folder 13 levels deep and each adding up to the last consuming 50+ Gb on my drive?
And why is it listed in 2 places, user\local and user\application data\ ?
please help - i dont want to reload already

HA! i founf inadvertantly. i had 50Gb in my system volume information folder (system restores) and in fixing that it removed the huge data and duplicate folders!
i right clicked on the c drive, performed a disk cleanup that freed up 11Gbs
then in disk cleanup, i clicked the "more options" tab and clicked the "clean up" button under system restore and show copies.
it removed all but the most recent copy and freed up another 70Gb!
80+Gb in redudancy - sux!
Everytime i install an app or remove one, i think it was making the extra tree in the application data for rollback purposes and marker points. Oh well!
Sweet, hope this helps you too!

How are you browsing to these locations? 'Documents & Settings', 'All
Users', and 'Application Data' are all reparse points that point to other
folders. Open a command prompt & type the following command:

C:\>dir /al /s

This will show you all the junction points on your computer. They are there
solely for backward compatibility for programs. Notice that:

Directory of C:\
11/02/2006 08:00 AM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [C:\Users]
Directory of C:\Users
11/02/2006 08:00 AM <SYMLINKD> All Users [C:\ProgramData]
Directory of C:\ProgramData
11/02/2006 08:00 AM <JUNCTION> Application Data [C:\ProgramData]

'Documents & Settings' points to 'C:\Users'. There 'All Users' points to
'C:\Program Data'. Once we are in 'C:\Program Data', 'Application Data'
points to 'C:\Program Data'. It is a junction that points back to its
containing folder. So the 'endless levels' of Application Data is really a
loop. Normally, the permissions entries for these junction points prohibit
browsing. Did you happen to modify those? I know they can be annoying, but
they remind you to go find the actual folder.


--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]



"alexanderd" <alexanderd@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news17E5BEE-D9A7-47ED-88CB-971F671ACFF3@xxxxxx

thx keith.
i had a huge portion of my HDD being used somewhere and when i used explorerxp.exe to look for it i found 50+ Gb in the application data folder under c:\users\%username%.
when i expanded the app data folder, then app data folder...13 times, i had found the end of the expansion.
i think this is related to the system restore and the previous versions function of vista because after i cleared out my previous system restores and did a disk cleanup, they were gone.
so i am cool now, freed up 60+ Gb in the process, too.
thx

This seems an appropiate thread to bump.

The latest creative drivers for my soundcard delete "allusers" junction from my HDD.


See this link for what I mean. I could really do with a MVP helping with this please!

creative drivers break windows vista junctions - Windows Vista - Creative Labs

He mentions you can recreate the link, but it does not have the same function as the original. Is there a way to recreate the original link?

"Gamergod" <Gamergod.37kr54@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net> wrote in message
news:Gamergod.37kr54@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net...It's not. Start a new thread.