Windows 7 "Documents" & "My Documents" folders identical
In migrating from my old XP PC I copied the old PC's "My Documents" folder to the new (64-bit Windows 7) PC's "Documents" folder.
Now I have a "My Documents" folder located under the Windows 7 "Documents" folder and both folders have the same 1200 files in them.
Not knowing how that happened I then tried to move the files in "My Documents" up 1 level to "Documents" but recv'd an error that they are in fact the same folder!
A bit of research shows "Documents" is not really a folder but a library.
Needless to say, having 2 identical "folders" located one inside another is awkward and unwanted.
I'm sure there is more than 1 way to skin this cat... What I want is all those files from my old "My Documents" folder in my new Documents "folder".
Suggestions?
Now I have a "My Documents" folder located under the Windows 7 "Documents" folder and both folders have the same 1200 files in them.
Not knowing how that happened I then tried to move the files in "My Documents" up 1 level to "Documents" but recv'd an error that they are in fact the same folder!
A bit of research shows "Documents" is not really a folder but a library.
Needless to say, having 2 identical "folders" located one inside another is awkward and unwanted.
I'm sure there is more than 1 way to skin this cat... What I want is all those files from my old "My Documents" folder in my new Documents "folder".
Suggestions?
andreizz
First of all make a backup copy somewhere else, then delete both folders/files and then copy the files from within the backup folder back to C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Doc
Typically, if you copy the "My Documents" folder from your XP machine to the User profile folder, e.g. to C:\Users\myuseraccount (NOT into the documents folder), Windows 7 will automatically put the My Documents folder in the Documents library, the My Music folder in the Music library, and similarely for the My Videos, Favourites folders will go into the appropriate Windows 7 location.
I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that Windows 7 will do this automatically for you.
You may want to delete the files you've already copied and just do it again from scratch.
I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that Windows 7 will do this automatically for you.
You may want to delete the files you've already copied and just do it again from scratch.
ASKER
andreizz - That is exactly what I did, it didn't work as intended.
Frosty555 - Sounds good. Where exactly in real life (if you know) does Windows 7 store the "My Documents" folder that shows up under user\documents in the libraries?
Frosty555 - Sounds good. Where exactly in real life (if you know) does Windows 7 store the "My Documents" folder that shows up under user\documents in the libraries?
it is stored in c:\users\username\document
c:\Users\andreiz\Documents
this is the path, try and browse it from within cmd with dir and cd commands to confirm.
this is the path, try and browse it from within cmd with dir and cd commands to confirm.
ASKER
ve3ofa & andreizz - You are both correct as far as this: "[...]\Documents" is the new correct path to what was called "My Documents".
However, what you are missing is if you connect to your old PC and copy the contents of the "My Documents" folder from the old PC to "[...]\Documents" on the new PC you will end up with a "My Documents" folder under "[...]\Documents" and they are duplicates of each other.
Note that I copied THE CONTENTS of the "My Documents" folder, I did not drag the top-level "My Documents" folder over. I went inside "My Documents", selected all and copied those thousands of items over and yet Windows 7 behaved as described above.
I have not tried Frosty's suggestion yet.
However, what you are missing is if you connect to your old PC and copy the contents of the "My Documents" folder from the old PC to "[...]\Documents" on the new PC you will end up with a "My Documents" folder under "[...]\Documents" and they are duplicates of each other.
Note that I copied THE CONTENTS of the "My Documents" folder, I did not drag the top-level "My Documents" folder over. I went inside "My Documents", selected all and copied those thousands of items over and yet Windows 7 behaved as described above.
I have not tried Frosty's suggestion yet.
this is very strange.. i'm out of ideeas..
try the same with some sample files from somewhere else, not my documets[the old one]
try the same with some sample files from somewhere else, not my documets[the old one]
simply delete the desktop.ini in the documents folder and it will show as 'documents' vice 'my documents'
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