Paul Gardner
asked on
Subfolder in My Pictures no longer displayed after copying data
Firstly allow me to describe my PC setup. I am running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit installed on the system C: drive. My standard user is Paul with all default user folders and libraries located under C:\Users\Paul\. Originally I had a previous setup using a hard junction to point to the D:\ drive and had a similarly named user profile located under D:\Users\Paul\. But since a recent system rebuild, all the old data is still under documents, Pictures, etc. but none of this is included in any libraries at present. What I intended to do was migrate the new profile across and create another hard junction. But that is another matter and not relevant to the question I am about to ask.
The other day I copied a lot of photos from my laptop. First I shared the D:\ drive on the PC and mapped it as Z:\ on the laptop. Then by using the command robocopy 'C:\users\Paul\pictures\' 'Z:\users\Paul\Canon Photos\' /E on the laptop, around 50GB of jpgs were copied. When it finished, robocopy reported that it completed ok, only skipping one folder containing 8 files. The situation now is that using a command prompt, I am able to see that the Canon photos subfolder is there along with all of the old and new photos ok. But I am unable to see the folder 'Canon Photos' in Windows. All of the other subfolders under the folder D:\users\Paul\Pictures are there ok. Just not the subfolder I copied the data into.
I have tried running sfc /scannow in both D:\users\paul\Pictures and the subfolder 'Canon Photos'. but it found nothing of note. I have also checked that I am able to view hidden files and folders, but still to no avail. What's happened here and what can I do to fix it?
The other day I copied a lot of photos from my laptop. First I shared the D:\ drive on the PC and mapped it as Z:\ on the laptop. Then by using the command robocopy 'C:\users\Paul\pictures\' 'Z:\users\Paul\Canon Photos\' /E on the laptop, around 50GB of jpgs were copied. When it finished, robocopy reported that it completed ok, only skipping one folder containing 8 files. The situation now is that using a command prompt, I am able to see that the Canon photos subfolder is there along with all of the old and new photos ok. But I am unable to see the folder 'Canon Photos' in Windows. All of the other subfolders under the folder D:\users\Paul\Pictures are there ok. Just not the subfolder I copied the data into.
I have tried running sfc /scannow in both D:\users\paul\Pictures and the subfolder 'Canon Photos'. but it found nothing of note. I have also checked that I am able to view hidden files and folders, but still to no avail. What's happened here and what can I do to fix it?
Paul MacDonald
From the command prompt, try renaming the folder. It may be the folder name has a special character that doesn't render properly in WIndows Explorer.
ASKER
I tried changing it to Canon_Photos, but no difference unfortunately. I would have been a little surprised if it had worked, as it had displayed as "Canon Photos" ok before. I've changed it back again now.
from a command prompt can you see the files?
It may be simply a permissions problem
It may be simply a permissions problem
try copying the folder Canon Photos again
ASKER
Ok to clarify, the folder 'Canon Photos' was already present on my PC. It was in to this folder that I copied the sub folders containing the jpegs. Before I started the copy, Canon Photos was visible in Windows Explorer ok. But I noticed that once Robocopy was underway the folder was no longer displayed.
I have tried logging in as the administrator user and I get the same result. I cannot delete Canon Photos and do the copy again as there were photos on the PC that were not on the laptop.
Actually what I have realised is that I could create the folder 'Canon Photos 2' and do a robocopy from one to the other. At the very least that would demonstrate if it was a one off problem. But it wouldn't go to explain why it had occurred.
I have tried logging in as the administrator user and I get the same result. I cannot delete Canon Photos and do the copy again as there were photos on the PC that were not on the laptop.
Actually what I have realised is that I could create the folder 'Canon Photos 2' and do a robocopy from one to the other. At the very least that would demonstrate if it was a one off problem. But it wouldn't go to explain why it had occurred.
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ASKER
Well that was a weird result. To be honest, I tried it a couple of weeks ago, but wanted to find out why I got the result I did before I updated you guys. But no matter.
What I did was, in a cmd prompt I created a new folder 'Canon Photos 2' and did a robocopy of everything from one to the other. That worked fine. But then when I used Windows explorer, I realised that now both folders were visible, only now both were listed as 'Pictures' and had the 'My Pictures' icon rather than the standard windows folder icon. Remember both of these are subfolders of 'Pictures' in my Win7 user profile. Both of them contained copies of all my photos. Using Windows explorer I have renamed both folders to 'Canon Photos' and 'Canon Photos 2' respectively. They are still showing the My Pictures icons.
An odd situation and we are no nearer to establishing why it happened. But the main thing is that I have access to my photos again. thanks for all your help.
What I did was, in a cmd prompt I created a new folder 'Canon Photos 2' and did a robocopy of everything from one to the other. That worked fine. But then when I used Windows explorer, I realised that now both folders were visible, only now both were listed as 'Pictures' and had the 'My Pictures' icon rather than the standard windows folder icon. Remember both of these are subfolders of 'Pictures' in my Win7 user profile. Both of them contained copies of all my photos. Using Windows explorer I have renamed both folders to 'Canon Photos' and 'Canon Photos 2' respectively. They are still showing the My Pictures icons.
An odd situation and we are no nearer to establishing why it happened. But the main thing is that I have access to my photos again. thanks for all your help.
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