Personal User Folder - Restore Missing Folder

idocmib870115 · Jan 3, 2009

Your welcome... I am just glad that someobody ahs vista figured out that well because beyound the basics I am lost.. :sarc:

Foghorn · Jan 3, 2009

EUREKA!!!!

I FOUND IT! In all the messing around a desktop.ini file ended up in the c:\Users\UserName folder. No desktop.ini file belongs there. It was apparently a legacy from when that was the personal shell folder or something. Anyway, that folder should ONLY have an ntuser.ini file in it, not a desktop.ini file. If it sees a desktop.ini file, it apparently gives it the "Documents" cover or something.

Anway, I went to another Vista machine and did some comparing. Deleted the desktop.ini file from that folder and presto!

The desktop.ini file MUST be in the next folder up, the c:\Users folder, but not in the subordinate \UserName folder. Does that make sense?

Now, if I can just get this stupid restore users after a crash/restore issue resolved, I'd be a HAPPY camper.

Thanks for all the help. I hope that makes a little sense.

Fog

Brink · Jan 3, 2009

Fog,

I'm happy to hear that you got that one issue resolved. What is the error that you receive with this crash?

Foghorn · Jan 3, 2009

No error. The drive just died. Actually, my son killed it when he dropped his running laptop 3' to the hardwood floor.

Posted it elsewhere. Essentially, I had all the files backed up on-line. New hard drive with a generic admin user. Installed OS and basic apps, then did a full restore (am doing) placing all the c:\Users files in the exact location they'd been in before. So, folders were created for his old user name.

When I re-created a user to with the same login, the system just created a c:\Users\username.pcname folder instead of using the existing personal folders.

So, it looks to me like I'll need to just copy the data files to a new user name then manually pick and choose the AppData files I need to try to restore as much personalized data as possible. I was hoping to "assign" a Users folder to a particular user or have it use the existing folder structure, then go in an assign folders to the user with the shell command stuff you taught me here. Not looking like that's going to work, unless you know a way.

You've been a WEALTH of information to me and this whole migration has taught me a lot about Vista. I've avoided it this long, but I'm going to have to make the move.

Fog

Brink · Jan 3, 2009

No problem Fog.

It is usually best to copy them over to a new account than try to change the User folder. It never turns out well when people mess with the User folder.

hazymat · Jan 14, 2009

Brilliant. Option three solved the problem I was having, after lots of tearing my hair out staring at various parts of my registry

Thank you very much!

Brink · Jan 14, 2009

You're welcome Hazymat.

Shawn

Happy explorer · Jan 19, 2009

Thank you so much. I am not a techie and had been trying in vain to sort out the mistake I had made that caused me to have a problem with accessing my favourites. It had got to the stage where I was about to get proper technical help (at a cost of £90!!!) but thought I'd have a last look for other help. Using option 3 on here I have managed to restore the original folder and all is back to normal!! Not only is it fixed but the instructions were so easy for me to follow, (as I said I'm not up on technology).

Had to join the forum just to make sure I could get the opportunity to post my thanks.

:D

Happy explorer

Brink · Jan 19, 2009

You're welcome Happy Explorer, and welcome to Vista Forums. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out.

Shawn

Wild Bill · Feb 6, 2009

The Personal User Folder - Restore Missing Folder tutorial has really helped. But I am curious why so many of us experience this problem. In my case I was attempting to move the folders to a new partition as part of setting up a backup procedure for my new system. The directions I was following were to copy the folder to the new partition and then through the original folder properties move the location. In trying to reconstruct what I did, I think that if I used the mouse to drag the file to the new partition it worked, but if I did a copy and paste I lost the locations tab on the original file properties. (Many of the suggestions I previously found for restoring the icon would not restore the location tab). Now I could be wrong about my observations, but since I am new to vista, I would like to ask why the two approaches are behaving differently so I can develop good habits for managing files in vista and not repeatedly recreate this kind of problem.
Many Thanks to All for the valuable information of this forum.

Brink · Feb 6, 2009

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.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/107990-personal-user-shell-folders-move-location.html

Shawn

jinz91 · Feb 11, 2009

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!

Brink · Feb 11, 2009

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

jinz91 · Feb 11, 2009

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.

Brink · Feb 11, 2009

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

jinz91 · Feb 12, 2009

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).

Brink · Feb 12, 2009

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

pebu · May 25, 2009

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

Brink · May 25, 2009

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

BigKenny · Jun 25, 2009

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.

Personal User Folder - Restore Missing Folder

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