Account quasi duplication

[CthruAskWoody Plus]

In a follow-up action to having reducing my used file space (see https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/system-file-space-has-increased-since-reinstall/), I needed to restore a user account sub-folder with a website’s contents, from a backup (Acronis). When I restored the folder, apparently the entire user account was restored — sort of.

The back ground is this: The machine has two accounts, admin and a user. Each has a simple, one-word name. When I got my computer back from W7 reinstall plus data restore from an Acronis backup, the account names had been changed, adding “.Owner-PC” to each. I don’t know whether or not this has any functional significance for Windows, but I thought I’d better leave it alone until I found out. I forgot about it for a couple of weeks, till now.

The Acronis backup (on an external drive) made before the reinstall, has the simple account names. Evidently, not seeing an identical user name for the intended restore path, Acronis added the old user folder, something I probably would have avoided if I had thought to check the restore location and add the new “suffix” to the user name. It seems to have brought the whole user folder in, not just the subfolder I wanted to restore.

Checking accounts in the control panel, I still see the original two, simple account names, and only those two; ditto when I got the to login screen. However, in Windows Explorer, I see both the old user folder and the one with the suffix. They appear to be duplicates, but here’s the catch: the subfolder I restored shows up in both! Therefore, what I don’t know now, is what will happen if I delete the restored account folder — will that also delete data from the current, “suffixed” one?

I can try a test with some files, but I’d rather not spend four hours going through each one. It would be preferable if I could get rid of these suffixes and maybe use some free duplicate file finder to delete the older user folder (which I still have on my external backup drive).

Therefore, two questions: Are these two somehow linked, accounting for the subfolder now showing up in both, and, can I change the names back and use some application to delete the older versions of whatever folder have been duplicated?

Thanks.

 

[CthruAskWoody Plus]

Cthru wrote:

Are these two somehow linked, accounting for the subfolder now showing up in both, and, can I change the names back and use some application to delete the older versions of whatever folder have been duplicated? Thanks.

I have found that some folders are linked, such as Pictures, because, if I put each user folder in a separate window and open Properties for each’s same-name folder, I get only one Properties dialogue, whereas with others, I get two.

[EllyAskWoody MVP]

It almost sounds like you are describing the difference between accessing files through a Library link, and actually navigating to a folder with Windows Explorer, without using the Library? I don’t use/like the libraries after getting lost/odd behavior noticed… but it might be useful to read Understanding the Libraries Feature in Windows 7 from How To Geek… and recognize that if you go to Start>Pictures, you are probably using a Library link, whether you know it or not… and getting to the very same folder (thus one properties) when using two different ways of navigating in different windows… ?

Win 7 Home, 64 bit, Group B

[ArvyAskWoody Lounger]

What you are describing is a rather confused mixture of recovery processes that, as best I can decipher the sequence, involves reinstallation of the operating system (“W7 reinstall”) followed by an attempt to restore some part of a Acronis backup of a user account that existed under the previous setup. You really need to understand more clearly the distinctions between those two processes and what each of them involves. In particular, it is important to realize that Windows management of user accounts involves much more that just their naming. The new OS installation will be using a set of user account security identifiers (SIDs) that is entirely different from those that are included in your Acronis backup image.

Not sure how far to take this. A complete explanation would require a very long response. In brief, you can recover the user data from your Acronis backup but you cannot use that backup to replace the newly created user account under the newly installed OS.

__
P.S.: I’m very puzzled about that mixed recovery approach. Did you not have a complete full system Acronis backup that would have allowed to you restore everything? Or did the people that reinstalled W7 for you just not realise that option was available?

Asus ROG Maximus XI Code board; Intel i9-9900K CPU; 32 GB DDR4-3600 RAM; Nvidia GTX1080 GPU; 2x512 GB Samsung 970 Pro M.2 NVMe; 2x2 TB Samsung 860 Pro SSDs; Windows 10.1809; Linux Mint 19.1; Terabyte Backup & Recovery

[EllyAskWoody MVP]

Anonymous wrote:

The Geek Squad found it necessary to reinstall W7 on myPC. since I had a backup, they werea ble to add my data as well as Windows, but, of course, not my other programs.

So… they didn’t use an image back up, but only data back up and transfer…

And, @cthru attempted to restore from Acronis… but ran into the problem of it no longer being the same installation… but something was created…

How to back out of, and fix that one without creating further problems?

Edit: @cthru was the anonymous I quoted… (don’t need further confusion, here).

Win 7 Home, 64 bit, Group B

[ArvyAskWoody Lounger]

EDITED:

The “bottom line” is this:  Only user account folders that were created under C:\users by the newly installed Windows 7 OS will have recognizable account identifiers (SIDs) stored in the Windows registry and thus be operationally valid.  Those restored from an Acronis backup of the previous W7 installation won’t be.

In order to be properly managed by Windows and useable in the normal way, user data files (docs, images, music, or whatever) need to be restored under an operationally valid user account.  Of course it is possible to restore them elsewhere, including under a C:\users subfolder either intentionally or accidentally, but they won’t then be owned by and manageable as a part of a user account that is recognized and UAC controlled by the Window OS.

Asus ROG Maximus XI Code board; Intel i9-9900K CPU; 32 GB DDR4-3600 RAM; Nvidia GTX1080 GPU; 2x512 GB Samsung 970 Pro M.2 NVMe; 2x2 TB Samsung 860 Pro SSDs; Windows 10.1809; Linux Mint 19.1; Terabyte Backup & Recovery

[Cthru]

Thank you, all.

To clarify: Yes, I did have a full image backup, but due to the reinstall of W7, data alone was subsequently restored from it. Now, it’s possible that I just missed the subfolder somehow, which I then tried to restore from that same backup. In any case, that’s not really the issue. The issue now is having two similar, but not exactly the same, user folders in the user account. Perhaps my set-up needs further clarification: My wife and I share the PC, so each of us has a named folder in the account’s My Documents folder. Thus, my missing subfolder (names changed to protect the innocent) was C:/Users/Grownups/My Documents/Me/My Webs.  It was when I tried to restore this subfolder to my store-named user account’s Me folder from the old-named backed-up account, that the entirety of that account folder was restored, presumably because Acronis  was looking for a folder of that name and, not finding one, brought it in, in order to have the file in the right place. Perfect logic. So, I now have a Grownups-PC Owner as well as the old Grownups folder, the old being about 30GB larger for reasons I have yet to ferret out.

I appreciate the Library issue; that may be the “linking” issue. Things have ended up in libraries; someday I get them out into normal folders.)

My thought now is, since I have the backup, to delete the old-named Grownups entirely and see what happens. If I restore again, I’ll be more careful about naming the destination path; I believe I can specify. does that sound reasonable, or should I get a duplicate file finder and go that route?

1 user thanked author for this post.

Elly

[EllyAskWoody MVP]

“Restore” may be an issue, since you don’t have the original operating system to restore to? Do not try to restore.

Your folders are there. if you don’t see the navigation pane, per Windows Help:

You can use the navigation pane (the left pane) to find files and folders. You can also move or copy items directly to a destination in the navigation pane.

If you don’t see the navigation pane on the left side of an open window, click Organize, point to Layout, and then click Navigation pane to display it.

Notice that the default Libraries show up at the top of the navigation pane. Skip them, and scroll down and you can see what your various folders are, and how your various folders are organized. You should be able to see if there are now two folders of the same thing (use same view for both, for quick comparison), with different paths… or were looking at the same folder in two different ways.

Win 7 Home, 64 bit, Group B

[ArvyAskWoody Lounger]

EDITED:

There is an actual problem due to some errors made during the re-installation/restoration processes as you have described it.

You have already suggested the correct solution to your actual problem. Just get rid of that “C:/Users/Grownups” folder and all of its contents entirely. That folder is just an erroneous creation of the restoration from your backup of the old system setup. As I explained above, that erroneously created folder no longer contains a valid user account with its own security identifier (SID) and user registry hive that can be loaded by Windows upon login. Only the new “C:/Users/Grownups-PC Owner” contains a currently valid user account that you can actually log in to with registry hives that can be loaded under the new Windows setup.

Solution: Having got rid of the erroneously restored account folder, just copy only the “My Documents/Me/My Webs” subfolder and its contents from your old system backup to the currently valid “C:/Users/Grownups-PC Owner” account folder. That won’t restore any entries that may be missing from the user registry hive for the new w7 setup, but it’s the best that you can do in the circumstances.

Hope that’s clear enough. If you need or want a more detailed explanation of what went wrong and why, just ask.

Asus ROG Maximus XI Code board; Intel i9-9900K CPU; 32 GB DDR4-3600 RAM; Nvidia GTX1080 GPU; 2x512 GB Samsung 970 Pro M.2 NVMe; 2x2 TB Samsung 860 Pro SSDs; Windows 10.1809; Linux Mint 19.1; Terabyte Backup & Recovery

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