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bbarry
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 9:42 am |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2400 Location: North Central Arkansas
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I apologize for this post being so long, but I thought it necessary to explain the situation.
First a little background My friend runs Windows 7 on an older Velocity Micro computer. He named his primary drive "My Win 7 Computer (C:)", which is contained on one 500GB drive. He uses a 2nd 500GB drive to do standard Win 7 backups, including a system image. He was running out of space on the 2nd drive, so I went down to help him delete some stuff. I found that even though he was only saving one system image and one set of data files in his backup, he still didn't have enough room. So I started looking in some of his Library folders to see what files he might could delete to achieve his backups.
The strange thing I then found In his My Music folder, he had several music albums. Also sitting in the My Music folder was another "My Win 7 Computer (C:)", containing all the usual subfolders like Program Files, Program Files (x86), Users, Windows, etc. And this was not indicated as a shortcut folder. Then when I opened one of his music albums to see a listing of songs, I saw 12 songs by name...but I also saw his "My Win 7 Computer (C:) again, only here it was shown to be a shortcut.
Needless to say, I was reluctant to delete anything and I didn't have time to further explore. And for other reasons, he no longer had a valid system image from which to do a restore.
Any idea why his (C:) drive was also appearing under Libraries>My Music…..first as a seemly full entity and then as a shortcut?
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sboots
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:23 am |
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:48 pm Posts: 2946 Location: New Jersey
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Don't delete, remove the folder from the Library. What you are most likely seeing is the result of click dragging in Explorer. It is not likely to be a duplication of data, simply a pointer to the original. https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5 ... older.html-steve
_________________ stephen boots Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020 "Life's always an adventure with computers!"
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bbarry
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 1:31 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2400 Location: North Central Arkansas
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Thanks, Steve. I have always had a problem getting my head around the reason for and utilization of Libraries.
But now I have a related question. As I understand it, the Win 7 file backup process includes all the folders & files in Libraries. So is my friend's (C:) drive being included as a folder in this backup? I am still trying to figure out why he is now running out of space trying to do his backups.
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jaylach
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 3:00 pm |
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Resident Geekazoid Administrator |
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:09 am Posts: 9438 Location: The state of confusion; I just use Wyoming for mail.
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It is unlikely that the C: reference in the Music folder is an actual folder although it could be. Most likely it is a shortcut. Right click and check properties for the size.
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sboots
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 4:01 pm |
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:48 pm Posts: 2946 Location: New Jersey
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bbarry wrote: But now I have a related question. As I understand it, the Win 7 file backup process includes all the folders & files in Libraries. So is my friend's (C:) drive being included as a folder in this backup? I am still trying to figure out why he is now running out of space trying to do his backups. Since C:\ is included in the Library, yes, it is likely that it is being backed up as part of the Library. You can verify that by opening a recent backup to view what was backed up. -steve
_________________ stephen boots Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020 "Life's always an adventure with computers!"
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bbarry
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 6:11 pm |
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welcoming committee |
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:47 am Posts: 2400 Location: North Central Arkansas
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Jay, I'm pretty sure it was not a shortcut because I found another C:\ reference in one of the his music albums, and it said shortcut.
As far as checking the size and content of the backup, he no longer had valid backups and images. Evidently something had happened earlier that caused Windows to do a restore, as there was a message that he needed to do another backup because the ones he had were no longer valid. So things were hose up and I ran out of time.
But before I left, I did set it up for him to do a file backup and system image at 4 am this morning. So next time I am down at his house I will check all this out. And if C:\ was backed up as a folder in My Music, I will use the steps for removing it that Steve provided.
Thanks for your responses.
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