Windows 10: Backup Disaster: Windows Changing Folder Names

I just noticed that W10 had changed the name of 2 of my folders on my D Drive!! D is where I keep my Data Files.

Besides what I would consider an incredible case of big brotherism worthy of the North Korean government, it has prevented these folders from being backed up as my back up does recognize the folders. One of them is my Favorites folder which MS renamed Documents and the other is my Photos Folder which MS renamed Pictures. This latter folder is critical to me and contains thousands of images. That's why I back it up regularly to 3 different hard drives.

What right does MS have to go into my personal drive and my personal files (no operating system stuff) and start messing with them. How can I stop this? Do I have any legal rights?

:)

 

windows 10 back up

The WindowsImageBackup folder won't change. Its date will be the date you ran the image backup. The FileHistory folder date also won't change, but underneath that folder will be a folder matching your Windows profile name and that folder's date (or the
dates on the folders or files underneath it) will change each time Windows makes a file history backup. I checked.

 

Windows 10 Backup Image Not Recognized

In general, following three actions maybe the main reasons:

You changed your PC name.

You edited the name of the system backup for disgusting or specify the name when you start a backup.

You moved the backup image to another folder.

To fix, it , try the following:

Change the PC name back to what it used to be.

Change the folder name to WindowsImageBackup, otherwise, it won’t be detected by Windows Recovery.

The WindowsImageBackup folder has to be placed on the root of the drive, i.e. it cannot be placed in another folder and recognized as sub-folder.

Also, to completely avoid this issue, it is a wise choice to turn to powerful third party backup software like AOMEI Backupper. It is a free software. With it, you can create am image of system, disk, partition, files and folders. Then restore it
when needed.

The paid edition allows you to
restore to a dissimilar computer with Universal Restore feature.

 

Wow,i would call a lawyer, if I knew Microsoft got into my computer and renamed my folders,,,


but I think its just clutch with a windows update,, or something like that, but lm not sure what, or how to deal with it

 

You're probably right as there was an automatic update the other day, but they also must have some responsibility for their software delving into private files. Really doesn't matter though, as they are well aware, no one has the financial ability to challenge them. I just hope someone can provide a way to prevent this from happening.

 

yeah,hard to say why files and folders get changes ,maybe because updates don't expect tot see these folder in another area of the hard drives ,don't think any delving into files was ever done, just an error in what changes the update might have caused, we must remember there are hundreds of millions computer being update ,not like some Microsoft employee picked you computer to fool with .
.did you try right click on the folders and renaming the folders back to the correct names

 

Yes, I just renamed the folders back to their original name. I guess the "fix" is to pay attention and do this whenever there is an update or the folder names get changed. I've also noticed a folder of folders called MapData is being created in my D Drive. I delete it whenever I see it but it just gets recreated. Why this is on my D drive and not my C drive is another question.

 

Could these be library folders which you have relocated, maybe in a previous build from which you upgraded?

I.e. although they are data they are still linked to Windows as by default they would reside on C:?

That said, Favourites -> Documents makes no sense.

 

My Favorites are still in Favorites and I have no favorites in Documents.

 

To be clear: W10 is renaming my Favorites folder "Documents". That folder still contains my Favorites though, it's just the name that changes.

In playing with this I notice that when I save Word documents they go directly to my Documents folder on my D Drive. When I try to save PDF files, the Save or Save As command opens my Favorites folder. Very confusing. Is there a way to redirect PDFs to my Documents folder on the D Drive? Whatever setting is sending PDFs to my Favorites folder may be part of the problem.

Still doesn't address the issue of my Photos folder being renamed Pictures.

 

Hi, take the simpler case (possibly).
Firstly, 'Pictures' is the standard Win 10 folder name or what is found in %USERPROFILE% as

%USERPROFILE%\Pictures
- by default,
C:\Users\- derived from username -\Pictures

Could you try opening explorer, copying that into the address bar, and say whether that points to your folder on D: or a folder on C: as above?

Secondly, try a similar thing with
%USERPROFILE%\Documents

What does that open, and what is the path?
C:\Users\- derived from username -\Documents
or your folder on D: ?

Are your 3 folders in one folder on D: or simply folders on D:?
If you put
%USERPROFILE% in explorer's address bar, what does it open?
(You can also open a command prompt and type
echo %USERPROFILE%
)

 

dalchina

Thanks. I followed your suggestions with the following results.

• When plugging in Favorites, it took me to the location on my C Drive for my Favorites. Documents and Pictures however came back Not Found.
• I tried echo %USERPROFILE% at the command prompt (admin) I got one line that said C:Users/Jim and then the second line was the System32 prompt that originally opened whn I called up the prompt.

To answer your question the folders (Documents and Photos) are separate Folders on the D Drive, i.e., Dhotos, Documents

To summarize the situation:

• On my Desktop is my Favorites Folder, after the last W10 update it was renamed Documents, I just renamed it back to Favorites
  • When I go to save PDF Files, Favorites (on the C Drive) is opened up as the place to Save them
    • Word documents on the other hand go to my Documents folder on My D Drive, no problem there
  • A clue: I tried to move the Favorites Folder off my Desktop by changing the location to C:User/Jim. I got a pop up asking me if I wanted to move Documents as well. If I said no it came back "invalid", if I said yes nothing happened. Either way I couldn't move Favorites off the Desktop. Somehow I've managed to link Documents And Favorites.
• After the last update I thought my Photos folder was renamed Pictures. I now believe my Photos folder was duplicated and placed on the C Drive as Pictures.
  • I'm thinking W10 recreated Pictures on my Desktop and copied all my images to the C: Drive. It was not a shortcut (the Favorites Folder is not). I can't confirm this until it happens again and of course I am hoping someone can tell me what needs to modified to prevent this in the first place.

I feel like Alice in Wonderland.

 

Hi, strange rabbit holes.
%USERPROFILE%\Favorites - ok (but that won't be the Favorites folder you refer to as being on your desktop, renamed Documents - or is it?)
echo %USERPROFILE% - ok
Documents and Pictures however came back Not Found. - sthg wrong.

Have you ever used the Locate tab (properties sheet - rt click on a folder like Documents - to relocate it?)

Seems like the basic folder structure of your user profile has been damaged.
Let's try to fix it step by step - see how far we get- but no guarantees. You might end up needing to create a new user.. and transferring things between users is far from straightforward.

First, go to %userprofile% in explorer.
You would expect to see- assuming you hadn't relocated them-
Contacts
Desktop
Documents
Downloads
Favourites - or Favorites
Links
Music
Pictures
Saved Games
Searches
Videos
- perhaps OneDrive

- and perhaps some others related to programs you've installed

You said Documents and Pictures were not found, so create those folders.
Now post a screenshot of your
%userprofile%
folder.
(Note- inspect the icons for those folders- are they correct?)
Also please post a screenshot of your folders on D: showing the ones we're interested in (the icons may be helpful).

What happens now when you put
%USERPROFILE%\Documents
%USERPROFILE%\Pictures
in the explorer address bar?

 

Pictures, Documents, Favorites and Links are not there.

Favorites is on my Desktop. Clicking on properties, location is C:Users/Desktop

But when I go to C:Users, I see Documents. Clicking on Documents leads me to the list above except that Favorites is under Desktop.

Somehow the hierarchy of folders has gotten messed up. This must have happened when I was trying to eliminate the clutter of W10 Folders on the Desktop and in ThisPC. Maybe I just need to start moving stuff around.

 

Interesting thread and nice diagnostic help, dalchina.

I have seen this re-location folder 'trick' before and it can be seriously dangerous as you can end up deleting what you think is a duplicated folder and finding all the original files disappear.

My advice is don't fiddle with the 'standard' folders!! And if you do, be VERY careful how you try to fix it. And always have good backups!

Good luck mitrajoon - looks like dalchina has you well in hand!