… And wheels are round. I know I am stating the obvious but I FEEL like stating it. OK?
I am busy freeing up a bit of space on my HD and something I always suspected is being confirmed - WinXP is duplicating ‘my documents’ and ‘my pictures’ all over the bloody place! I have duplicate folders in ‘default user’ ‘all users’ ‘me’ (well not ‘me’ but my name), and in the root!. I take pictures at maximum quality on my camera so one picture can take up over 2MB of space. Since I have got my cameras I have taken hundreds of pictures so you can imagine they take up a lot of space on the HD even before being duplicated by the stupid windows folder hierarchy.
OG knows what other large files are duplicated and spread about the place.
There was a time when you could see when something was amiss because there would be a new directory you don’t recognise. But now, 200 adware parasites can get in unnoticed. 200!! All because windows has so many fuckedly organised directories.
(I removed most of that adware, so no need to mention adaware,spybot etc…)
Good to know, I do a lot of music stuff on my comp, and it results in some huge files. If those things are getting duplicated, I’ll be up the creek soon.
Are you sure that they all contain the same files? Yes, there are My Document folders for all Users of the computer. We have 3 users for this machine and they all have a My Document Folders plus there is a Default folder. They do not contain duplicate files in each of them though.
What do security holes have to do with spyware? These shitty little pieces of crap are almost invariably installed voluntarily by users, although they may not realise it.
As for the file duplication problem, that certainly isn’t a behaviour of Windows that I’ve ever observed - Lobsang, are you sure it’s not the camera software being stupid and copying its photos to all the documents directories so everyone can view them? Are you sharing the photos on a network at all? That can sometimes lead to virtual copies of certain folders, but not actual duplicates that I’m aware of.
OP : There is no inherent mechanism in XP that would cause such duplication. May I suggest you review your procedures? After all, one who installs 200 malware programs can’t be doing everything right.
They are not all programs. There’s cookies, registry entries etc. And the 200 figure is a roughly remembered number from adaware.
I am usually very vigilent when it comes to knowingly installing crap. I always uncheck those boxes that say “install some stupid crappy shite that’s no fucking use”
I admit 2 things - To owning a p2p app. And having the security settings very low on IE.
I’ve had them low because in the past one did not have to worry about parasites. I have used computers for around 15 years (around 7 with internet access) and never had to have antivirus software or anti spyware software installed.
RE the duplicated pictures. I can’t remember each occasion when transfering pictures from cameras exactly where I put them, but I can assure you I never used the camera’s own software. And I am pretty confident I didn’t do it twice. And I DEFINATELY NEVER put them in those stupid ‘my pictures’ and ‘my documents’ folders. I like to avoid those and treat my HD as if it is my own, and not some ‘network’ HD where my ‘personal’ files must be kept ‘safe’ from all the bad nasty root directories.
How long have you driven a car? Are you an automotive engineer? Length of time spent as a user of technology has no direct relation to aptitude. Monkeys can type, after all. Lowering security settings on any software component, except for temporary testing, has always been seen as a bad idea.
meh. There is no way I can diagnose what your problem actually is, but I don’t see what is stopping you from testing your hypothesis. Copy some images over with a distinctive name, then search for said name.
I wasn’t disputing your point, but now I will. I do not knowingly install mallware. Ok?
You missed my point. To use your analogy to make my point seem simpler - I have driven the same (and proven myself as a safe and competent driver), but now the roads have changed.
Incedentally - In the past few weeks I have adjusted to the ‘changing roads’. Security settings are higher (selective). I am up-to-date with windows updates. I have (as mentioned in the OP) removed most of the parasites. And I am close to taking the step I have always avoided in order to keep a computer low on TSRs (are they still called that) such as antivirus software. I.e. Install antivirus software.
There is a reason I put this in the pit and not in GQ. I wasn’t asking for it to be diagnosed (although I appreciate it if you looked at the OP with an intent to do so). The thing stopping my from testing the hypothesis is not knowing how it happened (not knowing exactly what I did) now when I transfer the pics I put them in ‘camera photos’ on the root.
Perhaps it is my fault (it must be if no-one else has had the problem) but I still don’t understand it. because I know I never put stuff in those ready made folders at all, let alone more than once.
IANACE (Computer Expert) by any stretch of the imagination, but is there any chance that perhaps XP (or some other issue/problem with your computer) is merely storing ‘pointers’ to the same file, and not a full duplicate?
May not clear up your mess, but would let you worry less about losing massive amounts of disk space.
I thought about that. But deleting the duplicated did free up a hell of a lot of space.
Anyway, the computer is OK now. I spent yestarday ‘cleaning’ it and getting rid of crap/unused software. (I have recently got broadband so need to clear space for the inevitable flood of inward data)
The duplicated folder situation was actually from months ago. It was a post I wrote in notepad and saved to the desktop because the SDMB was down. I then decided to have the cleanup the other day, and as a result found the post on the desktop. re-worded it and posted.
I’ve never had the duplicate file problem either. Are you sure you didn’t perhaps transfer files between hard drives without shitfing? If you have two different drives and drag a file or folder between the two, XP makes a copy, so you’ll be stuck with dupes on your original drive and on your target drive. If you hold down shift, the original file is actually moved to the target drive.
I hate to keep saying no to people as you are trying to help me and I appreciate that. But I don’t have multiple HDs. The way I transfer files is by first making a new subdirectory where I usually put my pictures (now ‘camera photos’) then I go to the smartmedia card (shows up as a drive), I select the pics, right click and click ‘copy’. Then I go to the newly created dir, right click and click paste.
Hmm…Then that’s really really odd. If you’re not using the camera’s softward (as you mentioned) and are simply dragging files from the Smart Media reader to your harddrive, I cannot think of any reason why duplicate copies should exist on your computer. I use XP and transfer gigs of pictures every week from my 512K Compact Flash card to the computer, and I have never encountered this problem. It mystifies me what’s going on, because this is not normal XP behavior. I much prefer the Macintosh operating system, but I find XP Professional SP1 to be quite stable and has caused me very few problems in the past. Windows 2000 may be a bit better, but I prefer the user interface of XP.
I wouldn’t worry about it (that applies to everyone) It’s obviously something weird I did myself without realizing it. It is not happening any more. Consider the issue closed with no hard feelings (but feel free to keep thinking of possible explanations and I will deny or confirm them)
I just told a friend that I have a “1000 GHz processor”
