AppData, Local Settings, My Documents... icons ghosted and showing 0 files
The recent image of my primary partition is ghosting the folders for Application Data, AppData, My Documents, Local Settings, and Documents and Settings, and Desktop and showing that they have 0 files. Unfortunately, those are really the only directories that matter for my type of image. The size of the image was correct and I could browse some of the more basic folders just fine so I assumed the others were fetched as well. The partition was formatted and a new copy of Windows was installed so I can't recover the old stuff very easily. Any ideas?
That's the only way I can see those particular folders in the first place. I think it might be an ownership/permissions issue but I'm not sure...
edit: Double Post
If you have a disk and partition backup and the actual folders are on that partition, they will be included in the backup (unless you have excluded them). Nothe that if you have a User folder containing references to folders on a another partition (junctions), for example if you have changed the default location of Favorites, Documents, etc. they will not be included. If you did a file backup, it will be the same, unless you have included the libraries.
On Windows7, Application Data, My Documents, Local Settings, and Documents and Settings are only shortcuts. Appdata is a hidden folder under C:\users\[username]
I didn't change any of the default locations for the above pointers that's why I'm a little baffled. I'm pretty familiar with AppData and the idea of hidden files and folders; this isn't my first time imaging with Acronis but this is the first time something like this happened to these particular folders.
I am having the same problem> I had Windows Explorer set to show Hidden Files and after an unexpected crash, thought I was in good shape since I had just made an image the day before. So when I went to Recovery for my C: drive in ATI Home 2012, the documents and setting folder was empty. If I go to the image in Windows Explorer, it also shows as empty. So now I do not have the extremely necessary files to run Outlook, etc. as I did before. Had to rebuild Contcts,etc.
How do I make an image which does include all files in Documents and Settings? Or do I always have to make a simple data backup to insure that I have the files?
My problem is that I only wanted to recover certain ifiles, not all of them in Documents and Settings. Your statement above seems to indicate that all would be well if I just resotred the whole folder even though there is no file content shown. I repeat, I do not want to back up the whole folder, just some files. How do I do that from my imagfe.?
Karl,
Which version of windows are you using?
Sorry about that. I know better. I have Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit and the same problem occurs with Windows 7 Home Premiun 32 bit. Usint Acronis True Image Home 2012 on the 64 bit machine and 2011 on the 32 bit.
Karl, on Windows 7, the application data, local settings, my documents, NetHood, PrintHood folders are just links to maintain compatibility with certain windows XP applications. The folder that is important is the Appdata folder, a hidden folder under each user.
O.K. I finally found my outlook.pst in the image folder C:\myname\appdata\local\microsoft\Outlook. . Thanks
In Window Explorer, there are often two folders with the smae name. One shows a shortcut arrow and is inaccessible. The other does not have the shortcut icon and is acessible. Why doesn't Acronis backup that folder and others that are similar (2 folders, same name but one has the shortcut icon, the other doesn't)?
?
Karl:
Because Application Data is not a folder in Windows 7; it's an NTFS junction. Junctions are a way of giving a folder multiple names, and like Pat said, this is done to maintain compatibility with older programs that use the old name for the folder.
To back up a little, Windows 7 (and Vista) renamed some of the common folders. For example, C:\Documents and Settings\ in Windows XP was renamed to C:\Users. Since some older software may use the former name for the folder, Microsoft added a junction in Windows 7 named C:\Documents and Settings that points to C:\Users so that any attempt to look up the folder by its old name would direct the program to the correct folder with the new name.
In Windows Explorer you see two folder icons but one is the folder and the other is a junction pointing to the folder. But there is only one folder; not two. That's why your backup contains no information for the junction - it is empty. It's just a name. To show this, open a command prompt window and type cd \ to start at the top level of the C partition, then type dir /a to see the contents. You should see files, folders, and junctions listed. Note the one mapping C:\Documents and Settings to C:\Users.
An alternate explanation for junctions is that they are analogous to nicknames. For example, Bob can be used in place of Robert.