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Some files may appear to be missing after you upgrade an earlier version of Windows to Windows Vista

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Symptoms

After you upgrade an earlier version of Windows to Windows Vista, some files appear to be missing. For example, the files in the My Music folder may appear to be missing.

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Cause

This problem occurs if one or more of the following conditions are true:
  • Files were being used when you upgraded to Windows Vista.
  • In the earlier version of Windows, a program was not installed to its default location. Therefore, the program's files were not saved there.
  • One or more of the following registry entries contain no value data:
    • My Documents
    • My Music
    • My Pictures
    • My Videos
    Note These registry entries are located in the following registry subkey:
    HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
  • In the earlier version of Windows, you saved some files in redirected folders.

    Note Redirected folders include the following folders:
    • My Documents
    • My Music
    • My Pictures
    • My Videos
    When you upgrade to Windows Vista, these folders are redirected to the following folders:
    • %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\<User_Name>\My Documents
    • %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\<User_Name>\My Documents\My Music
    • %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\<User_Name>\My Documents\My Pictures
    • %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\<User_Name>\My Documents\My Videos
    In Windows Vista, you cannot access these folders. By default, these folders are assigned the hidden attribute.

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Workaround

To work around this problem, use one or more of the following methods.

Method 1: Look in the $INPLACE.~TR folder

If the missing files are user files, you may find them in one of the subfolders of the following folders:
  • %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$INPLACE.~TR\
  • %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$INPLACE.~TR\Machine\Data\Documents and Settings\<User_Name>\

Method 2: Look in the $WINDOWS.~Q folder

If the missing files are not user files, you may find them in one of the subfolders of the following folders:
  • %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$WINDOWS.~Q\
  • %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$WINDOWS.~Q\Data\Documents and Settings\<User_Name>\

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More Information

You can use the Disk Cleanup tool to permanently delete the folders that are discussed in the "Workaround" section. In Disk Cleanup, click to select Files discarded by Windows Upgrade in the Files to delete list.

Important Before you delete these folders, make sure that you transfer all the files that these folders contain to other folders.

For more information about how to use Disk Cleanup to delete temporary files, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/1264bc24-72a8-48aa-84e3-a355327139d91033.mspx

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Keywords: kb, kbtshoot, kbexpertisebeginner, kbprb

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Article Info
Article ID : 930890
Revision : 1
Created on : 1/7/2017
Published on : 5/12/2015
Exists online : False
Views : 451