I have two of every file on my C:\Drive...I think.

[Whispers]

Okay, here's my problem from the beginning to now.

If anyone remembers (doubtful, you guys get 2,453,452,984,256,238 people a week on these forums, I bet) I came in a while ago with some really weird issues.  Finding no help, I just formatted and reinstalled Windows, except upgrading to XP this time.

Before formatting, though, I needed to back up some files which I didn't want to delete, download again, and/or I had lost the install disc.  My CDR drive no longer works, so I just transferred all of my backed up files to my room mate's computer over the network.  It totaled about 2gigs in all.

After formatting, and reinstalling I moved everything back onto my comp and then copied a bunch of his MP3's to my computer.  So, I took 5gigs total from his comp (4 gigs total in our collective MP3's and 1gig in other programs I had backed up) plus however large Windows XP is.

Since then I have installed Ragnarokk Online which is 1.5 gigabytes and a few other programs which might add up to a gig if you want to play it safe and round up...way up.  So, this is 7.5 gigs plus however large WinXP is.  When I checked how much disc space I had left after I had deleted all of those unecessary programs I had before formatting (My disk had 2gigs left before formatting and I only saved 2gigs as I said which left 16gb to be deleted) I only had  one gigabyte.

This confused me to no end, but I really couldn't deduce the origin of the extraneous files.

After moving every one of my MP3's onto my playlist I noticed that a lot - if not, all - of them were doubled.  I'm not sure if it was indeed all of them, but I do know it was a good majority.

So, I went to check the file path and it was the same for each cloned file.  One would read "C:\\Documents and Settings\My Username\My Documents\My Music\Eva Cassidy - Over the Rainbow.mp3" and the second would read the exact same thing.  Yet, there were two of them!  I didn't dare delete them because I wasn't sure why it read them twice.

So, I just continued on thinking it was a bug in Winamp.

A few days ago a friend of mine played "Perfect Blue Buildings" by Counting Crows on his guitar during a jam session.  I wanted to learn to play it as well so I downloaded it.  I couldn't find it in my Shared folder, though, so I searched my HDD for it.  I put in the search field "Perfect" and it turned up six A Perfect Circle songs, three of which were clones, and "Perfect Memory" by Remy Zero twice.  So, now I know it's not Winamp that is messing up.  These files are actually on my computer twice, but each is in the exact same place.

So, my three questions are this:

Why is my computer reading each file twice when they have the exact same filepath?

Are they actually on my computer?

Can I delete them safely without compromising the originals?


Thanks for any help and I went to search for this but "Double" turned up "double-click" in a lot of posts, "two" turned up "network" in others, and I don't think "Clone" turned up anything.  I'm stumped on other search terms.

Afterthought:  If you need my comp info for any reason:

HP Pavilion 8570C (Yes, I know it's old)
455MHz
128MB RAM
20GB HDD
Windows XP Home Edition
999MB free on Drive C (my only HDD)

Been a while since I fragmented since you need 15% free and I can't get 15% free because I don't even know how I have 18gb used up already.  >_<

[Fed]

Start from here...
You cannot have 2 files of the same name, in the same location, on the same partition, on a hdd.
This is 100% immutable.

[Whispers]

I know which is why I'm so confused...

I search for a file and two pop up.  I check their file paths and, sure enough, they are in the same directory under the same name and file extension.  o.0

I know it's not possible, I'm just relaing information.

See for yourself:



I noticed, though...While it was searching it searched the same areas twice.  What I am assuming are the same areas anyway...

[Fed]

Well we both know it must be wrongly displaying the same files twice.
Go & check them out with Windows Explorer.

[Whispers]

I did.  I opened the folders to each respective file.  Same folder, etc..  Yet my computer displays that there are two files named the exact same thing in the exact same folder which, as we know, isn't possible...It'd at least be followed by (1) if that was the case.

This is just confusing me because I can't think of how I only have 1GB free when I don't even really have anything on this comp.  4GB in MP3's, RO which is 1.5GB, maybe a gigabyte of random programs and files, and then however large WinXP is.

So...What's taking up all of this extra space I should have?  It makes sense if my C drive has an exact copy of itself somewhere and I don't know it...But that's not really possible...But then where's all of my free space I should have?  X_x

[Fed]

I think I'd save the files & do a clean install.
This is just too freaky.  

[Whispers]

I have no idea what you're trying to tell me to do there, Mac. o.0

Are you saying that reverting to an older version of WMP will cause every other program to read only one file on the drive?

I have a second question, though...My HDD is old...REALLY old, like when 20GB was top of the line old.  Could thi be affecting my surplus used-up disk space?  Plus, I have a gigabyte of disk space set aside for RAM usage, even if this gigabyte is empty, does my computer still  show it as used disk space since it is not available for writing?

That would at least make sense of one lost gigabyte.  Now I just need to find where the other 8 went (if WinXP is 2.5gb, that is which I doubt).