[PG Croat]

Ok, I am going to go crazy in a minute. Some people on this planet should not be allowed around a computer and yet my company sees fit to give these people their own laptop.

Here is the problem:

We host our user's "My documents" on a server, laptops synch the data whenever they are connected to the network. One user manages to disable Offline Files so he is unable to access "My Documents" out in the field so in a remote session I turn it back on and was able to access his "My Documents" only to find that everything in it is now a shortcut to invalid paths or ones that no longer exist.

He says it was working before, but I think thats bull since I performed a files and settings transfer to the new computer he has and found that the old laptop has the same problem. So does the server hosting the "My Documents". All show shortcuts that are invalid or have "permission issues" but everything is a shortcut. How the hell does that happen?

 

[PG Croat]

Nobody has come across this before?

 

[AlbertMC2]

You might want to try this after making a backup of ALL the documents. I have never had this problem so hopefully this works.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=230738

 

[PG Croat]

I managed to restore pictures but thats it. Everything else appears to be a loss. The paths simply don't lead anywhere, even a search for the specific files( on the new and old computer ) finds absolutely nothing. I don't think this is a recent issue, it probably was something he messed up a while ago and he's now blaming the transfer to the new computer.

He won't be happy but maybe he'll learn to stop messing around with it.

 

[PG Croat]

I think I figured it out. Simplest answer is usally the best one lol.

They didn't just become shortcuts, they always were. I just found a shortcut in his My Documents for the C-Drive. I also found shortcuts to folders pointing to his CD-ROM drive and drives of various other letters( I can safely assume are flash drives ).

The conclusion I have come to is that this guy thought shortcuts were the same as a copy of the file and stored nothing but shortcuts in his My Documents, except for a handful of actual folders. He must have cleaned up a few files and folders and only realized now that they cannot open in his My Documents. Something he must have figured out after he had disabled his offline files.

Now I know why this guy's computer skills are the butt of everybody's jokes here in the office.