Why a folder name is different in Windows Explorer than command line or cygwin?

Question

I have been using Robocopy to backup my computer files. I have been using the following command:

robocopy C:\Users\ J:\backup\ *.* /a /XD AppData /XJD /R:0 /s

When I look into my J drive in Windows Explorer I see folder named J:\Users\ but when I use dir from the command line I see a folder named j:\backup. The backup and user folder seem to be the same. I also tried looking at the content of the J drive in cygwin and see the backup folder but do not see a Users folder. What is going on? Is robocopy the culprit?

Answer 1

Just go into the backed up folder and delete the desktop.ini file. The folder name will revert back to the directory name. You copied the desktop.ini file from the source "users" folder that is causing the issue. You can and desktop.ini to your exclusions list with out any issues to your back up. They get created on the fly anyway if they are not present.

I tested this on a windows 7 pro machine just to verify.

Answer 2

The problem is not related to robocopy. The link below describes the problem.

https://superuser.com/questions/381110/windows-explorer-sees-different-file-name-from-cmd/381159#381159