Audit Mode and Robocopy

Question

So today I had an interesting issue. I had a data transfer from an old hard drive to a newly purchased system. It wasnt my system, else I would've follow windows oobe and then transfered the files.

Instead, i hit control+shift+F3 to enter audit mode and then I opened PS as admin and ran mkdir C:\Windows.old followed by robocopy /E /V /R:0 /W:0 D:\ C:\Windows.old

I then checked the files via PS with Dir C:\Windows.old; thr files were present. I then checked in file explorer the files were present. So I gave it back to the guy and said that it was good to go.

He goes through oobe and sets up his new user account. He goes to look at the files and hr cannot see them in file explorer. So he brings it back.

I vetified that the files are not visible in  explorer. but then i opened PS as admin and ran Dir C:\Windows.old and the files are there. 

Why are the files visible via PS but not via file explorer? How do I make them visible in file explorer?

Answer 1

Thank you but that didn't exactly help me narrow it down. Im now wondering if the issue was with either Robocopy or Audit Mode.

What was the result of this little test???

Answer 2

Thank you but that didn't exactly help me narrow it down. Im now wondering if the issue was with either Robocopy or Audit Mode.

Answer 3

PS is powershell. Permissions were for admin and everyone. Admin was owner. Everyone had read/write permission. Windows update hasn't touched it... yet. But the files and folder structure were visible in Powershell just not file explorer. And I don't understand why.

You can get some clues by doing this:

1. While in PowerShell, pick a specific folder, e.g. C:\Windows.old\Finance
2. Using File Explorer, navigate to C:\Windows.old
3. Create the folder Finance

I suspect that Explorer lets you create the folder. This would mean that you're looking at two completely different folders.

Answer 4

I'll refrain from using Windows.old in the future. But I'd like to be able to do a data transfer with PS without creating a user first and still have the files accessible by all users created during and after oobe setup. PS is powershell. Permissions were for admin and everyone. Admin was owner. Everyone had read/write permission. Windows update hasn't touched it... yet. I even adjusted the permissions to explicitly include tge user he created But the files and folder structure still were visible in Powershell and not also file explorer. And I don't understand why.

Answer 5

What is PS?

Did you check the access permissions for C:\Windows.old?

BTW - using the folder name C:\Windows.old is risky. Windows Update uses it routinely for its own purposes. You risk losing its contents.