Folders on partitions used to install Windows Vista may be moved or may be renamed to end with .OLD

This article describes how folders on a partition that is used to install Windows Vista may be moved or may be renamed to end with .OLD.

When you install Windows Vista, and an earlier version of Windows is already installed on the same partition, folders that are already present may conflict with Windows Vista. When this occurs, the conflicting folders are moved or are renamed to end with .OLD. For example, the C:\Windows folder becomes the C:\Windows.OLD folder. The C:\Documents and Settings folder becomes the C:\Documents and Settings.OLD folder.

Folders that may conflict with Windows Vista include the following folders:

• Documents and Settings
• Program Files
• Windows
• Users

If a similarly named folder that ends with .OLD is already present, the new folder is named FolderName.OLD.nnn, where nnn is a number such as 000 or 001.