While checking some of my document folders for erasing unwanted files,
I came across a quite a few documents with identical contents, but
slightly different names, e.g.

''Real'' cost of smoking.doc
__REAL___COST_OF_SMOKING.DOC

The one with all CAPS and underscores has obviously resulted from
conversion of all non-alphabet characters (e.g. like "m-dash" -, "n-
dash" -, comma, parantheses, single quotes, double quotes using Alt
+147 or Alt+148, etc.), and spaces to underscores. I know also that
this has come about when I restored some files from back-up on CD or
DVD. My question is, WHY does this happen, and how to avoid
duplicating files in future.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

"witan" <tsr1936******.com> wrote in message
news:1174652740.589230.178780@l77g2000hsb.googlegr oups.com...
> While checking some of my document folders for erasing unwanted files,
> I came across a quite a few documents with identical contents, but
> slightly different names, e.g.
>
> ''Real'' cost of smoking.doc
> __REAL___COST_OF_SMOKING.DOC
>
> The one with all CAPS and underscores has obviously resulted from
> conversion of all non-alphabet characters (e.g. like "m-dash" -, "n-
> dash" -, comma, parantheses, single quotes, double quotes using Alt
> +147 or Alt+148, etc.), and spaces to underscores. I know also that
> this has come about when I restored some files from back-up on CD or
> DVD. My question is, WHY does this happen, and how to avoid
> duplicating files in future.
> Any suggestions will be appreciated.
>

The characters have not changed but their interpretation
by your application has. I suspect you're using a different
character set or country code. Best to ask the experts in
a Word newsgroup.

If you're still convinced that the backup/restoration process
changed the characters, do this:
1. Save a sample file to the hard disk.
2. Save it to a CD as well.
3. Restore it from the CD to a different folder.
4. Start a Command Prompt and run this command:
fc.exe /b d:\org.doc d:\restored.doc
fc.exe will most likely tell you that the files are identical.

On Mar 23, 5:34 pm, "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I...@fly.com> wrote:
> "witan" <tsr1...******.com> wrote in message
>
> news:1174652740.589230.178780@l77g2000hsb.googlegr oups.com...
>
>
>
> > While checking some of my document folders for erasing unwanted files,
> > I came across a quite a few documents with identical contents, but
> > slightly different names, e.g.
>
> > ''Real'' cost of smoking.doc
> > __REAL___COST_OF_SMOKING.DOC
>
> > The one with all CAPS and underscores has obviously resulted from
> > conversion of all non-alphabet characters (e.g. like "m-dash" -, "n-
> > dash" -, comma, parantheses, single quotes, double quotes using Alt
> > +147 or Alt+148, etc.), and spaces to underscores. I know also that
> > this has come about when I restored some files from back-up on CD or
> > DVD. My question is, WHY does this happen, and how to avoid
> > duplicating files in future.
> > Any suggestions will be appreciated.
>
> The characters have not changed but their interpretation
> by your application has. I suspect you're using a different
> character set or country code. Best to ask the experts in
> a Word newsgroup.
>
> If you're still convinced that the backup/restoration process
> changed the characters, do this:
> 1. Save a sample file to the hard disk.
> 2. Save it to a CD as well.
> 3. Restore it from the CD to a different folder.
> 4. Start a Command Prompt and run this command:
> fc.exe /b d:\org.doc d:\restored.doc
> fc.exe will most likely tell you that the files are identical.

Thank you, Pegasus, for your prompt response.
It has nothing to do with (Microsoft) Word. Thinking back, I have an
explanation. Prior to reinstalling Windows-XP (needed because of a
failing HD) I had backed-up important document files on to a DVD.
Somewhat earlier, I had also copied three entire folders to a Linux
(Mandriva 10.1) partition, using utilities in Linux. After
reinstalling Windows-XP, I copied the files (using Linux again) in
Linux partition to a CD-RW, then booted back to Windows-XP and copied
the files back to Windows partition. (This round-about procedure is
required because Linux cannot write to NTFS volumes). Linux had
converted the non-alpha-numeric characters in file names to
underscores, and the alphabets to upper case.
I haven't tried fc, but it is obvious that Windows considers the files
with the converted names as different from the distal originals, as
otherwise they cannot exist in the same folder.

"witan" <tsr1936******.com> wrote in message
news:1174704847.806173.198750@e65g2000hsc.googlegr oups.com...
> On Mar 23, 5:34 pm, "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I...@fly.com> wrote:
> > "witan" <tsr1...******.com> wrote in message
> >
> > news:1174652740.589230.178780@l77g2000hsb.googlegr oups.com...
> >
> >
> >
> > > While checking some of my document folders for erasing unwanted files,
> > > I came across a quite a few documents with identical contents, but
> > > slightly different names, e.g.
> >
> > > ''Real'' cost of smoking.doc
> > > __REAL___COST_OF_SMOKING.DOC
> >
> > > The one with all CAPS and underscores has obviously resulted from
> > > conversion of all non-alphabet characters (e.g. like "m-dash" -, "n-
> > > dash" -, comma, parantheses, single quotes, double quotes using Alt
> > > +147 or Alt+148, etc.), and spaces to underscores. I know also that
> > > this has come about when I restored some files from back-up on CD or
> > > DVD. My question is, WHY does this happen, and how to avoid
> > > duplicating files in future.
> > > Any suggestions will be appreciated.
> >
> > The characters have not changed but their interpretation
> > by your application has. I suspect you're using a different
> > character set or country code. Best to ask the experts in
> > a Word newsgroup.
> >
> > If you're still convinced that the backup/restoration process
> > changed the characters, do this:
> > 1. Save a sample file to the hard disk.
> > 2. Save it to a CD as well.
> > 3. Restore it from the CD to a different folder.
> > 4. Start a Command Prompt and run this command:
> > fc.exe /b d:\org.doc d:\restored.doc
> > fc.exe will most likely tell you that the files are identical.
>
> Thank you, Pegasus, for your prompt response.
> It has nothing to do with (Microsoft) Word. Thinking back, I have an
> explanation. Prior to reinstalling Windows-XP (needed because of a
> failing HD) I had backed-up important document files on to a DVD.
> Somewhat earlier, I had also copied three entire folders to a Linux
> (Mandriva 10.1) partition, using utilities in Linux. After
> reinstalling Windows-XP, I copied the files (using Linux again) in
> Linux partition to a CD-RW, then booted back to Windows-XP and copied
> the files back to Windows partition. (This round-about procedure is
> required because Linux cannot write to NTFS volumes). Linux had
> converted the non-alpha-numeric characters in file names to
> underscores, and the alphabets to upper case.
> I haven't tried fc, but it is obvious that Windows considers the files
> with the converted names as different from the distal originals, as
> otherwise they cannot exist in the same folder.
>

I misread your original post. I thought your post was about
modified file content. I now realise it's about modified file names.
My mistake. The explanation you supply is probably correct.