Standard data folder absent from backup sets
Windows Secrets
Rowland Byerly checked his backups and was dismayed to discover that his Documents folder — one of the most important folders on any system — had never been backed up! Here's why, and here's the fix.
"I purchased a new Windows 10 desktop computer several months ago. But recently I got a notification that the backups I've routinely made with Windows Backup and Restore all suffer from the same problem.
"The warning stated: 'The backup completed but some files were skipped.' It went on to state that 'Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Documents. Error: (The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002))'
"Apparently none of the data in my Documents folder is being included in the backup sets, even though all my data files and libraries were selected for backup!
"What's the easiest way to fix this problem — so my backup sets include my Documents folder?"
This will probably be easy to fix. But first, let me explain the problem. Your Documents folder has ended up in a nonstandard and disallowed location!
In all current Windows versions, the standard location for Documents is within the Users folder — i.e.:
C:\Users\{your user name}\Documents
But apparently your Documents folder is somehow buried within the operating system's protected — and typically hidden — System32 folder set:
C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Documents
Windows' backup tools can properly process a Documents folder in that location only if you take some additional and special nonstandard steps.
Because your Win10 PC is new, I suspect that the Documents folder was placed in the wrong location during setup — or when you tried to move files from your old PC to the new one.
The same problem can also occur if a user tries (either manually or via some software tool) to relocate the Documents folder from its standard location. Some old-school users do this in the belief that moving Documents off the C: drive provides additional protection from operating system crashes. Although this made some sense 20 years ago, all current Windows setups work best when files are left in their default locations.
Fortunately, correcting the problem shouldn't be hard; simply move the files to where they belong! Here's how:
Manually copy the C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Documents folder and all its contents to a safe location that's off the C: drive. This is your just-in-case backup of your documents.
In File Explorer, check to see that a C:\Users\{your user name}\Documents folder exists. If it doesn't, create it.
Cut the contents of your erroneous C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Documents folder and paste them into C:\Users\{your user name}\Documents.
Delete the erroneous C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Documents folder.
Your Documents are now in the correct location, and Windows backup tools should now be able to properly find and process them from here on out.