Secondary hard drive contains exact copy of my user profile

Question

I'm running Windows 10 version 1511 (build 10586.63). Windows is installed on my SSD (drive C:) and my hard drive (F:) is used for holding various data.

This evening I noticed that drive F: contains - what appears to be - an exact copy of my user profile in a folder named Documents and Settings, and it seems to be linked to my user profile folder in C:\Users. For example, if I rename a file in either location, that change is also reflected in the other folder. The below screenshot shows the properties of the folders - as you can see, they are pretty much identical.

The date of creation is the date I updated to build 10586, so I'm guessing it has something to do with the November update of Windows 10, but I've been unable to find any info on this.

Can anyone explain what is going on here? Is this folder some sort of "backup" of my user profile?

Answer 1

It turns out it is a junction point used for backward compatibility:

In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the default locations for user data and system data have changed. For example, user data that was previously stored in the %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings directory is now stored in the %SystemDrive%\Users directory. For backward compatibility, the old locations have junction points that point to the new locations. For example, C:\Documents and Settings is now a junction point that points to C:\Users.

However, this doesn't explain why it is located on my secondary drive, nor why I am able to browse it. I also have a similar junction point on my C: drive pointing to C:\Users, but this is not accessible as opposed to the junction point on the F: drive. If anyone can provide a more comprehensive answer to the original question, please feel free to.

C:\>dir /AL C:
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 848E-8571

 Directory of C:\

10-Jul-15  13:21    <JUNCTION>     Documents and Settings [C:\Users]
18-Mar-14  17:17    <JUNCTION>     Programmer [C:\Program Files]
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  34,095,304,704 bytes free

C:\>dir /AL F:
 Volume in drive F is Data
 Volume Serial Number is C25D-591A

 Directory of F:\

14-Jul-09  06:08    <JUNCTION>     Documents and Settings [C:\Users]
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               1 Dir(s)  132,675,559,424 bytes free

C:\>