"Users_old" directory after updating to 1709 Fall Creators

In Trainwreck of errors related to seemingly-normal Win10 updates - help! Solved - Windows 10 Forums I posted of my confusion, a problem now solved, about an ASUS laptop that came with Windows 10 installed suddenly being unable to download and install updates. "Net" of that was the computer needed a BIOS update, and once the shop did that, they were able to update Windows.

Problem solved... almost.

Today, my wife, who uses the laptop, was freaking because all of her documents were "gone."

I knew this wasn't the case, and with some looking, I found that the user accounts from the computer, pre-1709, were now in a folder called "Users_old" (D:\Users_old). A new "Users" folder was created with the 1709 update. That folder contains one folder for my wife (since it was her account logged in when the update was done), and that folder contains one "Documents" folder that was created when she tried to access her documents from the desktop "My Documents" shortcut that points to D:\Users\[wife]\Documents

I have read that the "Windows_old" folder is automatically removed after 10 days in a situation like this.

What happens to "Users_old?" THAT is the valid folder containing the files for my wife, and others who once had accounts on the computer.

Do I rename "Users" (the useless users folder created at the 1709 update) to "Users_New" and rename "Users_Old" to "Users"

Do I delete "Users" and just rename "Users_Old" to "Users"

Do I copy the contents of "Users_Old" into the "Users" folder?

To make clear, as it currently exists, "Users" is WORTHLESS to me. Everything we want is in the "Users_Old" folder. But because there is a chance Windows will delete that folder (no matter what I name it) I don't want to rely too much on it.

I *do* have an image of the hard drive that I took when it came back from the shop. So no files would/should be lost; all would be recoverable.

Is this creation of "Users_Old" an aberration? A normal quirk of this particular update? Was it possibly caused because for some reason the Users folder was on the D and not the C partition?

What happens to "Users_old?" THAT is the valid folder containing the files for my wife, and others who once had accounts on the computer.

That folder is not the same as the Windows.old folder and shouldn't get automatically deleted. I'm betting the repair shop created it to back up all of your old User Folders / Files. ( ie. C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents, Pictures, etc)
Note: To be on the safe side, I would copy the Users_Old Folder to USB stick or CD/DVD :)

Do I rename "Users" (the useless users folder created at the 1709 update) to "Users_New" and rename "Users_Old" to "Users"
Do I delete "Users" and just rename "Users_Old" to "Users"

No, I would not do any of those, there is a chance you could break the current User Profiles, if the Users_Old / Folders contained any NTUSER.DAT Files, etc.

Do I copy the contents of "Users_Old" into the "Users" folder?

Yes, I would copy any files you need/want into their proper Users Folders ( ie. C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents, Pictures, etc)
Note: Be careful what you copy ... I would not copy Folders ... I would only copy files you recognize (Documents, Pictures, Music, etc)

Eagle51, I have essentially followed your guidance here.

Upon more digging, the "Users" area on the D partition is not a configuration, App Data, whatever thing. It's simply the Documents area for each user. The only contents of each "User" subfolder is a "Documents" folder, which in turn contains all the folders and documents that one gets (or is expecting to get) by accessing the Documents library on the computer, when logged in as a certain user.

I had imaged the entire drive to an external hard drive, so it's all backed up safely.

Now on the laptop, I have copied the entire contents of the "Users_old" folder to both the current "Users" folder, and a new "Files from Users_old documents" folder that serves as a backup. After I did that, I made a "$0000" empty folder in the Users\[Wife]\Documents folder, just to differentiate it from the "Users_old" folder, and I clicked on the "Documents" library, and the correct folder opened up.

So I think I'm set. I was surprised when I googled the particulars of this error, that I saw so few other references to it, in this forum, or on the web as a whole.

I'll go a couple weeks and see if we have no more unpleasant surprises, then at that point - hope we get there - mark this as solved.