Strange behavior of SHFileOperation between my debug and release version

here's a snippet of my code
what i intented to do was to delete the whole directory "C:\\WINDOWS\\Desktop\\Game", and then restore the directory from "C:\\backup\\game" so that my desktop "game" directory isnt too messy.

Code:

SHFILEOPSTRUCT file_struct;
ZeroMemory(&file_struct, sizeof(file_struct));
game_dir = "C:\\WINDOWS\\Desktop\\Game";
game_dir_org =  "C:\\backup\\game" ;

file_struct.wFunc = FO_DELETE;
file_struct.pFrom = game_dir ; // deletes the "game" dir on  desktop
int iz = SHFileOperation(&file_struct);
file_struct.wFunc = FO_COPY;
file_struct.pFrom = game_dir_org;
file_struct.pTo = game_dir;
SHFileOperation(&file_struct);
ShellExecute(0,"open",game_dir,0,0,SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED);

what happens is that the debug version deletes "C:\\WINDOWS\\Desktop\\Game" as it should while the release version does not.
also, sometimes the release version deletes "C:\\backup\\game" while no problems with debug version
what's wrong??

using
- win98se
- vc++ 6.0
- API style

How are game_dir and game_dir_org declared?

Make sure you are double NULL terminating game_dir_org and game_dir as stated in the descriptions for the pFrom and pTo members of SHFILEOPSTRUCT (and as implied by Swoopy).