Corrupt Files !!??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Synapse Syndrome
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Synapse Syndrome

Life on the bleeding edge..

I have few files, amongst many others, which I can't open, move delete or
copy. I can't even check their properties. If I try explorer just freezes
with a copy/delete/move dialogue. Closing the box with repeated attempts on
the red X button makes explorer.exe crash and start again.

Chkdsk doesn't find any corruption and booting into Safe Mode doesn't change
this behaviour.

Some of these files are rather important, being the work I have been doing
for the last few days. I don;t know the full extent of this curruption,
through thousands of files, but 99% of them are backup up.

Does anybody know what could be cauing this??

ss.
 
Whenever I run into this condition on computers I repair, the very first
thing I suspect is substandard RAM.

In many cases, changing out the RAM has solved the problem. This goes back
to when Windows XP was introduced. XP worked the RAM more intensively that
Windows 98 ever did and the RAM, in many cases, was not up to snuff.

I would suspect that the same problem is again rearing it's ugly head.

And, BTW, a software RAM test will not show up the substandard RAM as being
defective.

I had one machine that passed every test thrown at it, including being
tested in my hardware RAM tester. It was only when I installed a matched set
of Crucial RAM that the computer began behaving as it should.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Richard Urban said:
Whenever I run into this condition on computers I repair, the very first
thing I suspect is substandard RAM.

In many cases, changing out the RAM has solved the problem. This goes back
to when Windows XP was introduced. XP worked the RAM more intensively that
Windows 98 ever did and the RAM, in many cases, was not up to snuff.

I would suspect that the same problem is again rearing it's ugly head.

And, BTW, a software RAM test will not show up the substandard RAM as
being defective.

I had one machine that passed every test thrown at it, including being
tested in my hardware RAM tester. It was only when I installed a matched
set of Crucial RAM that the computer began behaving as it should.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your comments. My RAM has passed Memtest86+ and the Vista RAM
test. I know you say that this doesn't mean anything, but it is top quality
Mushkin 'eXtreme Performance' PC6400 RAM that can clock much faster than
what it's running at.

But would this possible RAM problem only be the case if the files were, in
fact, corrupt?

I have just been able access and open them through Remote Desktop from my
server, so the files are actually okay!

So this must be some sort of weird fault in Vista? I'm runnign Build 5840,
so I hope this has been fixed. Whatever is going on, it's very weird.

ss.
 
No. The files would not show up because of corrupt RAM. The files would be
corrupted "because" of the RAM.

Really, the only way to find for this problem is by substitution. God, I
must have about 60-80 sticks of RAM, of various configurations, in my
equipment cabinet. I could not survive without them for substitution/testing
purposes.

Turn off your computer. Remove the RAM and clean the contacts (both sides)
with a rubber pencil eraser. Then wipe the contacts with a cotton swap
dipped in alcohol. Sometimes this can work wonders. If you can, try the RAM
in different slots.

Only when you are 101% certain that the RAM is competent can you go and look
for other causes. That is how confident I am that most problems such as
yours is caused by substandard/defective RAM.

It could also be a faulty hard drive controller.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Richard Urban said:
No. The files would not show up because of corrupt RAM. The files would be
corrupted "because" of the RAM.

Really, the only way to find for this problem is by substitution. God, I
must have about 60-80 sticks of RAM, of various configurations, in my
equipment cabinet. I could not survive without them for
substitution/testing purposes.

Turn off your computer. Remove the RAM and clean the contacts (both sides)
with a rubber pencil eraser. Then wipe the contacts with a cotton swap
dipped in alcohol. Sometimes this can work wonders. If you can, try the
RAM in different slots.

Only when you are 101% certain that the RAM is competent can you go and
look for other causes. That is how confident I am that most problems such
as yours is caused by substandard/defective RAM.

It could also be a faulty hard drive controller.
Click to expand...


But if I can access the files from another computer and open them through
Remote Desktop, doesn't that mean that the files are not corrupt?

ss.
 
If you can do that then you do not have, in fact, file corruption at all.

If these files are on a separate partition to Vista, I would suggest that
you perform a clean format/install of Vista. Something may have gone bad
during your first install. Immediately after a clean reinstall see if you
can access the files.

If you can, look to subsequent installs of your desired drivers or other
programs that may be interacting unfavorably with the operating system

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
A friend of mine had a similar situation recently. A replacement of his
SATA cable cured it. It might be worth trying a different cable.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Synapse Syndrome [mailto:[email protected]]
Posted At: Friday, November 24, 2006 9:30 PM
Posted To: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Conversation: Corrupt Files !!??
Subject: Re: Corrupt Files !!??
But if I can access the files from another computer and open them through
Remote Desktop, doesn't that mean that the files are not corrupt?
Click to expand...

Good news and you're right. From our previous conversations I'm starting
to think that this problem may be local to shell. Did you try to access
these files from command line? If you have a text file among them, you
can Start cmd.exe and use following command to try to see file contents:

c:\> type c:\my\folder\my_file.txt | more

To see if you can get file security settings, use following command:

c:\> cacls c:\my\folder\my_file.txt

If both commands work that would limit scope of issue to the
GUI/Explorer.
 
Those flakey SATA connections and cables. My X64 wouldn't come up this
morning because of the connection to another drive. The infamous
acpitabl.dat. Reseated the connections and worked like a champ.
 
I'm not sure what could be causing this. It would be interesting to hear
from the Jill Zoller types who are into files and folders.

I don't think though that this is particular to anything going on in Vista
as opposed say to XP or Win 2K but there may be different nuanced versions
of this.

The things I try when I have a file or folder that won't open or I get the
message that the file is being used by something else or words close or an
Access Denied Message

Make certain with those files that you have administrative privileges. If
you need to right click and use the security tab for them, or turning off
UAC *temporarily. I'm not recommending to turn off UAC more than
temporarily to get a specific task done if it helps. I know. Vista has UAC
boy do I ever know. I read everything Jimmy Brush has written and valued
all of it. I have had a ton of workarounds or ways to make UAC work since
this good idea with terrible execution hatched at Redmond. I have followed
the UAC team blog entries with interest and amusement.

1) Try going to Windows Explorer and deleting the file/folders from there.

2) Try booting into safe mode>then going to Windows Explorer and deleting
files from there.

3) Try Doug Knox's method:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_undeletable_file.htm

4) Try the advice of this XP KB ( a lot of XP KBs will be updated to include
Vista in their titles but this is going to take a good while according to
MSFT's present time table of "Majunana Majunana Siesta Siesta Redmond Big
Sleep Good.--Party On Dudes and Duddettes."

5) Try downloading and using this app:

http://www.purgeie.com/delinv/index.htm

CH
 
Chad Harris said:
I'm not sure what could be causing this. It would be interesting to hear
from the Jill Zoller types who are into files and folders.

I don't think though that this is particular to anything going on in Vista
as opposed say to XP or Win 2K but there may be different nuanced versions
of this.

The things I try when I have a file or folder that won't open or I get the
message that the file is being used by something else or words close or an
Access Denied Message

Make certain with those files that you have administrative privileges. If
you need to right click and use the security tab for them, or turning off
UAC *temporarily. I'm not recommending to turn off UAC more than
temporarily to get a specific task done if it helps. I know. Vista has
UAC boy do I ever know. I read everything Jimmy Brush has written and
valued all of it. I have had a ton of workarounds or ways to make UAC
work since this good idea with terrible execution hatched at Redmond. I
have followed the UAC team blog entries with interest and amusement.

1) Try going to Windows Explorer and deleting the file/folders from there.

2) Try booting into safe mode>then going to Windows Explorer and deleting
files from there.

3) Try Doug Knox's method:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_undeletable_file.htm

4) Try the advice of this XP KB ( a lot of XP KBs will be updated to
include Vista in their titles but this is going to take a good while
according to MSFT's present time table of "Majunana Majunana Siesta Siesta
Redmond Big Sleep Good.--Party On Dudes and Duddettes."

5) Try downloading and using this app:

http://www.purgeie.com/delinv/index.htm
Click to expand...


Thanks, but it's not just a matter of not being able to delete files. I
can't delete them, but that's not the point - I can't do anything with them,
and I need to know what is happening here. These files are quite valuable,
so the last thing I really want to do is delete them.

ss.
 
Richard Urban said:
If you can do that then you do not have, in fact, file corruption at all.

If these files are on a separate partition to Vista, I would suggest that
you perform a clean format/install of Vista. Something may have gone bad
during your first install. Immediately after a clean reinstall see if you
can access the files.

If you can, look to subsequent installs of your desired drivers or other
programs that may be interacting unfavorably with the operating system
Click to expand...


Thanks for your advice.

I've still got 7 days left on this installation before I have to activate
it, which I can't at this stage, without a licence (build 5840). I have to
reinstall at least three times before I can buy a key so I am not in a hurry
to do that, so I don't have to make it four.

With what you say in mind, I tried System Restore, to a restore point from
about 4 days ago, well before this started happening. Still the same
problem..

ss.
 
Right click on the files and go to Properties and see if there are previous
versions. You might be able to restore the non-corrupt versions that way.

steve
 
Steve Cochran said:
Right click on the files and go to Properties and see if there are
previous versions. You might be able to restore the non-corrupt versions
that way.
Click to expand...

Steve,

The problem is, explorer freezes when OP tries to do anything with files,
including opening file properties.
 
Thanks Alexander. I had missed the part of going to Properties.

If he can access them by remote desktop and they are so important, then he
should probably copy them to another machine, I would think.

steve
 
Alexander Suhovey said:
Good news and you're right. From our previous conversations I'm starting
to think that this problem may be local to shell. Did you try to access
these files from command line? If you have a text file among them, you
can Start cmd.exe and use following command to try to see file contents:

c:\> type c:\my\folder\my_file.txt | more

To see if you can get file security settings, use following command:

c:\> cacls c:\my\folder\my_file.txt

If both commands work that would limit scope of issue to the
GUI/Explorer.
Click to expand...


Cheers Alexander, that was a good idea and I thought I'd investigate
properly before replying.

None of the file that are known to be 'acting weird' are .txt files, but I
tried shift-right-clicking them to get the full path and just pasted that
into a cmd prompt. While they aren't actual text files, some of them aren't
compiled binary and can be displayed in notepad.

So doing as you suggest does work. The files can be accessed using the cmd
prompt.

So, is this a possible Vista bug?

Cheers

ss.
 
Cheers Alexander, that was a good idea and I thought I'd investigate
properly before replying.

None of the file that are known to be 'acting weird' are .txt files, but I
tried shift-right-clicking them to get the full path and just pasted that
into a cmd prompt. While they aren't actual text files, some of them
aren't compiled binary and can be displayed in notepad.

So doing as you suggest does work. The files can be accessed using the
cmd prompt.

So, is this a possible Vista bug?
Click to expand...


This weirdness with files has just happened again. I use a program called
ArchiCAD, and it was ArchiCAD files that were corrupted before.

What must have happened the previous time was that ArchiCAD crashed and the
current file as well as some modules and library part files that were being
used in the main file got 'corrupted'.

ArchiCAD has crashed again, and the working file has been locked up again,
as well as some library parts. As there are no similar reports on the
ArchiCAD forum, I think that this is specific to using this program and
Vista together. I really hope it doesn't happen with RTM.

I'll have to install RTM next weekend anyway as my Vista installation is not
activated. Hopefully I will only have to do one further reinstallation
before I can buy a licence.

ss.
 
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