Vista lies to me about files/folders

[Guest]

I have just purchased a new high spec' computer with Vista pre-installed.
I am using a very old labeling prog. 'Labels Unlimited for Windows'- for
Win 95. I copied the entire program via a flash drive onto my new box. This
contained a folder called JOBS with 108 files eg example.job and everything
works well. I have created a further 322 new files all saved to the folder
JOBS. I have printed these label .jobs, re-opened and modified and saved the
mods and all's well.

NOW HERE'S THE PROBLEM!
I dragged the folder containing the new files to my flash drive to transfer
these files to another computer. When I checked the flash drive it contained
only 108 original files. I checked my original JOBS directory via My Computer
and found to my horror that there are only 108 files listed: PANIC!!!! days
of work lost! I restarted LUW and opened my JOBS folder and there are all 430
files. I can print, modify these or create new files. OK, so I know that
these files exist, so how to transfer these files to my flash drive? When I
open LUW and one of the unshown saved files, I have the option to 'Save As'
and choose drive 'J' flash drive, file saved, no problem. Back to LUW and
open the next file to be opened and 'saved as' and find that the path has
defaulted to 'J' which contains the one saved file. It seems that I will have
to change the path back for each of 'saved as' instances, not amusing when
you consider that this will have to be repeated some 320 times to secure my
data for transfer. This is MADNESS! Please can someone out there protect my
sanity and offer a solution for this refusal of Vista to recognise my saved
files. PS I've had computers since the days of CPM and MSDos and what I have
been attempting with Vista worked perfectly well with XP. Just had a thought!
Can anyone tell me if it's possible to bring up C:\? MSDos never lied to me
the way Vista does!
Thanks in anticipation
Ron

 

[Michael]

If you created this JOBS directory in the root (i.e. C:\JOBS) you are
definitely going to have problems like you describe.
The root (C:\) is protected by VISTA and things placed there behave
differently than you might expect. In particular a old program (DOS) will
not be able to write files to that directory or update those files, they
will actually be written to a phantom area belonging to the user, not the
system.

You best bet is place the program and data in an area that belongs to you as
a user rather than the system.
I would suggest C:\users\your name rather than C:\.

There are ways to get around having the stuff in the root, but they are not
obvious and should only be tried if you absolutely cannot get your old
program to run if placed any where else.

The 322 new files you have created are probably located somewhere under
\users\your name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore.

You will need to enable hidden and protected files to navigate to this area.

Michael

 

[Guest]

H
:
Hi Michael,
I have followed your advice and now found all the missing files intact.
Thank you very much for your assistance.

Kind Regards
Ron

 

[Michael]

Glad to help

H
:
Hi Michael,
I have followed your advice and now found all the missing files intact.
Thank you very much for your assistance.

Kind Regards
Ron