Where did my files go?

[Tim Slattery]

his is weird...

I got a program that downloads crossword puzzles. It came as a zip
file, with four files within it. So I created a file in c:\Program
Files, and moved those four files into it. I thought that I would be
able to tell the program where to put the puzzles it downloaded, but
no.

So it downloaded them into the new folder....kind of. If I look there
with Windows Explorer or with a command prompt (even running it as
administrator), it shows only the original four files. This is even
when the "dir" command is told to show hidden and system files.

BUT...if I fire up a text editor, or the program that plays the
puzzles...there they are! What's stranger is that WE and the command
prompt shows the *.cfg file in that directory as empty (which it
originally was), but the text editor shows several lines of text.

OK, so I give up. I moved the problem directory elsewhere. WE says
it's been moved, and doesn't show anything by that name in crogram
Files. But when I look in the directory in its new location, there are
the four original files, nothing else. When I use the text editor or
the puzzle player program, I still see the folder in Program Files and
it contains the downloaded files (not the four originals). WTF???

Is there a way out of this?

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

his is weird...

I got a program that downloads crossword puzzles. It came as a zip
file, with four files within it. So I created a file in c:\Program
Files, and moved those four files into it. I thought that I would be
able to tell the program where to put the puzzles it downloaded, but
no.

So it downloaded them into the new folder....kind of. If I look there
with Windows Explorer or with a command prompt (even running it as
administrator), it shows only the original four files. This is even
when the "dir" command is told to show hidden and system files.

BUT...if I fire up a text editor, or the program that plays the
puzzles...there they are! What's stranger is that WE and the command
prompt shows the *.cfg file in that directory as empty (which it
originally was), but the text editor shows several lines of text.

OK, so I give up. I moved the problem directory elsewhere. WE says
it's been moved, and doesn't show anything by that name in crogram
Files. But when I look in the directory in its new location, there are
the four original files, nothing else. When I use the text editor or
the puzzle player program, I still see the folder in Program Files and
it contains the downloaded files (not the four originals). WTF???

Is there a way out of this?

Well, I read your post a couple of times, and I still can't figure out what
you're saying, so I probably can't help.

On the off chance that this is relevant: It is true that you can often
double click on a file inside of a zip file and Windows will create a
temporary copy of the file and execute it or edit it or whatever. This
won't work if the file has dependencies on other files in the archive.

Perhaps if you reposted using fake directory & file names, and said
directory instead of file (if that's what you meant by "So I created a
file..."), and made a sort of verbally diagrammatic description of what you
did, including saying what *kind* of files you worked on, you could get a
useful answer.

Of course, there's always the possibility that another reader who lacks my
mental handicaps (if any) will figure it out

 

[The poster formerly known as 'The Poster Formerly]

his is weird...

I got a program that downloads crossword puzzles. It came as a zip
file, with four files within it. So I created a file in c:\Program
Files, and moved those four files into it. I thought that I would be
able to tell the program where to put the puzzles it downloaded, but
no.

So it downloaded them into the new folder....kind of. If I look there
with Windows Explorer or with a command prompt (even running it as
administrator), it shows only the original four files. This is even
when the "dir" command is told to show hidden and system files.

BUT...if I fire up a text editor, or the program that plays the
puzzles...there they are! What's stranger is that WE and the command
prompt shows the *.cfg file in that directory as empty (which it
originally was), but the text editor shows several lines of text.

OK, so I give up. I moved the problem directory elsewhere. WE says
it's been moved, and doesn't show anything by that name in crogram
Files. But when I look in the directory in its new location, there are
the four original files, nothing else. When I use the text editor or
the puzzle player program, I still see the folder in Program Files and
it contains the downloaded files (not the four originals). WTF???

Is there a way out of this?

I have a couple suggestions. Check the attributes on the files that
don't always show up if you can. Also, I've seen similar problems when
one or more types of file compression are in use. If you have NTFS file
compression, turn it off for that directory and see if you can see the
files (you may need to try re-extracting them first).

Also, when you look with the text editor, make sure it is filtered on
all files, not just *.txt files.

 

[St]

his is weird...

I got a program that downloads crossword puzzles. It came as a zip
file, with four files within it. So I created a file in c:\Program
Files, and moved those four files into it. I thought that I would be
able to tell the program where to put the puzzles it downloaded, but
no.

So it downloaded them into the new folder....kind of. If I look there
with Windows Explorer or with a command prompt (even running it as
administrator), it shows only the original four files. This is even
when the "dir" command is told to show hidden and system files.

BUT...if I fire up a text editor, or the program that plays the
puzzles...there they are! What's stranger is that WE and the command
prompt shows the *.cfg file in that directory as empty (which it
originally was), but the text editor shows several lines of text.

OK, so I give up. I moved the problem directory elsewhere. WE says
it's been moved, and doesn't show anything by that name in crogram
Files. But when I look in the directory in its new location, there are
the four original files, nothing else. When I use the text editor or
the puzzle player program, I still see the folder in Program Files and
it contains the downloaded files (not the four originals). WTF???

Is there a way out of this?

Open the program's folder and see if 'Compatibility files' button is present
on the toolbar. Press it if it is.
Copy everything in a new folder under /Users/Public, like
CL/Users/Public/Games/XWord. It should work now.

 

[Tim Slattery]

his is weird...

I got a program that downloads crossword puzzles. It came as a zip
file, with four files within it. So I created a file in c:\Program
Files,

The weirdness was a result of Vista "Virtualizing" the Program Files
subdirectory. It creates a parallel directory under the user's "Users
and Settings" folder when the user tries to write something into
Program Files but doesn't have permission. So when I moved the Program
Files subdirectory, the parallel folder remained. The result was that
the directory existed but it didn't exist.