Weird Windows Explorer Issue

Avoriaz

This is a slightly lengthy problem to describe.

I have a 2 year old Acer 8935g P8700 laptop with 500gb disk and 4gb (2.9gb usable) memory running 32 bit Windows 7 Home Premium.

I have three disk partitions:

C: 35gb for Win7 and other software
20gb for my data files
E: 412gb for my video files.

There is plenty of free space in all partitions.

is less than half full with 7.5 gb of documents, photographs etc. It has 485 folders and 9,101 files.

One of the folders is called “Humour” and contains 254mb, 8 folders and 420 files, mainly humorous word docs and jpeg pictures.

I recently tried to open “Humour” in Windows Explorer and the right pane just flickered without listing the contents. Normally it instantly displays the contents. Right clicking and “Properties” showed it still contained 254mb, 8 folders and 420 files.

I then “copied and pasted” the entire Humour folder onto the C: partition. It opened as normal from the C: partition.

I then ran a full error checking scan on with “scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” selected. This revealed no problems.

I then “cut and pasted” the whole 7.5 gb contents of onto E: , formatted and “cut and pasted” it all back again. (I have multiple copies backed up externally so I wasn't risking losing the lot)

The problem with "Humour" was still there.

I then changed the folder name to “Humour bu”. It opened as normal. I changed it back to “Humour” and the problem returned.

I now find that, if I call the folder anything but “Humour” it opens fine. If I leave the name as “Humour” it refuses to open and display its contents.

I have solved the problem by renaming the folder “Humerous” but I am curious about what quirk of Win7 might be causing it not to display properly when called “Humour”.

It isn’t a new folder. It is many years old. Much of the content of , including the “Humour” folder was copied from my previous laptop two years ago. I haven’t added anything to Humour for about six weeks so I don’t think it is a new file causing the problem.

Any suggestions?

Maybe Win7 is having a humerous joke with me.

John_Gray

I'd be tempted to Take Ownership of the Humour folder and all the files in in it, since it may have kept the owner SID from your laptop.

In Windows Explorer, right-click on the folder and select Properties. Click on the Security tab, highlight your userid, then click on the Advanced button. In the new window, click on the Owner tab, then Edit and then click on the box saying "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects', and OK out. (The Edit tab may need something slightly different, but I can't see what yours looks like!).

Avoriaz

Thanks but that has made no difference.

The folder has behaved normally for two years and has only recently started playing up.