Programs and executables vanishing

Hello all you Microsoft people. I have this Gateway FX notebook which I just brought home about a week and a half ago. It runs Vista Home edition (x86), 64 bit and has some very good specs, but it hasn't performed satisfactorily at all since I've started using it. Most particularly applications, exe files and other files closely associated with them have been vanishing on restart. Often my display settings will change on their own as well. Sometimes it will delete a whole program, leaving just a shell. othertimes it will delete large parts of it, leaving it fragmented and uselss. Overall my experiance with Vista has been extreemly frustrating. It feels like such a huge step back from XP, which was easier to navigate and more willing to just do what I told it to. Vista feels like it has a mind of its own, and like it's working at cross purposes to me. I could put up with it if I could just get it to keep the settings I give it and stopped deleting files. I'm sorry if I've been ranting. I'm no expert. I really don't know where to look for help. The people at Gateway said to just reformat the drive, which seems like a lazy suggestion as there shouldn't be anything wrong the computer fresh out of the factory. I've been operating with Windows Live since I turned it on and it doesn't seem like it has a virus. If there's anything more specific that could help me just ask. I hope someone can help. I'd be really gratefull.

Hello Xanadwayne,

Welcome to the Forum.
I guess, your best option would be to clean install Vista. I know, I repeat what even Gateway told you, but its true. These notebooks are packed with bloatwares at the factory which sometime cause problems. I did this on mine, since then she runs fast and smooth. If you did the recovery discs, install the system from the first two discs, then you can just install the drivers and few needed applications from the third disc called "Driver And Application". Also, you can reformat the drive the easy way from the hidden partition on your hard drive.

Hope it helps. Cheers...

Hey thanks, I'll give it a try.

Okay, I'm trying to create an extra partition now so I can format the drive, but before I can do that I need to shrink my active partition. Yet whenever I try it says "access denied". I'm the administrator. How can my access be denied?

Hello Xanadwayne,

If you need to resize the partition the best way to do this is third party software like Paragon Hard Drive Manager. It's free so download and create the bootable disc (register and get the activation key) so you will be able to boot your machine from this disc and resize your partition. Please be very careful what you are doing with this software. Better yet, create backup of your important data if you can on the external drive and/or DVDs.

Cheers...

I don't have any important data yet. Thanks again.