Vista - Won't let me create New Folders

After a month or two honeymoon with my new computer last summer, Windows
Vista quit letting me create new file folders!!! This is really, really
annoying, needless to say. I would really appreciate it if someone could tell
me how to fix this.

The other thing is that Windows Vista crashed this weekend and lost some of
my files - and the start menu quit working. I think some of the indexes got
screwed up or something. I don't know what brought this on except that we had
a couple of power failures - and the machine doesn't seem to run chkdsk
automatically on restart. If I started the machine and walked away and didn't
see the prompt, then I've been using a 'dirty disk' for a week or two and it
finally crashed. Or I also installed wireless networking. Also Windows Update
downloads automatically and could have downloaded something incompatible with
my software. So who knows what might have caused this ...

I couldn't restore either - now if I ask for Windows restore, it comes up
with an error message.

I've been using DOS and windows machines for 20 years and I've never had
this happen to me before. I've always had virus checkers and been
conscientious about backing up my data.

I'm not too happy at the prospect of having a crippled machine.

Hi JuneBug,

With that many problems, I would recommend that you backup what you can for what you do not want to lose and do a clean install again.

It sounds like the power failures really corrupted your hard drive data.

Sorry,
Shawn

JuneBug wrote:Safe Mode - F8 key at bootup, remember? :-)

Try booting into safe mode, see what happens, run scandisk etc. Take it
from there. From my experience, a lot of these problems are rectified
just by booting into safe mode and then immediately rebooting into
regular mode.

Thanks, I'll give that a try - actually I think I did boot up in Safe Mode
once or twice - but only to run chkdsk - and by then it was too late.

JuneBug

"propman" wrote:

Yeah. I was afraid of that.

Unfortunately when they sell you computers these days, they don't include
the operating system cds. So I guess I'll just have to purchase some of
those from Best Buy or Gateway or whoever.

However, it quit letting me create new file folders a looong time ago - so
I'm thinking that problem is unrelated to the disk crash.

Anybody have any ideas? Could I have inadvertently altered some setting to
not allow me to create new file folders?

Thanks,

JuneBug


"Brink" wrote:

JuneBug,

Your computer should of at least included a protected Recovery Partition. You will need to check your computers documentation, but you should be able to boot the computer into it by pressing something like F10 during boot up to reinstall. The key you press varies from computer brands, so I would check online at the computer manufacturer's help and support website to see which one for sure.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

JuneBug,

When they sell you computers these days 'they are obliged to supply you with
an option to re-install the operating system' that means either a set of
recovery disks or an image of the operating system on a hidden partition on
your computer. If none came with your PC then contact the supply and demand
to know where they are. A computer with no way of recovery is totally
useless. You should 'not' have to pay for something that should be there by
default.

--
--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

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"JuneBug" <JuneBug@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ED74A54A-5B96-48D5-A640-9153535945D6@xxxxxx

JuneBug wrote:As a couple of others have stated, there are usually backup cab files
etc include but installed on a hidden partition...which is probably why
you haven't noticed it when you've been using your file manager. There
are programs available that will let one observe this partition though I
can't think of any right now off the top of my head.....googling should
return some pretty fast results though.

Not totally up to date here on all the ins and outs of Vista's
permissions settings but it's definitely one aspect you should check
out.......if I remember correctly, there are the general settings and
then a more detailed subgroup of settings which can be refined. Check
to make sure you have total administrator rights over your whole system
and also make sure you have permissions access for making new folders
while logged on as "user" rather than "administrator".

PS If I remember correctly, the MS has a tutorial on Vista's new
permissions capabilities.

Thanks to both of you for that information. I bought the computer, a Gateway,
at Best Buy, and I didn't realize it had that - or if they told me, I forgot.
Geez. I will call them or get out my manual and find out how to use this.

"John Barnett MVP" wrote:

Again, thank you for the suggestion. I tried looking around for settings, but
I don't have much experience with Windows system administration, and I didn't
have any luck finding anything. I will try what you suggested.

"propman" wrote: