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Problem with c:/users/ folder (prob fast fix)

Discussion in 'Windows - Software discussion' started by Pimmyjage, Aug 1, 2016.

  1. Pimmyjage

    Pimmyjage Member

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    Hey!
    I rly need help with this, Ive tried to fix this myself for about a day now and none of my friends know how to solve this...
    Sry for a long story and post but I thoght I'd had to try tell youeverything I did so u dont miss any part that might be the clue to solve this.
    Also this is probably a nice comedy-story for some of you.


    So I noticed yesterday that my c drive was lackin space all of a sudden (only 10gb left) and I started looking for a reason for this. So i found out that my users-folder suddenly had 20gb of invisible data. I spent some time digging what was causing this and found out that my iphone backup files were transferred to there and that i needed to simply find out how to show those hidden files and transfer them to my external hard drive.

    Well I didnt get rly far until I ran to problems..
    I went to my users folder properties and accidentally checked the box "hidden" under the general bar so windows started hiding all my users files. I noticed this too late and tried to cancel this. Well I lost my path to my user<name> folder from c:/ but I could still access the folder from other path. Then I started messing aroung somehow, trying to get the path work and checked also the box to compress files from my users folder or something. At this point when i tried to access to my user<name>-folder properities it was impossible due the properities couldnt be accessed because no such option was available when i right clicked the folder.
    I tried to restore my computer to last friday but everytime I did that, it made an error (cant remember the error code) and said that it couldnt be done.
    well i googled it and found out it was probably my antivirus program that was causing this problem so I uninstalled my avast! (Some solution suggested to so this). Well it didnt help and at this point I noticed that my google chrome had stopped and also internet explorer.
    Then i noticed my users folder had an previous version from last friday so I thought id restore it. Well it wasnt possible from some reason (prob cause my c drive had 10gb free space and the old users folder was 38gb). But i could open and copy this old folder so i did and pasted it on my external hard drive.
    Then I went coconuts and tried to delete my current users folder (I know Im an idiot) so that I could replace it with my old one that I now had on my external hard drive. Well ofc the deleting went well until windows came across some files that I couldnt delete in any way. So deleting was cancelled but I dont know did windows manage to delete some files already before this error occurred.
    Well then i tried my backup file Ive created last january. It didnt work.
    Then i asked my friend and he helped me to go folder options in general and enable the "show hidden files" option. Well i did this and finally was able to access those iphone backup files and transferred them to my external hard drive (yey..). I also went to users folder and "unhid" all files from there so I was able to see those files I had on my users folder again.
    We tried to switch all "users" "admin" etc permissions on at c-drive's properitie's security tab, so that it would fix my google chrome and internet explorer problem (the problem was that when i opened either one of them, it just loaded all sites i tried to open for a lot of time until it went to non-responding state and wouldnt open the site). At this point I also noticed my dropbox wouldnt start.

    So here I am now, having no clue what to do next. Cant access internet via chrome or explorer and dropbox wont open and probably something else is also fked up. Problem is not the internet because I can access for example Spotify without any problems. Bet some of you enjoyed reading about my little adventure of idiotism with bad english.

    I rly wish some1 could help me with this though.. Thanks in advance.

    -pimmyjage
     
  2. attar

    attar Senior member

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    If you can boot into Safe Mode and try System Restore - might help.
    Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tasks > System Restore.
     
  3. scorpNZ

    scorpNZ Active member

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    never mind i gave irrelevant advice since you found how to unhide

    Avast should never be an issue when using system restore,next time leave it alone

    Quite a lot of space can be taken up with restore points,once you have everything working correctly create a back image of C on your external then proceed to delete any old restore points

    Ok if attar's option doesn't work.What's happened is you've deleted required files that are most likely copy protected & are read only ?? so will not transfer this is why drag n drop isn't working.It's most probably too late to recover from recycle bin,so try a right click on C & select "tools" tab then hit the "check now" button then hit the "start" button as the file check should have tick in the box,you may have to reboot.If this fails your only option is to run a version of linux & either install it as a backup OS or run from cd & drag n drop your backup folder to C in windows,it should copy this time

    ps:if you have the space install linux as dual boot,as it can help when things turn to custard.Last word NEVER ever play with folders in C before creating a backup image of it.There's plenty of free imaging software available at no cost

    free linux operating systems in link

    distrowatch.com
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2016
  4. Pimmyjage

    Pimmyjage Member

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    Safe mode doesnt work Ive tried that.
    And I didnt quite get the instructions about installin linux and how that C folder could be dragged..sry

    But rly appreciated ur both effor to reply.

    -pimmyjage
     
  5. Pimmyjage

    Pimmyjage Member

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    I did the error check on my c disk and it didnt fail.
     
  6. Pimmyjage

    Pimmyjage Member

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    Now when I tried to save one notepad-file on another one (overwrite it) windows messaged me that I cant do that, becuase the file im trying to overwrite is in "read-only" mode.
    This file is in my users folder.

    Not sure if this info is helpful for fixing this but worth a try..
     
  7. scorpNZ

    scorpNZ Active member

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    You'd have to right click on properties on the note & de-select "read only"

    I'm wondering if creating a new user as admin would be the best thing to do & once done,transfer any photo's etc you need then delete the corrupted user your having trouble with.

    to get chrome working most likely requires re-install on the new admin account i just mentioned above

    another option is to use a windows install disc or the recovery options & select disc check/r command,this in theory should replace any corrupted windows files,however i think it would be better to do a complete destructive reformat & this time create backup images of c,however that's just me


    last ditch option to get things working:
    go download linux mint,burn it to cd.Leave the cd in the drive & reboot,if computer asks to boot from disc do so.You now will have the option to run linux direct from cd so do it.(make sure your external is connected & on) Once mint is at the desktop you can now use it to drag n drop your user folder & overwrite the corrupted folder on the hdd in C
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2016
  8. Pimmyjage

    Pimmyjage Member

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    Thanks for your answers. Ill try that user-option later.
    The "de-select" also seemed to help a little bit.
     

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