SEVERE problem with Everything from voidtools

Hi. I've been using this program called Everything to search for and access files and folders on my computer. But suddenly I'm having a MAJOR problem with it. Every time I open it, it tells me I have only 80 "objects" on my ENTIRE C drive, and that most of those are in the OEM folder. I know I have hundreds of thousands of files on my computer and I can still access the ones I know about. It's just Everything can't find them all of a sudden. It can only search for one of the 80 objects it's telling me I have. Is anyone familiar with this program?

 

Clearly something has misfired. Suggest you completely uninstall Everything, download the installer again and reinstall it. Let us know how it goes.

http://www.voidtools.com/

 

Damn. Just did. It's still telling me only 80 objects. Again mostly in the OEM folder.

 

Jesse Newell...

Any chance your security could have flagged the program? Some security programs don't like when a file can be opened and manipulated through a program other than the one it opens in for use/edit. I noticed this with PortableApps when using the container to open the app and then opening/manipulating a file. Firewall always seems to think it's a keylogging risk or clipboard monitoring risk...

 

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

I don't know about that. I wouldn't know how to check. Everything's been working fine the last year or so, and I haven't changed any security programs or settings. This problem only started about an hour ago.

 

Is this problem confined to Everything? What happens if you use the built-in search facility in Windows when looking for the same files?

 

It runs fine, but incredibly slowly. That's why I need Everything to work again. I can't be arsed with the standard Windows search.

 

I'm not suggesting you use Windows Search, I'm trying to establish whether the problem is with Everything or with Windows. But if you can find files in Windows that you can't find in Everything, and if this problem has only just started, why don't you just revert to a system restore point from yesterday?

 

I've never tried a system restore before. How is it done?

 

Just tried this. It was good for clearing about 20 gigs of wasted space from my hard drive, but unfortunately it's only had a minor effect on Everything. It's now showing 84 objects instead of 80.

 

In Vista or Win 7 just type system restore in Start > Search. In 8.1 it's in Control Panel > Recovery.

 

Thanks. Does it require a restart?

 

Sorry, yes it does.

 

No worries.

 

Can I create a system restore point for yesterday?

 

Nope, either you have restore points available or you don't. How many, or whether you have any at all, depends on your settings.

 

OK. I'll let you know when it's done.

 

Hope it works for you

 

Not trying to barge in here. Did you by any chance change the Search options? This is the default - Pic attached. Bowing out now.....

 

Unfortunately, not, so far. This is getting more and more worrying, in fact. System Restore restarted the computer, but then popped up this dialog box:

"System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed.

Details:

System Restore failed while scanning the file system on the drive C:\
The drive might be corrupt. You might want to retry System Restore after running chkdsk /R on this disk.
An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x8007045d)

You can try System Restore again and select a different restore point. If you continue to see this error, you can try an advanced recovery method."

What should I do?

 

No, I didn't. It now seems to be a problem with my hard drive.

 

Problem solved. It was a bad sector or something on my C drive. I ran chkdsk /R on it as the System Restore dialog box suggested and that fixed it. Everything's working again. It told me it found 365,000 files on my system, and not 80 like earlier.

 

Jesse Newell...

Glad you got your problem solved...

Thought I would mention that it might be a good time to run a full scan of your hard drive to get a look at the overall health of the drive. When sectors start to go, drives can go down hill fast. Also, if you grab an image of your system and then store it on a separate drive, you will be able to restore very easily to the point of the image if the drive goes.

Here are some test tools:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/tophddiag.htm

I use HDDScan because it creates a graph and also a sector by sector view of each sector and its condition. Also, it has a graphic that breaks down response times and shows how many sectors are performing slowly and how many are actually bad.

If you go with one of these programs and run it in Windows, response times will be slightly slower overall than if you ran it from a cd/dvd during boot. If you find one that runs off a cd/dvd, that would be ideal, but, any way at all, it helps to know in advance if a drive is in trouble.

Let us know if you need any help interpreting test results. Screenshots are helpful for that if you do run one of the tests...

 

Oh god, I hope the drive isn't about to go. The computer's only about 6 months old. My last laptop lasted me eight years. At least I've got all my important files backed up to an external drive. I'll run a test in the morning and post the results here. I've no idea how to create an image of the drive, so I'll need help with that. Thanks.

 

Jesse Newell...

Yes, definitely grab an image of the system asap. Most recommended program is Macrium Reflect. You will need a blank CD/DVD to use for burning the Macrium Reflect restore disk, and you will need, of course, the ability to burn (a working CD/DVD that supports burning). Basically, the restore CD/DVD, once burned, can be inserted into the CD/DVD drive before booting, and then the restore program will start automatically in place of Windows. From the program, you can choose a backup image to restore and in about 10-20 minutes your system is back to where it was when the image was created. You will still need to keep up to date with separate backups of important personal files, so changes are saved to those, but the OS will be there in the image along with all of your OS settings. Imaging is a huge relief in this way. It's just so easy to restore a broken or damaged OS installation this way or also to restore to a new/replacement disk when a main (OS) drive fails.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html

You will need a backup drive of some kind. The best way to go is to get a USB drive caddy and then add a drive to it, unless you already have a reliable backup hard drive (sounds like you do have one). Flash drives are not very reliable for backing up. They're OK for moving files and storing things for short periods of time, but a real HD is best.

Since your PC is new, the HD test should tell you if you got a lemon drive. You should be able to replace it under warranty I would think...

 

This went on past my bedtime last night so I didn't know about the system restore failure. Anyway, very pleased you got it sorted with chkdsk. Excellent advice from AtlBo, particularly about grabbing a disk image while it's still OK. It's a good idea to do that fairly regularly. Also, the drive manufacturers offer free disk checking utilities so that's an easy way of checking the health of the drive which would be accepted by the manufacturer for warranty purposes should it come to that.

 

Sorry for taking so long to reply. Been busy the last several days making sure all my important files are backed up in case anything goes wrong. Can you tell me how I should properly use HDDScan to get a fully detailed report? And then how I can post that report here? Thanks.

Thanks. How do I check who my hard drive manufacturer is?

 

Jesse Newell...

With HDDScan, you download the program from here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hddscan_for_windows.html

Install the program and open it. Set the drive to your main drive...probably C..., using the dropdown box top left. It will probably already be set correctly. Click on the drive icon just right of the dropdown, and a new window will open. Select "Surface Tests". Select the "Read" test and then click the "Add test" button top right of the new window. The started task will appear in the box in the lowest window. Double click on the task to see the options for viewing the various graphics outputs.

What I do with these, typically, is screenshot the various graphics outputs once the test is done and save them in the pics folder. If I have a question about the health of a drive, I can then post someplace to see if anyone has any input. Depending on the size of your drive and your processor, a drive test could take an hour or more.

To see the type of drive you have: Start->Accessories->System Tools->System Information->Components->Storage->Disks. Where it says model, if you see ST at the front of the model type, the drive is Seagate. If you see WDC, the drive is Western Digital. Not sure about the others, but yours is likely one or the other of those.

Once you know the brand, you can Google a search like the following:

<your drive manufacturer> hard drive test

That should bring up the link to the manufacturer's download for their app.

Either way should be fine, but I do like the graphical output provided by HDDScan. I really like seeing how many sectors are nearing bad, while the last time I used a manufacturer's test, I believe the output was simply pass or fail...

 

Thanks. The test is 5% completed now. I'll post screenshots as soon as it's done.

 

Jesse Newell...

OK, np...hopefully the drive is in good shape...rolleyes

 

Here's the report:

Open Disk
Test : RD-Read


Executing
Block start at 93440 time 86ms
Block start at 423936 time 54ms
Block start at 1158144 time 120ms
Block start at 1958912 time 53ms
Block start at 2127872 time 102ms
Block start at 4104960 time 105ms
Block start at 4545024 time 100ms
Block start at 5271040 time 62ms
Block start at 6201088 time 128ms
Block start at 6525440 time 80ms
Block start at 7212544 time 69ms
Block start at 7696640 time 85ms
Bad block found, start LBA : 8401408

And the graph,



and the map,

 

Jesse Newell...

OK, thanks for the pics. Drive looks like it definitely needs a chkdsk to verify what you are seeing in the pic, but it looks like you are losing alot of sectors. Here is a relatively clean scan:

https://vnwe0q.bn1303.livefilestore...XnQgVlVX2d2gWC3H7kdxvQ/Drive+Test+Results.jpg

https://vnwe0q.bn1303.livefilestore...GZpY3OLCxzJF4/Drive Test Results 2.jpg?psid=1

The graphs confirm the chkdsk you ran, but they also indicate you could be facing an epic fail of the drive very soon. It would be a good idea to make sure you have an up to date image backup of the drive saved to a different drive, and then I would be looking for a new drive. Images are amazing, because they can be restored to any drive, so I really recommend that in this situation...

Let us know if you require any assistance with that...

 

Damn. This is looking really depressing. I'd rather not use that onedrive scan as I don't have a Microsoft account, and I'd rather not get one. Is there another you could recommend?

 

Jesse Newell...

Those pics are pics I posted on Microsoft OneDrive (cloud storage/sharing site) that are pics of the results of a scan I ran a while back when I bought a used PC. If you look at the first one, you see that there are very few low points (troughs) along the graph. Then if you look at the second pic, you see that the response times for the sectors are fairly low. All of this means that this drive is in good shape.

On your scan, you have quite a large number of troughs on the first graph. Those represent lag times in the response of the drive to the read test and really big trouble for that drive. The second graph you posted shows that many of the sectors are in trouble with 382 sectors being read at between 150 ms and 500 ms. Then you see 6 at >500 ms and the one bad...just like your chkdsk reported a while back in the thread.

Sometimes a disk will just have a bad sector but otherwise be OK. However, in the case of your drive, it looks to me like it's about to become unusuable. It could be months or it could be days, but, definitely, make sure you back up your info asap. Grabbing a system image and storing somewhere would be a good idea, too. There are some very wise backup specialists and so on here at MGs, so let us know if we can help you with any questions on how to back up the data on the drive.

Compare the data in the second picture I posted to the one you posted of the same graph in HDDScan. You will see in the one I posted more what the numbers should be for you to feel comfortable with the health of your current hard drive.

Sorry to say so, but it looks pretty grim for your drive. I know it's almost new, but the scan is really pretty bad.

BTW, what kind of drive do you have? You may have mentioned, but is your PC still under warranty?

 

AtlBo, your links don't show anything - I get errors or page can't be displayed when tried with 2 different browsers: Palemoon and IE 11.

 

Sorry, I misunderstood. Thought you were linking to another scanning method. I can't check what kind of drive I have using the method posted earlier because I don't have a traditional start menu. I'm on Windows 8.1, and I don't know how to find the Accessories menu. I don't know how I stand in terms of a warranty. It's an Acer laptop that I bought through Amazon Marketplace rather than direct from Acer, so I don't know what kind of warranty I have. I have gotten a blank DVD ready though, and have Macrium Reflect ready. Haven't a clue how to use it though, but I better create this image quick, because the computer's so buggy right now that I have a feeling that the next time I switch it off it won't come back on again.

 

plodr...

Thanks. First time I have tried to link to OneDrive, so I guess I messed up something there.

Jesse Newell...

Sorry if you couldn't see the pics I tried to post. They are exactly like the scan results you got as they are pics of the graphs from the same program you used. I made some screenshots a week or two ago after running HDDScan on this PC.

Here is a link on how to create an image using Macrium Reflect:

http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50074.aspx

Here is a link on how to create a restore CD/DVD to restore an image using Macrium Reflect:

http://www.macrium.com/webhelp/starting_with_the_rescue_cd.asp

The first time with imaging is a little intimidating. You don't need to change any settings, so that helps. Read carefully the page at the link about creating a system image. That's what you really need to do as fast as possible...

 

NM...can't get the pics to work.

The links I posted I guess just work for me or I guess are for my OneDrive access only....

 

Jesse Newell...

Sorry about the confusion with the pictures. The links were supposed to be to pics just like yours.

I have attached the pics to this post, so you can see what a healthy drive scan should look like. As you can see, this test was performed using HDDScan, just as you did to create your pics.

Thanks JoeRay12. I have a PhotoBucket account and a DropBox account, but I haven't installed DB on this PC. Thought OneDrive would work like DropBox...oh well. Guess I'll go back to PhotoBucket for this type of thing...

 

Thanks. I've managed to create a system image and have it stored on an external hard drive that I use for backing up all my other stuff. I'm about to create a Rescue DVD but I have a couple of questions first. Where it says, "Rebuild the rescue environment by copying the required files", is that necessary or optional? And doesn't the Rescue DVD have to have the system image on it?

Yeah. Better to use an image host that allows hotlinking, like I did when I posted my images.

 

jesus. Judging by those, I'll be lucky if this drive makes it through the night.

 

Jesse Newell...

Yes, your scans look rough for sure.

About the rebuild option, here is information from a thread on the Macrium message board:

2. The rebuild process is used when you need to incorporate a new version of Macrium Reflect or you need to create a different architecture of resuce media or you want to modify rescue media to use a different base WIM (Windows Image).

You don't need to do this. If you were setting up a restore environment for Windows native backup utility based images (.wim images), you could adjust for that and create a disk that would make it possible to restore those.

As for the rescue disk needing the image...no, you boot with the disk in the DVD drive and then the Macrium restore environment program will start instead of Windows. You simply select restore inside the program and then you will have the ability to navigate to the image you made to restore it to any drive connected to the PC. Just a tip...you can restore to a drive larger than the one you currently use, I believe, but I do believe that it is best to get one that is the same size to avoid confusion. In the case where an imaged Windows partition is smaller than the drive size, (if I remember correctly), you will end up with unusable space on the drive. You can reclaim it if I'm right with partitioning software, but you can also avoid the whole thing by using the same size drive as a replacement. Maybe someone else can help here and clarify on all of this.

BTW...even if you have an empty drive in the place of a broken Windows installation, you can boot into the rescue disk and restore to the blank drive. Actually, you can boot into the restore disk environment without any HD connected to the PC at all...just won't have anything to restore to...

Yes, I guess I need to get back to using PhotoBucket. I will take a look around in OneDrive to see if there is a setting that I need to tweak, but I was choosing to make the picture public for anyone with the link. Not sure what went wrong...

 

Thanks. What about my second question though? When I create the Rescue DVD, will it have the same system image as I've backed up to my external HDD?

 

Jesse Newell...

Sorry, I wasn't as clear as I should have been.

The answer is no. The disk will contain a program that will run in place of Windows on boot and give you access to the image (as long as it is on a connected drive) and then will give you the ability to restore it to a new drive (as long as it is connected).

You can also restore an image backup to a drive that already has an installation of Windows. In this way, you can roll back to an earlier time with your OS if you run into some OS corruption, etc.

No need for Windows activation or anything with images. That's the beauty of the whole thing. Plop the disk in the drive and in 15 minutes you are back to a clean installation. Still have to keep your files updated in another backup, and you may want to replace your old image from time to time with a new one (as long as you are sure the image is clean of malware and corruption)...

You still have to obey rules when it comes to Windows and having the correct activation key on the correct PC. If you just restore to any old PC, eventually you will run into activation problems and have to pay for a new key. However, you can freely anytime restore an image, even on a new drive, onto the PC the image was made from...

 

Oops, hadn't thought of OS corruption. There shouldn't be. I hope not anyway. I'm gonna go out tomorrow and have a brand new drive installed. What are the steps involved in getting the new one booted up? Does the DVD have to be in the laptop before I turn it on, or can I put it in after turning it on? When should I connect the external drive? Will the DVD be able to find the image on it immediately or will it have to search for it? And, lastly, what about all the apps on my laptop and their settings? Will they all be saved, or just the OS settings?

 

Didn't see this bit until now. I'll definitely be restoring onto the same PC. I don't have the Windows activation key. Windows was preinstalled when I bought the PC.

 

Jesse Newell...

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Looks like your system was fixed by the chkdsk, so corruption shouldn't be a problem. You got the image just in time I think.

You can initiate a restart of the OS, if you are in Windows, before running the restoration and then open the DVD tray and place the disk in the tray before the reboot begins, or place the disk in before you boot, if you are booting cold, either way.

Before the boot

This will be clear to you when the program starts. You will have to find it. First, you select restore, and then the dialog will pop up so that you can select the backup image you made.

Everything will be exactly the same as when you created the image. If you make a bookmark tonight or whatever, it won't be in the image so it won't be restored. However, all your programs and files to that point (and settings) will be there that were there at the time of the image creation.

As for a simple guide. All you do is connect your new drive to the PC, plop the disk in the DVD, boot, wait for the restore program to start from the DVD, select restore, find the image, and click to start the process. The rest is automatic.

You will be hooked, I promise. Imaging is like having 5000 pounds of tension lifted off the shoulders. Honestly, eventually, you will be asking yourself why you don't have multiple RAID (duplicate backup) disks in a drive tower and so on to guarantee that the images aren't lost ever, even though they can be recreated. That's really the ideal world for backup...

 

Great, thanks. I'll create the Rescue DVD now, and then this shitty drive can go **** itself.

 

Jesse Newell...

You won't need to worry about this. Actually the restoration probably wouldn't work to a different PC, anyway, because the drivers would not be the same, so Windows wouldn't start. Imaging is just meant to get you back up and running on the PC the image was created from fast when things go wrong...

 

lol

Let us know how it all turns out or if you have any difficulties...