can't open my documents etc - not responding

Hi guys!

I've only had this problem today. I'm using windows 7 home premium.

When I try to access files in 'my documents' or simply try to click on my 'pictures/my music etc.' I keep on getting "windows explorer is not responding" then everything freezes.

Windows tries to search for a problem, but after half an hour I gave up waiting for anything to happen.

This is the first time it has happened and I haven't recently installed anything.

Thanks for your help in advance - Justine : )

 

First thing is to try a reboot. Might as well go the whole hog and turn off the computer, then turn it off at the wall.Then try a reboot and see if it works (um... turn it back on at the wall first - just remembered your name ).

Next thing might be a system restore to a time when you know everything was working..

 

Thanks so much... I have tried shutting down etc. numerous times and will try the system restore and let you know how I go ~

 

OK. If that doesn't work, you could try booting in Safe Mode (tap on the F8 key while booting). That might tell us something.

 

Wow... that took forever! I tried to restore to a critical windows update from yesterday... unfortunately I got a message similar to this:

"System resore failed to extract a microsoft silverlight file from the restore point. There was a disk failure during the restore, which maybe caused by bad sectors on the disk. Try running chkdsk /R on this disk and try restore again"

I would have no idea where to start doing that : )

Come to think of it, I've had problems with that silverlight thing - copy and pasting etc. compared to the old system.

In the mean time I'll try the safe mode/F8

Thanks for your patience!

 

Hmmm... You may have disk errors causing the problem.
I picked up these instructions from another site (slightly modified) on how to run chkdsk.:

In Windows Vista, and therefore, probably W7:

1. Open Windows Explorer (Computer).
2. Right-click on the disk you want to check (probably C: drive).
3. Select Properties.
4. Click the Tools tab.
5. Under Error Checking, click Check Now. If you're not an administrator, you should get a UAC box here.
6. Make sure Automatically fix file system errors is checked.
7. Click Start.
8. You may see a dialog box saying the drive is mounted and asking you if you should try to dismount it. Click Yes.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Running chkdsk on C: is a little tricky, because it can’t fix anything while the operating system is running. It has to be run BEFORE the operating system starts up. When you click Start for the C drive, you’ll see a dialog box telling you it can't run and asking if it should schedule a run on the next reboot. Click yes, then restart your machine.

Don't expect to be able to read the results. When it finishes, it continues with the boot in about five seconds.

 

Thanks again GCWesq!

I'll try your suggestion.

As for the safe mode / F8 process if I'm tapping on the F8 key what am I looking for or trying to achieve?

J ~

 

Bad news : (

When I went to 'computer' in explorer, that panel now freezes...

 

Start tapping as soon as the computer starts to boot, and you should get a black page with white writing with a number of options listed. One of them should be for starting in Safe Mode. Click on that.
Another one should be for Last Known Good Configuration. You could try that as well.

If you can get into Safe mode, try the chkdsk instructions again.

 

Well six hours later... I think I'm in trouble as I had to send my resume and portfolio for a job back here in Oz tomorrow : (

Even in safe mode, as soon as I click on 'computer' nothing happens - just a little bloody blue circle going round and bloody round!

I did uninstall that silverlight thing, but haven't tried the system restore since due to the time it takes.

Many thanks - Teen ~

 

And now I'm told I don't have any restore points (she says almost in tears;;;

 

Here's another way to run chkdsk that might work (you need to be logged in as Administrator, or have Admin privileges to do this -- if you don't know what that means, just try it anyway):

Press and hold the Windows key (between Ctrl and Alt on the bottom left of the keyboard) and press r, and if a black panel opens, type in cmd and press run. When a new black panel opens type in :

chkdsk /f /r

then follow the instructions.

I was going to suggest this later, but to save time, you should also disconnect anything you don't need to run the computer - printer, any USB items, etc. Just leave the mouse, keyboard and monitor connected.

Edit: Just saw your last post. Sounds like Safe Mode booted... could you also try "Restore to Last Known Good Configuration"?

 

G'day.
I'm hoping you've fixed your problem by now, but if not, it did occur to me that I have seen similar behaviour to this on a computer that had a full hard drive. You might like to check that.