Folders are "invisible"

[MsMaria]

Hey guys,

Somehow, someway, my folders that I have spent the last 3 weeks compiling and organizing for my Downloads folder have "disappeared". One day there, next day gone. The weird thing is that when I started the arduous task of replacing them, I get a pop-up stating that the file I am trying to add to the downloads folder already has a file of that name.

For instance, my MATY folder is gone, but when I try to add a new MATY folder, I get the pop-up. I would guess that at least 10 folders are missing/invisible. I have searched the enitre? computer looking for wanderlust files to no avail.

Any suggestions other than starting all over? I am getting ready to fire up the game to see if those files are indeed there, but not there, so to speak. This is a new one for me.

Pointing and laughing may now ensue.

[unregister]

Could you have made those folders "hidden" instead of "read only"? There is a way to allow hidden folders to be seen. Just can't remember what I did to make hidden folders visible as I've only used it once and left it that way from years back.

[MsMaria]

Thank you for replying. 

No, I did the usual unzip and drop into individual folders, aka objects, mods, etc. I just returned from checking out the game and although I get the notice that the file I am adding is already there, it is fact, is not. None of my MATY items are there and the buy/build objects are very thinned down.

Why it tells me they are there, when in fact I now know they are not, is a mystery. It looks like I will have to start from scratch. Bullocks! 

eta: Clean installer and HCDU will not run due to "problems" and must close. I am thinking I may have to start anew. I know I have SecuRom as well as the FT 3 patch, so maybe that is the issue?

After a long year or so of not being able to play, much less type a complete sentence, due to mitigating circumstances, this is a real pain in the neck. I so looked forward to playing again.

[BattyCoda]

MsMaria,

Have you perhaps logged into a non-administrator account while doing this?

Other than that, this smacks of something badly corrupted.

I think I would do some cruising on the Windows help sites.

Sorry, that's all I have.

[morriganrant]

Have you tried restarting the computer during this time? Have you tried to look for them in safe mode?

[jolrei]

Or get a DOS prompt, select your drive and directory and type "dir/w" that might show you whether you have the files and windoze is just not reading them.

You need to know your DOS commands for this, of course.

[Simsample]

Could you have made those folders "hidden" instead of "read only"? There is a way to allow hidden folders to be seen. Just can't remember what I did to make hidden folders visible as I've only used it once and left it that way from years back.

In windoze explorer, tools> folder options> view tab: check 'show hidden files and folders'. You should then be able to remove the hidden file status on them, if that is the issue.

[MsMaria]

I'm not sure how to use safe mode, it's been quite some time since I've done it and I had a tech on the line to guide me through. I'll try the hidden file method, although when I did a search earlier, I did check off to include all hidden files and folders. Won't hurt to try anyway. Morrigant, I did restart the computer, yes. I even tried Systems Restore.

Battycoda, I tend to agree. I did have a Trojan a few days ago, but was able to get rid of it. I doubt the two issues are connected. But anything's possible.

[morriganrant]

I wonder if there is anything causing this, it's like the 3-4th time I've heard of this happening in the last month. Of course at least two of those had a high possibility of being human error.

[MsMaria]

Idon't know, but it is highly frustrating. This will be the third time in a week I've have to come back to get MATY files for the game. They keep "poofing". That goes for any folder past the letter 'A'. All gone. 
As long as I leave them on the desk top they are fine, drop them into my DL folder and they are MIA. My DL folder is the Bermuda Triangle. Blerg.

I guess I will break down and uninstall/re-install, just to say I tried it. 


EDIT Less than 5 minutes ago, after making this post, I d/l the FT version of MATY mods to my desktop, renamed it Downloads MATY and dropped it in my DL folder in the game. I immediately opened the DL folder and guess what? MATY folder is not there. This is beyond weird.

EDIT 2 I decided to add a new MATY folder to my DL's. This time I named it 'A Maty Mod App'. Dumb name but the key here was to make sure it started with an 'A'. Just experimenting. The folder lives! It is alive, visible and well in my DL folder. What to make of that? Haven't a clue. 

Any ideas? 

[Angie]

Hi Maria,

I had something really similar happen to me last year.  Everything in my Downloads folder that started with the letters S through Z disappeared.  When I tried to replace them, the new files disappeared, too!  It's such a weird problem and I totally understand your frustration.  Anyway, this is what I did to work around it.

When I made all of the hidden files visible (using advice similar to Simsample's), it turned out there were some weird corrupted quasi-files hiding in my folder.  I deleted those using a tool called Unlocker (you can download it for free).  Then I created a new Downloads folder and cut and pasted all of my good files into the new folder.  I deleted the old Downloads folder with Unlocker, too.  Afterwards, I had to redownload everything with a filename starting with S or higher, but almost everything else was okay!

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[MsMaria]

Angie, thank you so much for sharing. I will look for the Unlocker and try it. I'm game for anything at this point. I haven't had time to deal with it today, but hopefully I can deal with it tomorrow. If I have to name all of my folders something beginning with 'A', then that's what I'll do, but the problem has to be much deeper than that.

Thank you again for your input.