Windows explorer woes (Win 8 x64)

[PrincessFrosty]

Here's strange problem, I have a bunch of hard drives that are encrypted with truecrypt partitions, one specific folder on one specific drive is not listing contents anymore in windows explorer, it simply looks empty and the progress bar to read the folder contents never reaches the end, explorer.exe sits there using about 20% CPU usage.

The rest of the drive reads/writes fine, I've run checkdisk on it and that reveals a 100% pass with no issues.

To make things stranger if I open an application like VLC and use the file>open menu to search for files in that folder, it can read it fine, play back videos in that folder without an issue.

This is really baffling...anyone got any ideas? Any suggestions for tools that can scan the folder structure and work out why this is occuring?

 

[Smoove910]

Is the folder 'hidden'? Right click on the folder, and click 'properties'. Also, while you are in the properties tab, see what security settings you have on it. You simply might not have permissions to see the files, which would make it appear there's nothing in there.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

It's not hidden, in fact explorer lists the folder name normally but when I open it it cannot list the files inside that folder.

I have full admin access to the computer and the folder permissions haven't changed, besides I'd expect a permissions error if that was the problem, and it's not. Also apps like VLC player wouldn't be able to list the files in there correctly either, yet it can.

Something extremely strange is going...I don't get it, there must be some issue with the file system for that folder, but chkdisk doesn't find anything! I don't get it.

 

[hurrakan]

I've experienced issues like this on Windows 7. I also use Truecrypt containers (not partitions). Sometimes I open a normal folder full of files but Windows Explorer shows it to be empty... usually if I navigate away and come back then the contents are shown properly.

Anyway, try this: http://lifehacker.com/fix-an-unresponsive-windows-explorer-window-with-the-gr-1490366886

Annoying if this problem still exists in Windows 8, but can't say I'm surprised 🙄