Folders hidden, with padlock symbol, after being copied to C:

mmp997 · 23 Aug 2013

Following a hard drive crash I recently installed a solid state drive (SSD), powered by Windows 7. I installed the mail browser Eudora 7.1.0.9 on c>program files>eudora and copied its data files onto c>program files>eudora data. Everything works fine, mail is delivered and stored, no problems.

However the system reports there is no data in the data folder, i.e., when I put my cursor on c>program files>eudora data, it reports no data! "Properties" reports 3.18 KB of data, when 11.9 GB of data was copied into it.

Can this be true? Indeed no. When I browse "c>program files>eudora data" using C Copy, the folder is clearly full of data, but each data folder has a strange lock symbol on it.

"Show hidden files and folders" does not make the data show up.
Unchecking "read only" under "properties" has no effect.
Yet there is no functionality problem. The data is in fact in the folder (despite what "Properties" says), I can read and write to the folder, and my Eudora works.

How can I get Properties to recognize my data and Windows Explorer to display it?
What do these strange padlock symbols mean?

gregrocker · 23 Aug 2013

Try the Take Ownership Shortcut

andrew129260 · 23 Aug 2013

Just want to add something here:

Programs sometimes do this to protect their data. It is there to prevent users from "messing with It" so to speak. This is why.

ThrashZone · 23 Aug 2013

Could be Windows self defense thinking these files came from another computer ?
Take ownership should cure that,
The Lock symbol usually means the folder is not shared, see what System shows as permissions.
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...rmissions.html
Indexing options,
Index Locations - Add or Remove

AddRAM · 23 Aug 2013

I believe it`s only because it`s not shared, right click 1 of the folders and choose to share it, the lock should, I say again, Should be gone.

I see Thrash is all over it, good job

mmp997 · 24 Aug 2013

In reply to gregrocker, can I use "takeownership" on an individual folder within drive C:, viz "c>program files>eudora data"? The "takeownership" instructions warn against using it on drive C:

I have tried sharing "c>program files>eudora data", but this doesn't change anything.

gregrocker · 24 Aug 2013

Yes, you can Take Ownership for individual files and folders on C, just not the entire drive.

mmp997 · 25 Aug 2013

No, Take Ownership didn't work. It installed correctly, I right clicked and clicked as instructed, and (just to make sure) restarted Windows 7, but the folders and files are still not visible. Yet according to Y Copy, they are there - and because Eudora is working normally, I know that they are reading and writing and functioning.

gregrocker · 25 Aug 2013

Is this only on the Eudora folder? If so it may be an anomaly with how that data is stored. I would ask Eudora Help.

Have you tried copying the contents of the folder to another?

mmp997 · 25 Aug 2013

Hmmmmmmmmm. [1] Disk check. Why? The disk is 100% new, unpacked last week shiny and gleaming out of its Samsung package. Bad sectors? The whole 12GB of data Eudora is accessing is performing faultlessly, otherwise Eudora would gunge up, fail to retrieve data, etc. So what will a disk check do? I'm not being contrary, I'd just like to understand the reasoning. [2] Data anomaly - maybe. But I previously had the same data stored on two other drives, where in both cases it was 100% visible.

I will ask the Eudora forum, which however only barely exists and is hardly maintained these days. But I am convinced this has something to do with my old hard drive having been password-protected. When it failed, I installed Windows 7 on an SSD and accessed the data from that, and this seems a lingering legacy of the fact that the data is not being accessed via the original login and password.