Solved Ccleaner has wrecked my system

[seavixen32]

You're very welcome, pleased to hear your system is up and running again.

Your positive feedback on Windows Seven Forums is much appreciated and thanks for taking time to update us.

 

[JMH]

If you in fact "Took Ownership" of your entire C drive, THAT is what has hosed your Windows install. A Repair Install /may/ fix it but likely you are looking at a complete reinstall.

So are we saying that 'taking ownership' deleted my 'installer' folder? How is this possible :shock: ?

Anyway, I have repaired my system. I tried a repair install but despite taking over four hours (including uninstalling SP1, some drivers and some programs then reinstalling afterwards) it did not work :banghead: .

I have now done a fresh install and I have no file access issues. As I suspected my original install must have been flawed which sent me down the ill advised (but very educational) path.

This is a great forum. Thanks to you all for your help. I will be adding to your reputations.

Our pleasure indeed.

 

[Rally]

What I have learned from this escapade:

• Do not let Ccleaner (or probably any other cleaner) access the registry
• Take ownership only of the individual folders you want
• Check 7 Forum before messing around

 

[preiius]

No, important lesson is you backup often, more relevantly, disk images. You WILL break your system, whether due to action by you, or through driver update or even antivirus definition update, it's happened before.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Do not let Ccleaner (or probably any other cleaner) access the registry

CCleaner wasn't the cause of your issues. It's perfectly safe to use, and gives a simple way of restoring any changes, if you want to be sure.

 

[Rally]

CCleaner wasn't the cause of your issues.

Yes, some people have said that but I don't understand how 'owning' my hard drive has deleted the 'installer' folder - it vanished.

 

[Vertex]

CCleaner is less aggressive than other tools out there like Tuneup Utilities especially on the Registry cleaner, however the Registry cleaner function is what the less skilled and beginners should not just mingle with. Even the guys at the Piriform forum will tell you that. I have been using CCleaner for years and it did not give me any problems and like what the others said, always do a backup.

I think you are mistaken by saying that technical support is only offered by Piriform if you pay for it. Well, they do have a support forum which you have missed. Its here:

Piriform Community Forums

 

[OldMX]

What I have learned from this escapade:

• Do not let Ccleaner (or probably any other cleaner) access the registry
• Take ownership only of the individual folders you want
• Check 7 Forum before messing around

CCleaner did nothing to your system, stop arguing it, because ccleaner does nto deletes folders, even with every option checked.
The ownership you performed made more harm than good, not recommended at all.
Yes, next time before making something stupid like messing with folder permissions, ask in an appropiate forum first.

 

[EmmCee]

Hi,

The title may seem alarmist as there seems to be so much support hereabouts for Ccleaner but I beleive it may be true. Let me explain.

Recently I noticed many of my icons had reverted to generic windows. So I tried a system restore. This failed with an error message saying some files could not be accessed and gave the code 0x80070005. After some advice searching I made sure I 'owned' my entire drive, turned off UAC, uninstalled antivirus software and tried again with the same result.

After more searching it was suggested that Ccleaner had deleted my c:\windows\installer folder. I looked and there was no such folder. As a result I cannot now re-install or uninstall a lot of my third party programs - including Microsoft Office :shock: . Missing icons was just the tip of the iceburg. I do believe Ccleaner is the culprit as it includes an option to turn off access to the system 'installer'.

I visited Piriform's site to discover that technical support is only offered if you pay for it :shock: .

Why would Ccleaner delete such an important folder? but more importantly how can I recover my system restore? I do not want to disable and then enable it as I need access to previous restore points (even though I don't know if this will even help).

Does anyone know of any way to regain the installation information which was held within the deleted 'installer' folder? What is a repair re-install?

I will not be using Ccleaner again and I cannot even tell them why. Imbecilic sharks.

Agree 100%. Any firm that doesn't include a "Contact Us" link should be given a very wide birth. If they can't speak to customers why use their products?

 

[DeaconFrost]

Agree 100%. Any firm that doesn't include a "Contact Us" link should be given a very wide birth. If they can't speak to customers why use their products?

Because many of these great little apps are actually written by one or two people as a fun little project, who have other jobs/lives. CCleaner is a simple app that does what it is supposed to, and nothing more. There's really no need to contact any support, as long as you don't force CCleaner to go in and do something it shouldn't. As long as you use it as it's default, you won't have any issues. Too many people on too many forum boards recommend it for it not to be a quality app.