Program Files (x86) Woes

[AL1]

I have a dual boot machine, Win7 Pro 64-bit and Kubuntu 9.10. Everybody was getting along just fine.

Today I booted from Windows, no problem; booted Kubuntu, no problem; then later rebooted to Windows. I now get a message that my Program Files (x86) folder is corrupt and unreadable. [While in Kubuntu I did nothing other than look at the list of files using Kubuntu. No file was opened or modified.]

- I tried dropping to a command prompt to run chkdsk (as recommended by the error screen) but cmd is corrupted
- So I booted off the Win7 disk and was able to run chkdsk - no problems found (with the /f and later the /r switches)

When Win7 opens, all my 32-bit programs are unusable, and I can't explore the Program Files (x86) folder. Properties lists it as 0 bytes. However, when I browse the folder from a Kubuntu boot, everything seems normal and is accessible.

I (gently) used some Kubuntu ntfs tools (such as ntfsfix to flag the volume as dirty so Windows would check/repair the volume on boot) but got nowhere. [I have no idea if this is useful, but I included the ntfsinfo output from both my Program Files and Program Files (x86) folders.]

Any help would be much appreciated!!!

AL

 

[Tews]

Your best bet is to run a repair install...

 

[AL1]

Ok, I just found this link:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

which reminded me to add that I tried a System Restore from the Win7 DVD but it failed because the file that mattered was in the x86 folder.

I'm off to try - thank you!

AL

 

[Tews]

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[AL1]

Follow-up:

I managed to avoid the repair/install - which, frankly, after reading the link above made me a little nervous.

I decided in the end that there was a permission or ownership issue with the folder which was perhaps set (or reset) when I viewed the file structure from Kubuntu. This seemed even more likely when I copied the entire folder over to an external hard drive to back it up before mucking around - and the copied folder also had the "corrupt / unreadable" error. Instead of (I realize now) just trying to retake ownership of the native folder, I used the Kubuntu 'cp' (copy) command to make a copy of the folder on the original disk. The neat thing here is that cp allows you to strip attributes, so I asked it to strip all ownership during the copy.

Long story short, after the original folder was deleted and the copy renamed, all worked just fine. (Only took how many hours to get to that point? Ooph. )

So the nagging question is how (assuming this was the cause) to "stealthily" open Windows files from Kubuntu.

In any case: Problem solved!

Thanks again,

AL