The mystery of the missing files.

[speaktoandrew]

Hi,

I've only just got onto windows 7 and I'm trying to get two machines setup. Both are running Windows 7 Home Premium.

My problem is this...

On one of the machines, I've got Sage Accounts installed. When I open the Sage software and then go to the Backup option it shows me a Sage Dialog box and when I navigate to the folder ...

C:\Program Files (x86)\Sage\Accounts\ACCDATA

I can see a lot of files. However, when I go to the same folder using Windows Explorer the same folder shows me only 2 files.

I thought it must be a routine 'hidden files' problem, so I went into the folder options dialog in Windows 7 Explorer and set the folder to display hidden files and folders. I even set the option which shows protected files.

But yet I'm still having the same problem where I can see a lot of files in this folder when i view it in Sage but when I look at the same folder in Windows Explorer its shows only 2 files.

I hope someone here can tell me how I can get over this problem. Any help will be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Andrew.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Hello Andrew, Welcome!

Do me a favor and try this. Open a command prompt, and type dir "C:\Program Files (x86)\Sage\Accounts\ACCDATA". Are the files/folders listed?

~Jonathan

 

[Boscohound]

I have exactly the same problem. I run a program called Automatic Investor. It asks when I quit if I want to make a backup. It shows all the backup files in the Automatic Investor folder under Program Files (x86).

It's main database program runs there as well.

Only problem is--none of these files is in there, and the system can't seem to find them. I have no way of restoring the database, since I can't find the main database file to replace with a backup. But the program clearly finds it. The database program I can see is dated September 2009, but clearly, the program is finding an more up-to-date version.

Finally, I did open a command prompt and look for the files. It doesn't see them either. Is that weird or what? Yet they must be here somewhere.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[EricT]

If you have not yet found it, try looking for "C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Sage\Accounts\ACCDATA".

Windows 7 will silently put things in the VirtualStore if you do not have sufficient rights to the requested directory. When the application uses an API to request the relevant program files directory, the system returns a virtual directory that contains the files in your personal VirtualStore if they exist, and only returns the ones from the main directory if there is not a matching file in your VirtualStore.

In general you do not have any write rights to the program files directories unless you have started the application with "Run as administrator".

My version of Sage would by default put the ACCDATA directory in "ProgramData". All users get standard read/list/execute privileges here, and limited create/write without the normally associated delete rights.

Hope this helps.

Eric

 

[kemanuel]

Missing files in windows 7 explorer

I also had the problem of files that were not displaying in explorer but were present, as indicated by opening up a DOS window and doing a directory listing.

When reviewing the files in the dos window, I discovered one with an exceptionally long file name (with blanks in it). By "exceptionally long", I mean something like a whole paragraph of text. I must have given this file the long name by accident. Anyway, I just deleted the file (I could have renamed it), and instantly all the other files were visible in explorer.

So if you are having this problem, look in the dos directory listing for a file with an unreasonably long file name and rename it or delete it.

 

[tpanc13]

Thanks EricT

The mystery is solved. The application I was using was Any Password Pro and like the others, the application "claimed" it was opening the password file from C:\Program Files (x86)\Any Passwod Pro. However. it was opening from the Virtual Storage folder as Eric pointed out. I was trying to share the file between Window 7 accounts, but only the administrator account kept the changes made. The other user never saw any changes. Reason: As Eric said, the file was NOT the same one regardless of what Any Password indicated, because EACH user had a different USER folder and Virtual Storage folder. After setting up the application to RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR on each user, all is well. Thanks Eric.