I've got a problem the Sony tech support can't help with so far. (I've got a Sony Viao puter)

Computer came with HD pre-partitioned as a C: and D: drive.  C: drive, 15 gig was 75-80% full out of the box with pre-loaded software.  the D: virtual drive was 92gig and empty.  Intended purpose of huge D: is for recording live television or video and editing.  I have a external hd (120g) for primary back up.  I'm using windows xp home SP2 and Norton internet security 2006.  (I suspect norton for some reason)

Some time back I created a new folder on D: drive "program files" to load new stuff to because C: was about to burst it's seams.  Over time D:/program files has grown to include about sixteen programs including things like Wings3d, Grass3d, Daz Studio, Ad-aware,knotplot, PS7, Norton IS, etc...  Several months ago I acquired broadband and upgraded to Service pack2,  about 30 days later I upgraded to Norton IS 2006 also.

Everything runs fine.  I can run programs within the folder fm desk top, start menu, and clicking .exe icons within the folder.  What I discovered about a  month ago, too long to do a system restore, is I can no longer add/move/change anything to or within that folder.  "access denied"  Now it is a big problem because Daz studio resides there and I can't install new critters into studio:  or add plug-ins, "access denied".  Safe mode doesn't help.  I can't un-install programs to start fresh. "access denied".  I am only user with admin abilities.  Logging in as Administrator in safe mode doesn't help. 

I'm concerned about reloading stuff somewhere else without uninstalling first in the hung up folder.

I suspect Norton for some reason since it resides there also. 

Anyone heard of like problem?  Any resolution ideas short on starting completely over?  I've googled and surfed tech forums to no avail.

Tks Willie

A month is not too long to do a system restore if and only if you do not have one dating back that far. However everything else you described is exactly the recommendations I would have for you. Safe mode ,admin, etc. Do you have your Windows disc? You could boot to it and do a repair on the same drive without getting rid of your software. This will restore the registry which sounds fried at this point. Or you could reinstall Windows on that separate partition as a dual boot and then save your files and work blow the primary partition away and reinstall it.

Let me know how it goes I do this for a living believe it or not…

If you have that disc check out this page.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm 

scroll down to the XP Repair install.

good luck!

@ Vile

I have a recovery disk fm Sony that has all the pre-loaded software including the original Win xp OS that came with system.  If do what is described, will windows go back to original and all updates including SP2 need to be downloaded again?  Should I hire a geek to to this? The only thing in the folder that really concerns me is Photo Shop.  I have the original disk of it and Norton if it is lost. All else is fm free internet and thank goodness my Daz Studio, people and animals are on cd's.  I think I should be concerned about proper un-installs of them, right?? 

About restore points,  it was too long a period fm when I even realized I had a problem to when any new programs had been added or changed.  I didn't know I had a problem because all programs within folder still run perfectly, just can't edit them in any way.  Tks for the response.

Willie

If you suspect Norton make sure all elements of Norton are turned off and not allowed to start up on boot. If the problem still occurs Then it's niot Norton.

...

My old version of photoshop has a conflict with Wings on my ME computer so that if I use Wings I have to reboot before photoshop will work. In the past Norton has been notorious for conflicting with other applications so I wouldn't doubt that Norton is a likely suspect.   Same with photoshop. My XP computer doesn't seem to have any conflicts but then I'm not using Norton on it. 

...

Check to see that the system restore is enabled and at least 10 percent of your main drive (C:) is free.(there is also something about how much hard disk space to use for system restore ) You might also have turned off one or more essential services. Never mess with the services settings unless you understand what they do.

if you have the disk for xp a nondestructive repair is possible but if your xp came loaded  with the computer you willl revert to the way it was when you got the computer. all your apps will still be there but the registry entrys will be gone, all the JUNK that came with the computer will be
re-installed and you will spend weeks getting everything straightened out.

Yes a recovery disc is different then the XP disc but it is worth a go. Tell me what kind of sony you have and we will look at some of the other options there should be a way around a factory reset (what happens with most recovery discs restoring back to the factory defaults like when you bought it and typically wiping your data off the drive...but you have another partition).

@ vile

Sony Viao  PVC-RS430G (UC)      OS version(as originally installed) 5.01.2600 SP1...but SP2 and all other MS critical updates since have been implemented.

C: is 15g w/ 4.15g free.....virtual drive D: is 91.7g w/ 37.6g free.... usb external J: is 111g w/ 51g free'(only thing residing on J: is the Western Digital back up of C: and D: ) I think it has the capabilities of making a boot disk also 

My problem has been esculated to beyond normal tech support at sony. I am to call them back today and speak with a tech specialist.  Keeping fingers crossed.  BTW,  I tried turning off all non essentials in start up, including Norton, and no change in being allowed to modify the errant folder.  Even booted with windows only running.

@  Vile  Should I consider purchase of boxed Windows as not cheap but a lot easier option than  total reconstruct of system. ???????

No don't purchase a Windows disc sometimes those don't work on OEM  systems for a repair anyhow. Boot to that recovery disc and lets see what your options are. But if you are under warrenty your best option is Sony tech support they will have a better idea on how to fix this.

Another option you can try is moving that hard drive into another computer and try an access it. This is starting to sound more like a permissions problem now more then just the registry.  Do you have XP home or professional? Can you check the properties of that folder?

have XP home

Yes, I can ck properties.  Yes, it may be a permissions issue.    Ugh, I talked to Sony and they washed their hands of it.  I am being told you can't install programs anywhere but on C: drive (didn't seem to want to listen when I told him all software will let you browse to where u want to install it and that the programs have run perfectly fm D: and that until resently I could add/move/ whatever in that D:programs file/   

 As far as total recovery,  he told me that should be done once a year anyhow as normal maintenance. ?  Is that true?   Start over fm scratch every year and rebuild everything???  If I'm going to have to rebuild I would need to repartition hd to make C: bigger anyhow. especially if all programs need to run fm C: like he says. 

Moving HD into another puter?  U speaking of moving hardware?  I guess I'm going to have to find a shop.  This is turning into a bad day, paise the Lord fm whom all things flow.  He teach me paitience.  Willie

I do start from scratch every now and then wether I like it or not lol. Yes I am speaking of moving the Hard Drive into a another computer it is worth a shot.

Hmm with XP Home you need to be in Safe Mode to be the administrator you have tried this? You are not the adminstrator totally under Safe mode or any other mode in XP Home. When you right click the folder and check the properties try changing the hidden attributes check to make sure it is not Hidden. Fiddle a little bit with the sharing too. If it is just this folder mess around a little. Can you copy the folder?

Yes, I just copied the entire folder to a cd. with some warning about thumbs may lose some stuff and four file that windows could not copy... AVapp, AVerror,AVvirus,TMP file,  these were reported as text type files and all had dates of today?? 

Email me via R'osity site and I'll give you my email address so I can give screen shots if necessary.  I did fiddle with folders attributes and nothing takes or changes.

Before we go, What about the assertion not to put programs on D: drive.  true or not???  I've got a lot residing there in their own folders, Bryce. for one.

most programs are designed to reside on the root directory i.e. C: drive but I have programs in 4 different drives on 7 different partitions so that is not exactly true.

No what happened here is some kind of corruption. Have you tried to access the folder now from the CD drive since you copied it?

Some notes:

OK your actual drive C: is over 100g and you allocate 5g for drive C:. that ten percent rule might be hammering you - it's been with MS since w3.1 and as far as I know is valid even for XP and will be in Vista . At this point I'd follow what Vile said.  A ghost to a new hard drive Via Norton.     

When you  reformat your HD this time I'd give drive C: at least 20 percent + the ten or so gigs XP demands for itself  and keep at lest 10 percent of the actual drive C: free for things like defrag,system restore and chkdisk. Virtual drives can be tricky.  In the old days they were necessary to get the mosty out of a large hard drive with w95 etc but now on XP I can't really see any reason to sport them - but that's up to you. Another thing check your hard drive to se it isn't one of those sata drives. They are nice in terms of access times but from what I hear loads of problems. Norton,  MS Word or Acessories in program files can give you a good look at your "system info"..

Vile, u got me to thinking.  I did in fact copy and burn the errant folder to a cd . I ran one of the programs fm the CD (PS7)  I as a second experiment did the copy thing again and went in into the temp copy folder before burning and was able to copy/paste within it and create a new folder with in.  These described procedures cannot be done with in the original folder. 

I'm thinking, since I don't have much to lose if a complete rebuild is only possible way, I'll try to delete the entire bad folder then copy/paste fm the CD.  I'll make a restore point before the experiment but I'm not sure it would save me.  Vile?????????

What you burned on CD is not a part of the restricted area, apparently. I'd suspect Norton, too, because it seems to have locked everything out from its parent program folder. As Windows Help says, what you can try is log on as Administrator, go to start -> Run and type gpedit.msc. Check Computer ConfigurationWindows SettingsSecurity SettingsFile System to see whether there's a problem access right set there. Hm. I don't have File System there. And can't find anything about it on Microsoft site. Actually, there is, you should dig around Security Configuration and Analysis in the console, which is way over my head. You can try restoring to the point before you installed Norton 2006, which should roll you back to before it messed things up (if it did), but I'm not certain whether it will remove the policy. Well, it doesn't hurt to try. :-/

usually if you can't copy files (but not always), the files may 'be in use'..they sound like antivirus files to me. Yeah, rights and permissions sounds like a possibility. Do you have the sole account on the system (I only know Pro version, so if I'm off the reservation, let me know), or does someone else use it with their own login name, etc? You can restrict access to folders, files, etc. I think you can look at the properties of the folder in Explorer (or an ordinary window from My computer) that will tell you how it's set.

You should be admin on your own box, so you should be able to change any rights or permissions to the folder. Moving the stuff to other folders may help with backing up, but nowadays there's so many @#$% registry entries associated wtih an install, that might hold you back some.

Remember, programs can be uninstalled/reinstalled, but it's the data you really want to hold onto. Before doing anything irreversable, get all those Photoshop filters, etc., that you may have downloaded, data files, objects, etc., backed up (think you've already done that). You may want to try an uninstall/reinstall first, before re-imaging..good luck

ALL THE TIME!

Those special folders like "My Pictures" etc delete stuff by themselves!

I do not use them.

(VISTA is gonna have one for games and their ratings - I can see games crashing all the time because pieces of them suddenly disappear!)

Tks all, I'm goina wait until I have a day off (or two) to tackle the tough stuff.  Thankfully system is stable and everything runs fine.  And just a filler word to all concerned for me...  1)yes all stuff is backed up.  2) I've already tried all the bases about being the only admin and even logging in as admin in safe mode. 3) I can't uninstall the programs in the stupid folder (access denied). 4) I've verified permissions, sharing, and all that stuff. 6) A local puter shop man said sometimes upgading to sp2 has caused wierd problems to programs already installed.  He suggest rebuild also. 

This thing is just plain wierd.  At least not fatal.  I may use it as an opportunity to upgrade hd size. 

I've had some luck fixing these types of problems using the command prompt (start|accessories|command prompt)  I can't mess with this work computer, so I won't be able to try any of the commands.

Anyway, make sure your backup of the folder is good before experimenting.  After entering the command prompt,, type "help" (without the quotes) to see a list of commands.

Anyway, you can globally change a directory file(s) attributes and many things more.  I know Norton is pretty insidious and it's one reason I've quit using it.  The protection is fine, but try removing it if you ever go to anther virus program.

I remember back in the day that the dos command

c:/dirname/attrib -r -a -s -h  .   -substitute your directory name..)

would do it (ok, a bit rash on me part, but that's how I remembered it..;)

Y'know.. there's another thought, but an ugly one; that someone has some malware or spyware out there that did this. Sounds twisted enough. Hope I'm wrong about that..

Attached Link: Freefile

This may help you at least find what is blocking your access

http://sharewareconnection.com/freefile.htm

I'll copy the blurb in here too so you can tell without having to open the page

"Cannot delete file: Access is denied - "Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use." "There has been a sharing violation." "The source or destination file may be in use." "The file is in use by another program or user." - These are typical error messages you get when you try to delete a file that is locked by a process. But which process has locked the file? Use FreeFile to automatically find out which process is locking your file, and free the file by ending the process.  Free download from Shareware Connection - FreeFile will free a file by finding the process that holds the lock, and allow you to terminate it. "

jfike

That reminds me a virus attached itself  into a file and the only way I could get rid of it was to go into safemode and remove it from a dos prompt.! So that may work to remove otherwise unremovable files.

Sorry I am still here. Did you try uninstalling Norton?

Ok and I am having a little problem too LOL my system got a little scrambled from a Thunderstorm last night. Not fried cause I have it on a power strip with a breaker but there the NIC line was not and my router was smoking. It wiped out my onboard NIC and I don't know but I am having some other weirdness with my drives. LOL I tweak em so I know when they aint running right!.

Buy a NIC. They come to a couple of dollars. See if it works. If it is, then the integraated NIC is kaput. It is also possible that the peak succeeded in damaging your files, too.