Folder Only Shows Files That Start With A-F (Won't Display Other Files)

[needhelpreallybad08]

Just tonight, a folder I have within my My Music folder (containing my .mp3 files) started only showing folders and files that have names that begin with A-F...only.  Windows doesn't show the rest of the folders and files in there named G-Z.  The folders and files ARE THERE, because if you type their full path in the address bar, they show up (and the files still play fine in iTunes).

Again, if you open up the folder they simply don't appear.  Even if you do a Windows Search, they still don't appear.  I even tried copying this problem folder to my external hard drive, but the folders and files still do not appear!  (THIS IS ONLY HAPPENING WITH THIS PARTICULAR FOLDER).

I'm completely bewildered.  There have been no major updates or changes to the computer...I'm sooo lost.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!!!

>>running Windows XP Media Center Edition SP2.

[Eg0Death]

Try Control Panel -> Classic View -> Folder Options -> View -> Select "Show hidden files and folders".  Are you able to see G-Z then?  They may have somehow been turned into hidden files and folders. 

[needhelpreallybad08]

Good idea, bud sadly I already tried that to no avail.

Plus, when I actually open up the "missing" folders and files (when I type the full path) they indeed say they're not hidden files.

Hence why I'm so lost as to why they're not being displayed...

[Eg0Death]

This is bizarre. 
Can you navigate to them from the C:\ prompt?

[needhelpreallybad08]

Yea, I can navigate to them via the address bar or c:\prompt.

For instance, if I type in the address to a file, for instance:
"C:\Documents and Settings\HP_Administrator\My Documents\My Music\[mp3] Library\a-ha - Take on Me.mp3", unfortunately I can't actually see the file, it simply starts playing it in iTunes.

However, if I type in the address to one of the folders, it does show up.  For example:
"C:\Documents and Settings\HP_Administrator\My Documents\My Music\[mp3] Library\prefuse_73-surrounded_by_silence"

...is my computer just crazy??

[Eg0Death]

I think your computer is stark raving mad.
Have you tried to copy one of these invisible files or folders to a different location?

[Dias de verano]

started only showing folders and files that have names that begin with A-F...only.  Windows doesn't show the rest of the folders and files in there named G-Z

"C:\Documents and Settings\HP_Administrator\My Documents\My Music\[mp3] Library\a-ha - Take on Me.mp3", unfortunately I can't actually see the file,

The second statement contradicts the first.

[needhelpreallybad08]

started only showing folders and files that have names that begin with A-F...only.  Windows doesn't show the rest of the folders and files in there named G-Z

"C:\Documents and Settings\HP_Administrator\My Documents\My Music\[mp3] Library\a-ha - Take on Me.mp3", unfortunately I can't actually see the file,

The second statement contradicts the first.

I was just using the band "a-ha" as an example...if it makes more sense, place "Taking Back Sunday - A Decade Under the Influence.mp3" instead...

Anyway, yea, I think it may have just gone crazy. 

I think your computer is stark raving mad.
Have you tried to copy one of these invisible files or folders to a different location?

Well, if I open up one of the "invisible" folders, I can indeed drag the files out of the folders (let's say, on to my Desktop) and they'll be there...weird.  MY PROBLEM is that a lot of the files (over a 1000 of them) aren't in folder...so essentially, they're stuck...

 

[Dias de verano]

needhelpreallybad, how long have you been using computers?

[needhelpreallybad08]

needhelpreallybad, how long have you been using computers?

I know, I know this situation sounds ridiculous...but honestly I have no idea what the heck is going on.  I have a folder.  The folder has files and other folders in it.  Only files and folders named A-F appear on my screen.  When I do a Window Search in this folder, only files and folders named A-F show up.  YET, THE FILES AND FOLDERS ARE INDEED IN THERE STILL...iTunes still plays them.

I sound crazy, but that's what's going on.

[Dias de verano]

What view have you got in Explorer? Thumbnails, Tiles, List, Icons, or Details? What happens if you try to open the folder in Internet Explorer?

Have you got some insane number of files in the same folder? Like thousands? What filesystem is the disk?

[patio]

It's very possible you have exceeded the file# limit for a folder and Windows freaked and split it out...
Congratulations on this as i believe the limits are quite high.
You may want to look into organising things better instead of dumping everything into My Music.

[Dias de verano]

FAT32
Maximum number of files on disk: 268,435,437
Maximum number of files in a single folder: 65,534

NTFS
Maximum number of files on disk: 4,294,967,295
Maximum number of files in a single folder: 4,294,967,295

It says you cannot have more than 65,534 files in a folders on a FAT32 volume, but things will start happening before then. I have seen a report of a folder with 10,000 files in where Windows Explorer crashes after reading around 3500 file names. Lots of long filenames with similar beginnings is going to make the short-filename generation feature exhaust resources and cause slowdowns and crashes.

If NTFS is the filesystem, it may not be the FS which is borking out, it may be Explorer. Very large numbers of files will slow it down to a crawl. Any way, a disk check wouldn't be a bad idea. Perhaps a defrag too?

Screenshots would be nice, or failing that, details of the file count & space used as shown in the Windows Explorer status bar, and the file count and data used figures which are right at the end of the output of DIR /S in a command prompt window.

The OP has fallen silent, which may indicate that the "penny has dropped", but who knows?

[needhelpreallybad08]

Well I'm no longer silent, as I returned from a weekend where I was (luckily) away from my problem computer.

As requested, here are some screen shots.  There are discrepancies all over the place.

First, I got the folder properties of the problem folder (the name of the folder is "[mp3] Library"):



As you can see, it says there are 1605 files and 48 folders, totaling 6.89gigs.


Then, I opened the folder ("[mp3] Library") and did a "select all":



If you notice to the right, it all says only "612 items selected". However, on the file and folder properties, it says there are 1152 files and 48 folders, totaling 6.88 gigs.

AND OF COURSE, to add to the confusion, my count of the files (not folders, strictly files) should actually be 3292 files.

As you can see, nothing is making sense.  Once again, no, the missing files are not hidden files, and just to be safe, I do have "Show hidden files and folders" turned ON.

Thanks for any and all continued help!!!

P.S.: Sorry for the monster-size pictures...

[Dias de verano]

When did you last do a disk check?

[neljan]

Well, if I open up one of the "invisible" folders, I can indeed drag the files out of the folders (let's say, on to my Desktop) and they'll be there...weird.  MY PROBLEM is that a lot of the files (over a 1000 of them) aren't in folder...so essentially, they're stuck...

Try changing the folder view to list (not details)

Try cutting the files (not those in the folders) to a different location, then seeing if the 'hidden' files show in their place...

[needhelpreallybad08]

When did you last do a disk check?

Well I hadn't for a while -- so I (tried) to do one on your suggestion.

It wasn't looking good from the get go: "file record segment ______ is unreadable" kept popping up all down the screen.

Then the scan disk restarted the computer and kicked it to a black screen.  This black screen had readouts of the devices in my computer, and at the bottom said: "Pri Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status: BAD, Backup and Replace".

When it says "BAD", does that mean the hard drive is physically damaged (like I actually have to go out and purchase a new hard drive and install it) OR that I simply have to do a full system restore and everything should be fine???

(I'm going to backup what I can and just count everything else as collateral damage of using the Windows Operating System.)

[Dias de verano]

When it says "BAD", does that mean the hard drive is physically damaged

Yes that is what it means.

(like I actually have to go out and purchase a new hard drive

Yes you do

and install it)

Yup

OR that I simply have to do a full system restore and everything should be fine???

The hard drive is failing. It has been failing for some time, and soon it will be unusable. You have a window of time during which you can try to backup whatever data you can, it may be a month or two, it could be a day,  but a "S.M.A.R.T. Status: BAD" message means that the drive is really junk.

(I'm going to backup what I can

Good plan

and just count everything else as collateral damage of using the Windows Operating System.)

If you do that you will be in denial. What happened to your hard drive has nothing at all to do with Windows. Hard drive failure can happen through overheating, physical knocks and shocks, a bad unit, a number of things. This is a PHYSICAL failure, and you had a warning when files started vanishing, (or, more precisely, their names) but you ignored it, possibly because you did not know what this meant. The longer you operate this drive, the more data you will lose, so do the backup soon, and try to think if there are any things you did which could have damaged the drive. It could just be old or you could have been unlucky, but all drives will fail sooner or later.

[neljan]

but all drives will fail sooner or later.

A scarey realisation!

[needhelpreallybad08]

Dias de verano THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.  It is truly appreciated.  However, I do have a few more questions:

When it says "BAD", does that mean the hard drive is physically damaged

Yes that is what it means.

(like I actually have to go out and purchase a new hard drive

Yes you do

and install it)

Yup

OR that I simply have to do a full system restore and everything should be fine???

The hard drive is failing. It has been failing for some time, and soon it will be unusable. You have a window of time during which you can try to backup whatever data you can, it may be a month or two, it could be a day,  but a "S.M.A.R.T. Status: BAD" message means that the drive is really junk.

Okay, so I need to buy a new hard drive and install it. (Which means I have to go and pay someone who knows what they're doing to install it).  That's fine, but here are some issues:

1) My computer did not come with a back-up DVD-ROM.  Instead, my hard drive has a back-up partition, Drive D, with all the recovery information.  HOWEVER, if my whole hard drive is going out, I will thus lose this back-up partition and in effect, lose my copy of Windows XP.  (BTW, I in no way want to "upgrade" to Vista...no way).

So how do I get the back-up info on the partition, Drive D,  onto my (future) new hard drive?

2) My current failing hard drive is only 250G.  When I make the future purchase of a new hard drive, I would preferably like to upgrade to something between 750G - 1.5T. 

If, somehow, I get the recovery info from my back-up partition, would it accept a bigger, newer hard drive?

Can Windows XP even handle 750G - 1.5T hard drives?

Dias de verano or whoever else, thanks in advance once again!!!

[patio]

Contact the manuf. to find out the procedure for creating a Bootable CD/DVD from the Recovery partition...it's different for each manuf.
Then burn it to CD/DVD following their instructions.
I'd make at least 2 copies...

[needhelpreallybad08]

Contact the manuf. to find out the procedure for creating a Bootable CD/DVD from the Recovery partition...it's different for each manuf.
Then burn it to CD/DVD following their instructions.
I'd make at least 2 copies...

Sounds good, I'll try to contact HP.

It seems there are "Serial ATA", "Parallel ATA", "SCSI" internal hard drives.  My computer is a HP Media Center PC m1180n.  From a quick Google search, it seems my hard drive is a "Serial ATA", but is there any way to determine this for sure?

More importantly, once I have someone install my new hard drive, do I simply pop in my recovery CD/DVD?  For example:

1) I get computer home, plug it in, turn it on...

2) Open DVD-drive, pop in recovery CD/DVD...

3) Recovery CD/DVD just does it's thing?

My fear is that once I have someone install the new hard drive, nothing will happen when I turn the computer on...I've never done this kinda thing before.