Vista deletes folders on reboot

Any folder starting with the letter a or a number will be deleted upon
reboot. It also empties the recycle bin on reboot but I have resigned
myself to live with this idiosyncrasy.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dale wrote:

> Any folder starting with the letter a or a number will be deleted upon
> reboot. It also empties the recycle bin on reboot but I have resigned
> myself to live with this idiosyncrasy.
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

This is certainly not normal behavior. Let's narrow down the
troubleshooting:

1. The First Question Of Troubleshooting: If the problem is new, what
changed between the time things worked and the time they didn't?

2. The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the malware/virus
status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what programs (and
versions) did you use to determine this?

Be sure the computer is clean:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware

3. You say "any folder". Do you mean any folder located anywhere or only
folders located in a particular directory? If the latter, which one (please
give its exact path; i.e., c:\Users\Documents)?

4. Do you have any third-party software installed that does automatic
cleaning?

5. Did you use a registry cleaner?

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Malke wrote:
> Dale wrote:
>
>> Any folder starting with the letter a or a number will be deleted upon
>> reboot. It also empties the recycle bin on reboot but I have resigned
>> myself to live with this idiosyncrasy.
>> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
>
> This is certainly not normal behavior. Let's narrow down the
> troubleshooting:
>
> 1. The First Question Of Troubleshooting: If the problem is new, what
> changed between the time things worked and the time they didn't?
>
> 2. The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the malware/virus
> status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what programs (and
> versions) did you use to determine this?
>
> Be sure the computer is clean:
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware
>
> 3. You say "any folder". Do you mean any folder located anywhere or only
> folders located in a particular directory? If the latter, which one (please
> give its exact path; i.e., c:\Users\Documents)?
>
> 4. Do you have any third-party software installed that does automatic
> cleaning?
>
> 5. Did you use a registry cleaner?
>
> Malke

The only change that I made was to run spybot and antivirus(AVG) both of
which found no problems.

The folders affected are only located in root directory c:\ and not
subdirectories. And as I said the type deleted start with "a" or any
number.

I only clean manually and have not done so for weeks.

Same goes for the reg cleaner.

Dale wrote:

> The only change that I made was to run spybot and antivirus(AVG) both of
> which found no problems.
>
> The folders affected are only located in root directory c:\ and not
> subdirectories. And as I said the type deleted start with "a" or any
> number.
>
> I only clean manually and have not done so for weeks.
>
> Same goes for the reg cleaner.

Very strange. I honestly don't know what could cause this as I've never seen
this behavior. Another thought - Do these folders "disappear" when you log
on with another account? If you are normally logging onto your daily
account which is a Standard account (as it should be), do the folders
"disappear" if you log on with an administrative account? If you are using
an administrative account for your daily work (not recommended), do the
folders "disappear" when you log on with another administrative account?

Are these folders you created or do they come from a program?

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

On Fri, 29 May 2009 15:12:31 -0600, Dale <> wrote:

>Malke wrote:
>> Dale wrote:
>>
>>> Any folder starting with the letter a or a number will be deleted upon
>>> reboot. It also empties the recycle bin on reboot but I have resigned
>>> myself to live with this idiosyncrasy.
>>> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> This is certainly not normal behavior. Let's narrow down the
>> troubleshooting:
>>
>> 1. The First Question Of Troubleshooting: If the problem is new, what
>> changed between the time things worked and the time they didn't?
>>
>> 2. The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the malware/virus
>> status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what programs (and
>> versions) did you use to determine this?
>>
>> Be sure the computer is clean:
>> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware
>>
>> 3. You say "any folder". Do you mean any folder located anywhere or only
>> folders located in a particular directory? If the latter, which one (please
>> give its exact path; i.e., c:\Users\Documents)?
>>
>> 4. Do you have any third-party software installed that does automatic
>> cleaning?
>>
>> 5. Did you use a registry cleaner?
>>
>> Malke
>
>The only change that I made was to run spybot and antivirus(AVG) both of
>which found no problems.
>
>The folders affected are only located in root directory c:\ and not
>subdirectories. And as I said the type deleted start with "a" or any
>number.
>
>I only clean manually and have not done so for weeks.
>
>Same goes for the reg cleaner.

Did this happen after you used the reg cleaner ?

Malke wrote:
> Dale wrote:
>
>> The only change that I made was to run spybot and antivirus(AVG) both of
>> which found no problems.
>>
>> The folders affected are only located in root directory c:\ and not
>> subdirectories. And as I said the type deleted start with "a" or any
>> number.
>>
>> I only clean manually and have not done so for weeks.
>>
>> Same goes for the reg cleaner.
>
> Very strange. I honestly don't know what could cause this as I've never seen
> this behavior. Another thought - Do these folders "disappear" when you log
> on with another account? If you are normally logging onto your daily
> account which is a Standard account (as it should be), do the folders
> "disappear" if you log on with an administrative account? If you are using
> an administrative account for your daily work (not recommended), do the
> folders "disappear" when you log on with another administrative account?
>
> Are these folders you created or do they come from a program?
>
> Malke

I only use the one account admin. and have not messed with a reg
cleaner for months.

I have created the folders and had a couple that were created by
programs when installed. So even if the programs do not require the
created folders to function some future program may install and require
a folder that starts with the letter "a".

I do have a backup HD that I can copy back to the main to restore the
computer to the way it was before the problem but I am real curious as
to what could cause this type of problem.

Dale wrote:

> I only use the one account admin. and have not messed with a reg
> cleaner for months.
>
> I have created the folders and had a couple that were created by
> programs when installed. So even if the programs do not require the
> created folders to function some future program may install and require
> a folder that starts with the letter "a".
>
> I do have a backup HD that I can copy back to the main to restore the
> computer to the way it was before the problem but I am real curious as
> to what could cause this type of problem.

Well, I'm sorry but I simply have no idea. My suspicion is that something
you have running is doing it (possibly AVG, which is often problematic) but
there's no way for me to know. I'd uninstall AVG and see if it is the
culprit and if it is, use something else like Avast or Avira.

Sorry I was unable to help you.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Certainly sounds like a 3rd party software issue.

"Malke" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Dale wrote:
>
>> I only use the one account admin. and have not messed with a reg
>> cleaner for months.
>>
>> I have created the folders and had a couple that were created by
>> programs when installed. So even if the programs do not require the
>> created folders to function some future program may install and require
>> a folder that starts with the letter "a".
>>
>> I do have a backup HD that I can copy back to the main to restore the
>> computer to the way it was before the problem but I am real curious as
>> to what could cause this type of problem.
>
> Well, I'm sorry but I simply have no idea. My suspicion is that something
> you have running is doing it (possibly AVG, which is often problematic)
> but
> there's no way for me to know. I'd uninstall AVG and see if it is the
> culprit and if it is, use something else like Avast or Avira.
>
> Sorry I was unable to help you.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ
>