Wiindows Explorer Search: Invalid Directory message.

I am wondering if what is on my hard drive and if what Win Explorer thinks is
on my hard drive are two different things.

If I do a search in Win Explorer for "purple", I get a number of results.
(To do a search for a file, I am entering the word "purple" in the Search
field in the upper right corner of Win Explorer and pressing the "Enter"
button.)

There are a couple of JPG files that I am wondering about.
One example is called "purple_flowers.jpg".
When I double-click on this file in the search results to open it, MS Paint
opens and gives me a message that the directory is invalid.

The directory location listed is the blue "Pictures" folder for my User.
But, when I open that folder, I don't have a file with that name in that
directory.

Is something messed up between what I have on my hard drive and what Win
Explorer thinks is on my hard drive?
How can I fix this?

I seem to have stumbled onto the solution:
Strangely, this worked:

I deleted the blue Pictures folder, emptied the Recycle Bin and restarted my
computer.

When my computer finished its start-up routines, my blue Pictures folder was
there! And, it had the shortcut to the "Sample Pictures" folder in it.

When I searched for "octopus" and "purple", I no longer saw those JPG files
in the search results.

I really don't know what happened, but I thought that I would post these
results just in case someone else experiences this.

--------------------------------------------------------------

I also received an answer from a Microsoft Support person from my post in
the Microsoft Answers Forums. I will share it here. (thanks again, Savan)

Marz, it might be an issue with the vista search index.

Try rebuilding the search index.

1. Go to the Control Panel.

2. Select System and Maintenance.

3. Select Indexing Options.

4. Click the Advanced button.

5. When the UAC prompt appears, click Continue.

6. Under the Troubleshooting section, click the Rebuild button.

7. Click OK when the confirmation box appears.

8. Click the Close button to close the Index Options window.

It will take a little time for your system to rebuild the index, Search will
not function until the rebuild is complete.

For more information, refer the below link:

Improve Windows searches using the index: frequently asked questions:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...033.mspx#E6DAC


Regards,
Savan – Microsoft Support




"Marz" wrote:

> I am wondering if what is on my hard drive and if what Win Explorer thinks is
> on my hard drive are two different things.
>
> If I do a search in Win Explorer for "purple", I get a number of results.
> (To do a search for a file, I am entering the word "purple" in the Search
> field in the upper right corner of Win Explorer and pressing the "Enter"
> button.)
>
> There are a couple of JPG files that I am wondering about.
> One example is called "purple_flowers.jpg".
> When I double-click on this file in the search results to open it, MS Paint
> opens and gives me a message that the directory is invalid.
>
> The directory location listed is the blue "Pictures" folder for my User.
> But, when I open that folder, I don't have a file with that name in that
> directory.
>
> Is something messed up between what I have on my hard drive and what Win
> Explorer thinks is on my hard drive?
> How can I fix this?
>

Sometimes people disable their indexing (not recommended). I was goin
to guess that was your problem, but glad you got it resolved

--
lemu

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