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There's a ghost in the machine, undoing my work...

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Last response: in Windows 7
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Hey there Tom's!

I've recently re-installed Windows 7, and it's doing some really, really weird things.

It feels almost like windows is crumbling under my fingers. In personalize, I can't browse for a folder anymore - the area where folders should be are completely blank. (Before they weren't blank, but when I selected one and pressed OK, it would just do nothing.)

Now odd things are happening - settings I made, mostly to the registry, are undoing themselves. These are regedits I've made dozens of times safely... I don't know what's going on.

The things I can think of are this:

My SSD is failing. (God I hope not.)

I had a corrupted .iso when installing. (Computer has no disk drive, so I booted from USB.)

I have a virus. (Malwarebytes and WSE are on this one as I type.)

One of the tweaks I made, likely with a couple new library / context menu editors I was trying, or "windows ultimate tweaker" did something to unstabilize windows.


Anyone experienced anything of this sort before? It's... disconcerting. Having your work undone isn't normal for a computer to do. Thankfully I have double backups of everything and will be reinstalling windows, should things get even worse.

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Anonymous

Hiya..

What SSD are you using, (Every single OCZ with Illendex controllers I have used has failed in this manner you described until it simply refuses to boot, dozens of them I have used and all have failed, never again will I buy OCZ)

Context menu reg tweaks are the second most likely reason, as Folder structures will fall under this.

Try re-install and test SSD before you re-install to it from a second PC.

Windows 7 Authority

Hi :) 

Umm Windows Ultimate ???

If its the ILLEGAL version , my shops have seen some VERY strange things happening with it....

Its either that or a Virus (although they CAN be connected)

If it is. Mbam may find it but MSE wont..


All the best Brett :) 
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Anonymous said:
Hiya..

What SSD are you using, (Every single OCZ with Illendex controllers I have used has failed in this manner you described until it simply refuses to boot, dozens of them I have used and all have failed, never again will I buy OCZ)

Context menu reg tweaks are the second most likely reason, as Folder structures will fall under this.

Try re-install and test SSD before you re-install to it from a second PC.


Was that the Vertex 4 or an earlier drive?

Anonymous said:
Hiya..

What SSD are you using, (Every single OCZ with Illendex controllers I have used has failed in this manner you described until it simply refuses to boot, dozens of them I have used and all have failed, never again will I buy OCZ)

Context menu reg tweaks are the second most likely reason, as Folder structures will fall under this.

Try re-install and test SSD before you re-install to it from a second PC.


It's an OCZ Vertex 4... with... an indilinx controller.

And you've seen them fail by essentially disintegrating the files? I mean, I've only had this SSD for what, three months? Something like that.

I'm hoping it's the context menu tweaks - I'll be holding off on those with the clean install.

Brett928S2 said:
Hi :) 

Umm Windows Ultimate ???

If its the ILLEGAL version , my shops have seen some VERY strange things happening with it....

Its either that or a Virus (although they CAN be connected)

If it is. Mbam may find it but MSE wont..


All the best Brett :) 


Home premium, off of microsoft's official download, using my key.

Just out of curiosity, why do you think MSE won't do it? It's rated the highest out of all free antivirus, 'least according to a lot of sites.

I put a lot of faith in MSE (it hasn't let me down yet) but there was a test recently that rated it very low indeed... Avast was recommended as a free alternative that does the job just as well as the best paid solutions. Personally I'll stick with MSE for something less intrusive.

The Vertex 4 actually doesn't use an Indilinx controller, despite the 'Indilinx infused' badge. Everest 2 is infact a Marvell controller, using custom OCZ firmware. The new OCZ Vector uses a genuine Indilinx controller. I think the blame lies more with OCZ's quality control than the controller... they've said Vector will be more reliable than the Vertexes (Vertices?). Time will tell! moricon's advice seems sound.

I should also probably throw out there that since the reinstall, my hard drive has been audibly clicking. It's not a noise I'm familiar with, like a close-to-dead drive, and it could have been going on a lot longer than this. (My PC is a lot quieter now, which is why it's the first time I've noticed it.)

The clicking is consistent, and only when the hard drive is under use. Is this just the normal sound for a hard drive? I was looking for a sound file of a normal hard drive online, but could only find those of a bad one.

That's not normal... I've only ever had clicking with a dead or dying drive. Maybe try disconnecting it and see if your folders display properly? I'd expect the hard disk to simply disappear from Windows if the OS is struggling to access it, but I suppose it could be causing some kind of glitch to make both your drives disappear?

bc5 said:
Don't suppose you took a backup of the registry before editing? Maybe test after each key you edit next time?


I did, actually, and I've tried restoring it, but it won't let me - something about a key in use. Is that something I can fix from safe mode?

EDIT: I figured out what the noise was from, and I'm a dipshit. My hard drive is screwed into the bottom of my case, because I haven't had the time to make a mount for it. What I'm hearing is just vibration. Derp.

Oh, and it's not that files are disappearing, as far as I can tell. It's that changes I make to windows are being un-changed... such as a folder that I performed a hard-delete on reappearing the next boot, as though what occurs during uptime is simply temporary.

That's a good idea, certainly worth a shot. I admire the balls required to mess around in the registry without instructions, but I only very occasionally make edits, and it's always following instructions. Bit of a design flaw there allowing you to export to a backup but then not import it! LOL about your hard disk :-) I'd actually get that in a drive bay to be honest, vibrations can't be good for it while it's spinning.

I'm no expert on the registry, but I'm not sure it could be responsible for what you're describing... that sounds like corruption in the file allocation table or something? Maybe a reformat or chkdsk or something is in order?

Yeah, I'm mighty confused by that one myself. :p 

My edits were all following instruction, plus some minor stuff (that I know wouldn't mess anything up) that I've tested before on clean installs before reinstalling for real.

Once the antivirus programs are done, I'll boot into safe mode and try restoring the registry. If that doesn't work, I'll try a repair install and check back in here.

DarkSable said:

Just out of curiosity, why do you think MSE won't do it? It's rated the highest out of all free antivirus, 'least according to a lot of sites.


Because Brett thinks Norton is the best Antivirus in the whole world and has NEVER seen a machine with Norton become infected, so therefore all others pale in comparison and he has seen SOME machines with a virus and MSE, so therefore MSE won't detect YOUR virus.

Did I get that right Brett?

Good luck with it :-) It's late here so I'm off to bed, but I'll post tomorrow if I can think of anything helpful.

LOL about Brett! Don't forget he has shops though. And a Porsche. Therefore, correct by default :-D
Windows 7 Authority

getochkn said:
Because Brett thinks Norton is the best Antivirus in the whole world and has NEVER seen a machine with Norton become infected, so therefore all others pale in comparison and he has seen SOME machines with a virus and MSE, so therefore MSE won't detect YOUR virus.

Did I get that right Brett?



Hi :) 

NO you got it totally wrong as usual....

MSE is "THE BEST BY FAR" of the free ones...

But I have seen some problems with Ultimate and viruses that MSE wont help or even see... and I have no idea why only Ultimate, but its a fact...

As the Op has now said he has not got Ultimate it wont apply...

And yes Norton is better than MSE, but MSE IS OK...

You seem to have some sort of personal problem with me....if so talk to a moderator, or keep your opinions to yourself as you know perfectly well its against the rules here at Toms...and it does NOT help the OP...


All the best Brett :) 

It almost sounds like your making changes to a system with a hell and your not saving the changes when your done. I'd say you either have a failing drive or some major corruption issues. You might need to delete the partition recreate a new one format and reinstall the O/S. As for Anti-V I like Eset Node32 never had and issue since I've started using it. I don't like Norton any more too much overhead and it writes stuff all over your registry.

littleleo said:
It almost sounds like your making changes to a system with a hell and your not saving the changes when your done. I'd say you either have a failing drive or some major corruption issues. You might need to delete the partition recreate a new one format and reinstall the O/S. As for Anti-V I like Eset Node32 never had and issue since I've started using it. I don't like Norton any more too much overhead and it writes stuff all over your registry.
I've got my antivirus that I like, but what does making changes to a system with a hell mean?

I was wondering about the hell comment too :-) Hope the reinstall fixes it. If it is the SSD, at least it'll be under warranty. Will make me think twice about OCZ drives though... I think we're all aware of the blue screen instability they're known for, but that's fixable with firmware updates and not quite as bad as screwing with your files. Maybe Samsung is the best way to go, 830 for bang/buck and 840 Pro if you want the best.

Speaking of firmware... have you updated it or left it stock? It's not something I'd like to mess with usually, but with OCZ drives it's probably worth doing. I think with their recent drives you can't update while you're booted on it, but they have a mini live Linux distro you can burn and boot from with a firmware update tool on it.

bc5 said:
I was wondering about the hell comment too :-) Hope the reinstall fixes it. If it is the SSD, at least it'll be under warranty. Will make me think twice about OCZ drives though... I think we're all aware of the blue screen instability they're known for, but that's fixable with firmware updates and not quite as bad as screwing with your files. Maybe Samsung is the best way to go, 830 for bang/buck and 840 Pro if you want the best.

Speaking of firmware... have you updated it or left it stock? It's not something I'd like to mess with usually, but with OCZ drives it's probably worth doing. I think with their recent drives you can't update while you're booted on it, but they have a mini live Linux distro you can burn and boot from with a firmware update tool on it.

Yeah, the odd thing is that I haven't had a problem with this drive yet. The errors have ONLY appeared since I reinstalled windows. That being said, I have the most recent firmware - I updated it on another computer when I bought the drive, and upgraded (non destructively from 1.4) to the latest when it came out.

I just plugged my data drive back in after updates and such, and so far things are going well. Fingers crossed.
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