occasional file blocking

creaze

New Member
Messages
11
Hi!

I'm running a Windows 8.0 which came installed on my Dell laptop as i bought it.

There's plenty of mp3 albums on my hard-drive (a sole hard-drive with just one partition for everything). I keep them all in the My Music folder, and shuffle them frequently: change names of folders, move folders around, delete them — all that with the windows' own explorer program. I only use Winamp to play them back. And of course, i terminate Winamp before i need to do anything with folders.

Every now and then, some of those actions are blocked, as if something keeps accessing those files. This is what the Explorer tells. At any time, up to 30% of folders is blocked that way, and which is more curious, is that this blockage is shifting. Like, i need to move a number of folders, and one of them gets stuck because it's 'blocked', so i proceed with the next one, and it works, then i come back to the previous one, and this one works now too.

What is going on there in the background? I did turn off the automatic defragmentation.

I don't have no anti-virus, nor any other application that could involuntary access random files on my computer.

Thank you.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell DPN PJ8GD
    CPU
    Intel i3 1900 MHz
    Memory
    6 GB
    Browser
    Mozilla Firefox
In the early days of Windows 7, I found that thumbnail generation could block deletion and other operations on image files. I turned off all the thumbnail options using gpedit.msc in the User->Admin->Win Comp->Windows Explorer section, and the problem disappeared. I've been doing it ever since as one of my 30-40 setup steps after installing Windows. I also learned to remove all folders from the Music Library due to the endless Music Library rebuild bug that plagued Windows 7. I don't know if the latter will help you, but what I can say is that since then, which was late 2009, I've never had issues with unexpected blocked file operations in Windows 7 or 8.1.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
Maybe File History(if you have it turned on) is coping the changes at that moment, you could try temporarily turning it off when you're doing a bunch of changes and then turn it back on after or exclude your music folders if you don't need the changes recorded.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Update Pro in Hyper-V/Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Cliff's Black & Blue Wonder
    CPU
    Intel Core i9-9900K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero
    Memory
    32 GB Quad Kit, G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series schwarz, DDR4-3866, 18-19-19-39-2T
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 ROG Strix O24G, 24576 MB GDDR6X
    Sound Card
    (1) HD Webcam C270 (2) NVIDIA High Definition Audio (3) Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ BL2711U(4K) and a hp 27vx(1080p)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080 x 32 bits (4294967296 colors) @ 60 Hz
    Hard Drives
    C: Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD
    E: & O: Libraries & OneDrive-> Samsung 850 EVO 1TB
    D: Hyper-V VM's -> Samsung PM951 Client M.2 512Gb SSD
    G: System Images -> HDD Seagate Barracuda 2TB
    PSU
    Corsair HX1000i High Performance ATX Power Supply 80+ Platinum
    Case
    hanteks Enthoo Pro TG
    Cooling
    Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB TT Premium-Edition 360mm and 3 Corsair blue LED fans
    Keyboard
    Trust GTX THURA
    Mouse
    Trust GTX 148
    Internet Speed
    25+/5+ (+usually faster)
    Browser
    Edge; Chrome; IE11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender of course & Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit as a
    Other Info
    Router: FRITZ!Box 7590 AX V2
    Sound system: SHARP HT-SBW460 Dolby Atmos Soundbar
    Webcam: Logitech BRIO ULTRA HD PRO WEBCAM 4K webcam with HDR
For the long-term, for backup/restore purposes, wouldn't this nice person be better off having two partitions, one for the OS, one for everything created or downloaded? If a "scorched-earth" OS-rebuild is ever needed, problems! And, having all the goodies being created, sent to, etc. the 2nd partition, that would bypass some of the Windows 7's blockage, correct? Maybe I should turn my thumbnails-generation off as well...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Pro 64bit [MS blue-disk set]
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2 Acers & 1 Antec[?]
    CPU
    i7 in 2 Acers, i5 in desktop
    Motherboard
    Desktop w/Gigabyte
    Memory
    Two w/16GB, 1 w/8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Laptops GameWorthy; Desktop maybe GameWorthy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    flatscreens; 2 are BluRay worthy
    Screen Resolution
    1368x768; 1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB internals; 2 ext usb WD 1TB HDs
    PSU
    what's PSU?
    Cooling
    Regular plus external fans
    Keyboard
    desktio w/PS2
    Mouse
    desktop w/PS2
    Internet Speed
    DSL middle level [160?]
    Browser
    from Netscape 0.9 to FF 36
    Antivirus
    well-balanced, well-configured mult-layered defense is best
    Other Info
    From MS-DOS 3.3, MS-DOS 6.22, from Windows 3.1 to WFW 3.11 to Windows 95-98SE, now to Windows 7 Pro.
    Security for now: Windows 7 Firewall, Emsisoft AM, MSE [scan-only], SpywareBlaster, Ruiware/BillP combine
For the long-term, for backup/restore purposes, wouldn't this nice person be better off having two partitions, one for the OS, one for everything created or downloaded? If a "scorched-earth" OS-rebuild is ever needed, problems!

SSD for OS is ideal, along with secondary data (hard) drive. Move Downloads, Music, etc to the secondary drive. The downside is that to install Windows truly safely, you have to open the computer and disconnect all but the intended system drive, due to the documented problem Windows Setup has with enumerating SATA drives.

And, having all the goodies being created, sent to, etc. the 2nd partition, that would bypass some of the Windows 7's blockage, correct? Maybe I should turn my thumbnails-generation off as well...

I don't know that moving files onto a different partition or drive would help. The thing that helped me was disabling the parts of Windows that scan files in the background, including thumbnail generation and nuking the Music Library. Again, that was in Windows 7. Maybe they've improved things since then. I don't care, because I don't want File Explorer to be a file previewer; I have other programs for that, like Picasa for pictures. I don't want Microsoft's junk to even know about my multimedia files, especially my music files with hand-edited, optimized metadata; there are far better alternatives for everything but Recorded TV in WMC, and all Microsoft's stuff has ever done is stealthily update hidden metadata screwing up my backup scheme, bog the system down with automatic scans, download bad artwork, etc. I actually nuke all the libraries, and I've never added the folders back to the Search Indexer, which I suppose is another possible culprit.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
Roland and crawfish,

C'mon, guys, you kidding me? This is a 400 bucks laptop, hardly used for anything more than storing mp3's and feeding my flash-players. Yeah, and surfing the web, of course. How am i supposed to place another partition along with the previous one occupying all of the hard drive in the beginning?

Thanks for the tip anyway, not that this was a revelation to me.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell DPN PJ8GD
    CPU
    Intel i3 1900 MHz
    Memory
    6 GB
    Browser
    Mozilla Firefox
Roland and crawfish,

C'mon, guys, you kidding me? This is a 400 bucks laptop, hardly used for anything more than storing mp3's and feeding my flash-players. Yeah, and surfing the web, of course. How am i supposed to place another partition along with the previous one occupying all of the hard drive in the beginning?

Thanks for the tip anyway, not that this was a revelation to me.

Why are you lumping me in with Roland? I just briefly replied to his comment about backup/restore; I didn't bring it up myself, and I wasn't suggesting anything to you. Indeed, when he suggested partitioning might help your situation, I explained I didn't think it would and returned to discussing what had worked for me. Sorry to bother you with that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
Crawfish,

I've scrolled through your post the last time quickly picking the tops. Sorry bout that.

You've mentioned disabling background file scanning of Windows. How do you do that?

And, to be sure, by nuking the My Music folder you mean just stop using it, moving the files anywhere else, right?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell DPN PJ8GD
    CPU
    Intel i3 1900 MHz
    Memory
    6 GB
    Browser
    Mozilla Firefox
You've mentioned disabling background file scanning of Windows. How do you do that?

You have to identify the various processes that do it. Back when I had hard drives with noisy seeks, I would frequently hear the sudden onset of heavy disk activity for no apparent reason that could go on for quite a while and drive me crazy. I'd use Sysinternals Process Monitor to see what was causing it. Then I'd disable the process or feature if I didn't need it.

And, to be sure, by nuking the My Music folder you mean just stop using it, moving the files anywhere else, right?

I mean removing all folders from it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
Get the free program Lock Hunter. It installs in the context menu and will tell you what process is locking your files. There is nothing better, at least not to my knowledge.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Update 1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    self built
    CPU
    AMD FX-8350
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7 Rev. 3
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Zotac GTX 770 Amp 2 GB
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    GDATA Internet Security
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