Unwarranted
New Member
- Messages
- 2
Here's the situation: I was about to back up my files by transferring them to an external hard drive and was in Documents for that purpose, when I did something that triggered a 'spinning circle' (called a Throbber I believe). I waited for a few minutes but the throbber continued to be there, and the computer continued to do whatever it was doing, so I closed the Windows File Explorer, hoping to start fresh without a throbber. But when I opened the new Windows Explorer the spinning circle was still there and instead of being there for a few seconds--as the green line went left to right across the top and then presenting Documents, Downloads, Music, Videos, etc. when the green line completed its journey, with the spinning circle disappearing as it always does at that point-- the throbber remained, as the green line went 99% of the way across and then stopped.
My initial reaction was to give it as much time as it needed, especially since the words 'This folder is empty' were there, which is always the case when I first open the Windows Explorer for the day, but 'This folder is empty' normally disappears after a few seconds along with the spinning circle, but this time, because it was not completing the process for some reason, the spinning circle remained. I decided to give it more time, but now 'giving it more time' is obviously not enough since that was 20 hours ago! The green line is still there, 99% of the way to completion, but not progressing!
I was going to use the Task Manager and click End Task for the Windows Explorer but the fact that the words 'This folder is empty' were there gave me pause. I was afraid I would lose all my files! So I'm here, asking for advice on how to safely proceed: how I can end this impasse while not jeopardizing any of my files.
My initial reaction was to give it as much time as it needed, especially since the words 'This folder is empty' were there, which is always the case when I first open the Windows Explorer for the day, but 'This folder is empty' normally disappears after a few seconds along with the spinning circle, but this time, because it was not completing the process for some reason, the spinning circle remained. I decided to give it more time, but now 'giving it more time' is obviously not enough since that was 20 hours ago! The green line is still there, 99% of the way to completion, but not progressing!
I was going to use the Task Manager and click End Task for the Windows Explorer but the fact that the words 'This folder is empty' were there gave me pause. I was afraid I would lose all my files! So I'm here, asking for advice on how to safely proceed: how I can end this impasse while not jeopardizing any of my files.
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8.1
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Lenovo Z580
- Browser
- Chrome
- Antivirus
- Windows Defender