File Explorer and Hidden Files Issue

[MGhee]

I've discovered a portable app I use, EMDB (Eric's Movie DB), after the last few updates released... and upon first run after a program update now creates a file (UPDATE_BACKUP_V3xx.dat) in C:\Windows, and it's hidden. Strange thing is, File Explorer can't see it despite show hidden files, folders, and drives being checked.

I learned of the recent change in behaviour purely by accident. I was searching for an image with Irfanview when I noticed a new file in the Open dialog - see attached pic of Irfanview and File Explore opened to the same location. Irfanview shows the file, File Explorer doesn't. I also tried using XYplorer (free file manager) to no avail, despite selecting "show me everything" within the app's settings the file remains hidden in XYplorer as well.

The file is small, about 140KB on my system due to the size of my movie database, and I was able to point the app to this location in its backup settings which then loaded and gave me the option to delete the listed backups - and I did. This is cumbersome though, my settings need to be changed back & forth, I have all settings and backups stored in the app's folder.

I will reach out to the dev and ask why the change, this of course is a different issue, I'm only wanting to know why Windows File Explorer can't see this file so I can delete it if need be? Anyone know how to get at any file like this that a dev chooses to drop anywhere on our system just because they can, so we can delete them?

TIA

 

[Brink]

Hello MGhee,

Does the hidden file show when you also check the Hide protected operating system files box?

Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[MGhee]

Hello MGhee,

Does the hidden file show when you also check the Hide protected operating system files box?

Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide - Windows 7 Help Forums

Hi Brink, thanks for the feedback.

I checked and unchecked everything. If it said to Show, I checked the box to show hidden files, folders, protected os files. If the box said Hide, I unchecked it accordingly. Strange, not only did Irfanview see the files, when I was using 7zip (gui), it also revealed em.

Anyway, shortly after I posted the other day I had a fatal HDD crash, lost everything, so it is no longer an issue.

Thankfully I'd created a bootable USB with the 8.1 iso I downloaded a few months back, and there were a few files I was able to retrieve from the drive, including the info for Eight Forums, otherwise... I'd be somewhere else right now. Still trying to get my laptop back up to speed, setup the way I like, etc!

Thanks again for the input.

 

[Brink]

I'm sorry to hear about your HDD, and having to start over from scratch.

 

[MGhee]

Thanks Brink.

It was somewhat of a mixed blessing. I lost nearly 4 years of data (73gb)... lots of notes for my portable app settings, ripped flac and mp4 files from audio discs and dvd movies. I have em but will have to rip em again. My browser bookmarks, password lists, 5+ gigs of Lenovo & MS updates (for an offline reinstall)... and so on. I haven't (yet) had that moment where I realize I lost something important, something I can't bring back. I mostly realize all the time I put into collecting, creating, converting, downloading, reading, saving... stuff, is lost.

OTOH, I'd fortunately created a bootable usb stick from a win8.1x64 iso I downloaded some time ago. I also had a new ssd collecting dust since Christmas. I wasn't sure the folks at Lenovo actually knew if the iso would work, thankfully it did.

The os installed fine, adding .net 3.5 was easy peasy... an ssd over a hdd is a no-brainer. I regret waiting as long as I did.

I still have the Lenovo updates, numerous MS updates to download and install. I may not bother with running WU, I may use autopatcher or wsus offline update to patch the system carefully. I don't want MS to foist junk on me at this point.

One thing I did differently, I used the built-in tools over 3rd party for my av and firewall. Windows Defender and Windows Firewall are easy to use, and working fine so far.

I may start a new thread and ask if what I think happened to my data is actually possible... for another day.

 

[Brink]

Yikes, I'm really sorry to hear you lost all your data as well.

I would recommend to use something like Macrium Reflect to keep backups of your system, and/or manually backup anything you don't want to lost to a separate hard drive. Backups and/or system images are always great to have in situations like this.