An intersting little Vista problem

[Ozmale]

I have this little problem....well many actually but only one belongs here!

I have tried all my usual places for seeking this info but to no avail so I thought I'd toss it in here..

A relatively new, flash PC running Windows Vista Ultimate, Office 2007, NOD32, Comodo 2 and then 3 firewalls and assorted games.

Vista appears to store a whole bunch of program files in a system of app directories that include thinks like outlook.pst, the Database (?) for Vista's Photo Catalog, passwords for games (eg ETQW), back up schedules for Sync Back and more.

Now this computer operates fine except for a clash between Dreamscene and several high end games (Dreamscene is now off).

Occassionlly, maybe once a week but sometimes daily, sometimes not for a week or two the Outlook.PST file disappears as do the files containing information for other software that are stored in the app directories. It does not seem to correspond to any particular piece of software that I am running being the cause.

Outlook when started will come up prompting you to find outlook.pst and you can use Vista's File history feature to go back a day and recover the file, drag it to the current folder and all is fine.

Other software such as Photoviewer needs to construct its database again.

Some recovery and other software seems to tell me the file still exists, windows explorer cant see it (and I have tried all the usual hidden file, system file tricks).

It also happened before I was running NOD32/Comodo and when I was running Zone Alarm (crap) and running no 3rd party AV or firewall.

Any ideas?

Ozmale

[innit Geezer]

I wish I could help Oz but the necessity of being a programmer is frustrating just reading your post.

[Irish Stu]

ozmale said:

Any ideas?

Yeah just one... Vista is a pile of crap.

Hope that helps.

Simon

[Ardbeg... innit]

Like Simon said...

I checked the micro$oft knowledge base and there is nothing on this problem in there. You could start a support ticket with them, but most likely this will be interpreted as a 'feature' that users wanted or as a known issue that will be resolved with SP1.

Good luck! I feel your pain

[Billionaire Bill Gates]

ozmale said:

Any ideas?

Yes. Side-grade to XP/SP2.

[Ardbeg... innit]

Billionaire said:

ozmale said:

Any ideas?

Yes. Side-grade to XP/SP2.

You certainly cant call it downgrading

[Billionaire Bill]

Of course you could. You'd be wrong, but you could certainly do it.