windows explorer can't display

Hello.
I can't get Windows to display a particular folder. In Windows explorer when I click on this folder Windows tells me there are 6,633 objects and 284 megs of data. Windows dispays its 'finding' icon (that moving flashlight thing), but that is as far as it gets. I have let this go on for well over an hour just to see what happens - nothing more. The system has not hung, everything is OK except it won't give me the file list in this folder.

I am running Windows XP, Pentium 4 2.8 processor, 512 mges ram, so would expect the system to handle whatever was needed. The file relates to a horse racing program, whcih has about two years of accumulated data which is very important to me. The program connected with the file runs fine, and tests that run within the program that use this file work fine, which suggests to me that the file is not corrupted. (?) I have spoken to the vendor of this program, whose own file is larger than this, and runs fine on a smaller, slower machine.

Does anyone have any suggestion, ideas, advice? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

First thing I'd do is burn a copy of the folder to a CD so if bad stuff happens you'll still have it all.

Next, try a general system clean-up.
- using IE, delete all temp internet files.
- Open 'my computer' then right click on each of your hard drives and do a cleanup. Check the blocks to let it deal with all the stuff it finds.
- start~run~cmd then chkdsk /f and answer Y(es) to doing the deed at next reboot then boot.
- when Windows loads after the chkdsk finishes, right-click 'my computer', left-click manage then do a disk defrag.

If things aren't working after the above, take a look in your event logs to see if any errors or warnings show up when the folder fails to open.

 

If all else fails, go into Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services and turn off Indexing (double click on it, click on the Stop button, click OK).

If that allows you to access the contents of the folder, you can turn Indexing off permanently with no ill effects by going back to where you found the Stop button and choosing "Disabled" from the drop-down list of "Start up type," click OK.