Windows 7 Unable to copy and paste files

[JonBelfiore]

Hello, I'd like to thank you all in advance for analyzing my problem. All help is appreciated .

On a Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) machine I am running, I randomly lost the ability to copy, paste, and move data.

When I try to copy and paste data, I get that restricting "ding" sound and when I try to drag and drop files and folders to somewhere else I do not get an error message or anything. Simply nothing happens, it's as if I didn't try to do it in the first place.

Any suggestions?

The hardware in the machine are as follows:

Intel Core I7 950
Intel X58 chipset (with usb 3.0 and Sata3 support)
6gb of triple channel DDR3 1333 memory
ATI Radeon 5670
Corsair Reactor 120GB SSD

Again, thank you

 

[iBen95111]

hello!
I found this article.

Link Removed due to 404 Error

 

[JonBelfiore]

Thanks for the article, though it isn't really relevant to my problem.

The issue is copy, pasting, and moving data in windows explorer. copying and pasting text works fine.

 

[iBen95111]

Ah, so i understand that you can't Drag and drop to another window.

I would recommend System Restore because this just happened lately.
Please backup your files and perform system restore.

OR

You can restore explorer using the Windows CD (Repair Windows.)

OR

You can run "sfc /scannow" to repair the file.


wait.. i think this has something to do with permissions.
Just in case, go here and download the zip:
Add "Take Ownership" to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista - How-To Geek

Open it and open the .reg file, click Yes.

Restart or logout and then login.
Go to C:/Windows and then right click explorer.exe
Take ownership of the file.
Restart your computer.

 

[JonBelfiore]

I am unable to right click explorer.exe and take ownership. That function seems like it picks and chooses what I can/can't take ownership of :/

 

[RAK]

From where are you trying to drag and drop. Perhaps it is a system or junction folder?

 

[JonBelfiore]

From where are you trying to drag and drop. Perhaps it is a system or junction folder?

No. It's all of the folders on the drive it seems. She typically backs up her my documents onto a flash drive and her external hard drive, and then one day this just started happening and now we are trying to figure out why. We can save data to the drive, saving a word document for example, but we can't copy and move data.

 

[RAK]

If you have run the .reg file given in the earlier link, then you right click a folder of file, not Explorer.exe., as you stated in your post?

 

[JonBelfiore]

When i right click other files and folders, I get that take ownership option, but not when I right click explorer.exe

 

[RAK]

Correct. That is how it works. So. Have you tried it with the files you cannot move?

 

[Mike]

Hello, I'd like to thank you all in advance for analyzing my problem. All help is appreciated .

On a Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) machine I am running, I randomly lost the ability to copy, paste, and move data.

When I try to copy and paste data, I get that restricting "ding" sound and when I try to drag and drop files and folders to somewhere else I do not get an error message or anything. Simply nothing happens, it's as if I didn't try to do it in the first place.

Any suggestions?

The hardware in the machine are as follows:

Intel Core I7 950
Intel X58 chipset (with usb 3.0 and Sata3 support)
6gb of triple channel DDR3 1333 memory
ATI Radeon 5670
Corsair Reactor 120GB SSD

Again, thank you

Something on your system must have completely overwrote your permissions to access the drive. Your best bet is to try to do a system restore back to a time before the problem started. There is a very complex way to re-apply the default permissions using the command-line, but its iffy and I only have the official instructions for Windows Server at this time. Try System Restore, as it sounds like someone or some piece of software sabotaged the system.

 

[JonBelfiore]

Yes, but it's all of the files on the drive, no files can be copied or moved. It didn't work on the files I tried.