Windows 10 Windows Explorer will not read drives or files, and constantly says "Working on it"

Joined
Sep 16, 2015
This is the worst operating system ever and I am so frustrated!
I don't want to revert... I just want it to work.
Regardless of whether I want to view a file on the c drive, or look at an external drive.. when I try to open File Explorer to view ANYTHING, it just says 'working on it' and looks like its searching but does nothing

absolute nightmare
 
absolute nightmare....
 

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First of all: this is not Microsoft, here you find other users trying to help.

If you hit Ctrl - Alt Del during those actions, to go to Taskmanager (I am on a non-English version, names may not be stranslated correctly) where is your system spending his time? Busy with some exploded process? Waiting for your disk? It must be doing something while not working for you.

Please tell us more.

Henk
 
There is nothing more to tell you. So after installing Windows 10, File Explorer keeps crashing

Say I'm looking in 2 folders at the same time, its a given that one of the folders will freeze, and control alt delete, restart windows explorer/file explorer is the only option.


Is there a fix for this? It's pretty constant.
 
You leave me guessing on what is going on:
- The green bar with "Working on it" should not reappear every time, is it stil coming up?
- Looking in 2 folders at the same time, you have 2 different file explorers running?
- Do you see any exceptional load, disk or CPU, in the taskmanager?

And it is certainly not the end of the world to go back to W7 or W8.1. You should benefit from W10, not ending up with a bad functioning system. I keep saying that W10 is superior to W7 and W8.1 but it may not be the right decision for every computer. So if not satisfied go back.
 
ok so just to be clear, the fact that it keeps saying 'working on it' means it is not actually loading any folders
Further more, half the time that I plug in an external hard drive, it will crash the external drive completely, including a new one I bought this week

If I try to open 2 folders, and copy or move a file from one folder to the other>> CRASH - it just freezes, and locks. all i can do is control alt delete and select for file explorer to restart

Apparently it's a common problem
File Explorer keeps crashing - Windows 10 Forums
 
The fact that I can't access files at all, and file explorer isn't working, kind of is the end of the world.
I'm a professional photographer and this is getting in the way of me running my business.
I would prefer to keep windows 10 if there is a fix for this problem, but nobody is replying with a fix :/
 
Further more, half the time that I plug in an external hard drive, it will crash the external drive completely, including a new one I bought this week

If I try to open 2 folders, and copy or move a file from one folder to the other>> CRASH - it just freezes, and locks. all i can do is control alt delete and select for file explorer to restart
If nobody is replying with a fix, nobody has a fix. It is not a common problem, at least not here.

From what you are telling now, first thing I would do is checking the integrity of the file system. A "working on it" that never ends may be caused by a fail in your filesystem, same for a copy that freezes.

Type in a cmd window:
SFC /scannow

See also: System file check (SFC) Scan and Repair System Files & DISM to fix things SFC cannot

A fault in your filesystem makes it also risky to revert to a previous version of Windows, so please check

Henk
 
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Hi

You are having so many problems that I think it's time to start looking at your computer instead of Windows 10.
No one that I know is having all these issues.

All of my friends who have updated are reporting that everything is working fine, these range from high end computers like mine to normal laptops, and I'm not seeing a large number of complaints online.

Either Something in your hardware must be causing the problems you are seeing, or there was some kind of error during the install.
I'd backup your data, (if your a professional photographer you probably have everything backed up to an external location already) once that's done, either do a reset, or better yet download an ISO file and do a clean install of the OS and start over.

I've been running Windows 10 for almost a year and haven't had any serious problems except for my sound card driver issues.

I asked before in another one of your threads what computer are you running, how old is it, what are it's specs. If we knew that someone might be able to offer some input.

Mike
 
Actually Mike, a lot of people seem to be having these issues, that's what I'm finding in various forums, and nobody is coming up with a fix. Here is a post on another site. One person found a fix that worked for them, but it hasn't worked for others.
File Explorer keeps crashing - Windows 10 Forums

There was a windows update last night, so I installed it. I didn't have time to research what was inside of that update, but I'm hoping that it will improve the problems.

After the update I was again able to access 2 hard drives at once, without the lag, but the problem has to a point been intimmitant since installation so I will have to wait until it occurs again

As for your question about how many processes, absolutely none!
You're talking about a 16 gig RAM i7 doing absolutely nothing but trying to access File Explorer

The green bar does continuously roll though, still.. While I'm looking at any given file, it appears like it is continuously 'searching' which is definately some sort of bug

Also the sound issues aren't rectified. If I want to use headphones, I have to disable the speaker and then enable headphones, and to go back to the speakers I have to do the reverse.
If I'm just using the computer and plug headphones in, it won't make a change, which again is annoying, and there are lots of people on google who have not found a fix yet, and others who have
 
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