"Error 0x80070091: The directory is not empty." Also, corrupt file interfere's with all *.exe programs!

[Gundark927]

Thank you for having this forum available. I will try to be as brief as possible while giving the details needed.

There are similar threads here, but I have an additional problem to add to those threads and so I started this. After googling the problem elsewhere and searching here, I am afraid my problem can only be solved with a re-install of Vista. Perhaps you can confirm this, or suggest an alternate course of action.


THE PROBLEM:
We are running a TOSHIBA Satellite P205D running Windows Vista Home Premium, (6.0, Build 6000).

Upon startup of Vista, and all subsequent .exe applications (from Firefox to chkdsk.exe to the disk defragmenter to ANY .exe application at all,) I get the following error message:

Quote:

[application.exe] - Corrupt File
"The file or directory C:\Program Files\Google\GOOGLE~1 is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility."

This occurs for every single application on the machine-- however, the application runs fine after this initial error message. The computer is not non-functional, but it is broken and annoying.

I have scanned for viruses using McAfee, as well as Spybot and AdAware. I almost always use CCCleaner to empty my trashcan and caches once finished with a session.

1. Running Chkdsk from both the Vista search, as well as from a cmd prompt does not run completely. It stops once it encounters the bad files, because it can "no longer run in Read-Only mode." Nor does it work as Chkdsk /f.
2. Running Vista in safe mode, with and without networking does not resolve the issue.
3. A system restore from a point before the problem manifested did not resolve the issue.
4. Deleting the files in question (C:\Program Files\Google\ ) is impossible, and this is where the inital title of my thread comes in. I get the following message:

Quote:

"An unexpected error is preventing the operation. Make a note of this error code, which might be useful if you get additional help to resolve this problem:

Error 0x80070091: The directory is not empty.


Google
Date created: 8/16/2007 2:23 PM."

Please note that the time indicated above pre-dates the purchase of the computer. Trying to manually delete the file from a dos cmd prompt indicates that the folders dates are "05/11/2008 07:45 PM". This corresponds to the approximate time that these symptoms appeared. There are NO FILES apparent within the directory in the DOS CMD script.

Most of what I've listed above is what I am comfortable with doing myself. We don't have all that much data stored on the computer yet, only owning it for a few months. Are there any other ideas that we could try from here, or is it back to the old System Recue/Restoration disk that came with the laptop?

[fatboyslik]

I am having this exact... exact... exact same problem. Did you ever find a resolution? Can anyone help?

[Gundark927]

Fatboysilk,

Hey, you're the only guy to respond to my original thread from last May.

Luckily for me, the problem up and solved itself. ONe day, without me doing anything different, the computer decided to do some self-diagnostic and/or repair. It went through what looked like a disk check, only this time it must have figured it out. I cannot remember exactly what it did, and I was out of town travelling at the time, otherwise I would have written it down.

The process took aboiut ten minutes, and next thing I know, it's fixed. Not good as new-- the machine seems to have lost a step for speed. But a hell of a lot better than it was. Since then, the issue has not reappeared.

I wish I knew what triggered the self-repair, or what steps the system took to restore itself. All I can say is, I hope you have as good a luck as me-- it certainly seemed pretty fickle.