Black Folder in My Pictures

[BorealChickadee]

BlaCk, not Blank

I seem to be having an inordinate number of computer issues but this one baffles me and my google search hasn't turned up any clues.

I use Windows XP (please don't boo me) and tonight when I opened up My Pictures one of the photo folders was BLACK around the pictures! So instead of that nice cheery yellow vomit color surrounding the pictures it was now a black border! I opened the folder and the pictures were still there.

How?
Why?
Can I fix it?
Has my computer been invaded by little green men who like black?
Can I change it back to microsoft vomit yellow?
Do computer gremlins exist or is it just a coincidence this coincided with the new Harry Potter movie opening?

I consider myself a technoidiot and this issue may just be the straw that broke the computer's back.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I would guess and it is purely a guess that you have one or more corrupt images in the folder. What you might try is to make a sibling folder, and ensure it is "vomit yellow". Then copy the picture from the black folder over and see if the black follows. You might also try deleting thumbs.db (the thumbnail database) from the blackened folder, although you might have to show the hidden files and folders to see it (Tools->Folder Options... View, Show Hidden Files and Folders. There is also an option right there to not cache thumbnails which might be of help.)

Tim

 

[BorealChickadee]

I would guess and it is purely a guess that you have one or more corrupt images in the folder. What you might try is to make a sibling folder, and ensure it is "vomit yellow". Then copy the picture from the black folder over and see if the black follows. You might also try deleting thumbs.db (the thumbnail database) from the blackened folder, although you might have to show the hidden files and folders to see it (Tools->Folder Options... View, Show Hidden Files and Folders. There is also an option right there to not cache thumbnails which might be of help.)

Tim

Tim,

Buy yourself a lottery ticket.

I opened up the folder and moved the movies out of it. Why the movies? Because it's a folder of a trip to Acadia with 400 pictures and a few movies. I realized it would be easier if I had a clue where to start. Last night I was on the web and used Quicktime to watch a video. The technoidiot in me said to start with movies.

I'm back to vomit yellow for the main folder with the movies moved out.

New movie folder is yellow too. I'm just going to be happy and accept it.

Not sure what was going on with the thumbnails but while I was moving the movies only some of the folders would show thumbnails and others would only show titles and not even display a picture. Something funky. So....I restarted and now they're all showing.

Gremlins..definitely the folder gremlins.

A big thank you. Getting the movies out, for whatever reason, fixed the problem.