[General] Dissapearing Maps

[Sir Shockwave]

Okay it's official - my Map Editor is either super leaky, or cursed.

My map's keep disappearing. No, seriously - they only show up in World Editor. Going into the Warcraft III\Maps directory shows all the default users and maps made by other Hive members, but not any of my maps, or Warcraft III\Maps\Test for that matter.

I've switched on the system's ability to see hidden files, but they're not displaying then either. It's an outright frustrating and confusing bug.

 

[Radicool]

Ensure you save them to the right place. Upon the first time of saving a map, it will ask you where you want to save the map. Check if you've been saving it in "Documents" or something like that. Additionally, upon using the "test Map" feature, your map will be saved in the Warcraft III/Maps/Test Directory.

If you are certain that the maps are not being saved, you can uninstall warcraft 3 (the editor with it) and reinstall it.

Edit: Thought I'd restate the important of checking the location. I had this problem once and I was sure I was looking in the right place. My friend looked at it and laughed and said your in the wrong directory. I was like. Oh...

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Ensure you save them to the right place. Upon the first time of saving a map, it will ask you where you want to save the map. Check if you've been saving it in "Documents" or something like that. Additionally, upon using the "test Map" feature, your map will be saved in the Warcraft III/Maps/Test Directory.

If you are certain that the maps are not being saved, you can uninstall warcraft 3 (the editor with it) and reinstall it.

WARNING: BELOW POST IS PICTURE HEAVY.

I've lost count of how many times both WCIII and FT have been uninstalled and reinstalled, both from the disks and the Battle.net client. Maps are definitely being saved into C:\Program Files (x86)\Warcraft III\Maps, but when I check the directory, well -

...Yeah. And yet, when I move to open the World Editor...

It's right there. It's reading something. The file itself isn't hidden.

As you say, I've been running tests around the clock, and the folder exists -

And yet when I try accessing the folder...

Even more bizarre part? Uninstalling and reinstalling has fixed none of this. I get the exact same errors each time I uninstall and reinstall. By now, I wouldn't be surprised if we're in the double digits.

 

[Radicool]

Well I have no idea. Make a plain map, and save it into "Documents" and see if that makes a difference by using File - Save As. It may have something to do with access permissions seeing you have been saving it into your program files.

 

[junius619]

Well I have no idea. Make a plain map, and save it into "Documents" and see if that makes a difference by using File - Save As. It may have something to do with access permissions seeing you have been saving it into your program files.

prolly it is, win7 have a strict security, or are you logged in as a admin good sir?

 

[Sir Shockwave]

prolly it is, win7 have a strict security, or are you logged in as a admin good sir?

I'm here in the red banded BAWKZ:

So it's an Administrator account, given I can both install and uninstall software and access the Admin Controls, as I'm the only person who is using the PC. If you have any suggestions, we're all open for them.

 

[junius619]

I'm here in the red banded BAWKZ:

So it's an Administrator account, given I can both install and uninstall software and access the Admin Controls, as I'm the only person who is using the PC. If you have any suggestions, we're all open for them.

have you tried removing the password of your account

 

[Sir Shockwave]

have you tried removing the password of your account

Before I do that, you might want to explain how this affects the map issue. I guessed it might be a UAC issue with what you were suggesting.

 

[Hashjie]

The lock (padlock) overlay icon appears for files/folders which are private, but located under a non-private directory.

A private item is an item where the only user account with access is you.¹ You create one of these, for example, by going to the sharing wizard and saying Share with: Nobody. To avoid clutter, the overlay is shown only when there is a transition from non-private to private. (Otherwise you’d have a lock overlay on everything in your Documents folder, for example.)

¹Even though you are the only user account, there can still be access granted to groups and non-user accounts such as the Administrators group and the SYSTEM account.

What I want you to do is go to the security tab of your test folder's properties.
Here you should be abled to change permission for which users can access these files and folders.
Make sure every user role has full access.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

The lock (padlock) overlay icon appears for files/folders which are private, but located under a non-private directory.



What I want you to do is go to the security tab of your test folder's properties.
Here you should be abled to change permission for which users can access these files and folders.
Make sure every user role has full access.

Sadly, no dice -

Of course, I found another alternate workaround if that didn't work.

Exasperating all this is the fact I can only see them in World Editor, as described above.

 

[Hashjie]

And you can still open the map in the world editor?

That is indeed odd

If you might have accidentally removed it. Or if it was removed by some application.
(which I don't think is the case if your answer to the question above is yes).

You could use a data recovery application to recover deleted files (flagged files) to check if it is inside that specific test folder.
Other then that: I have no idea what is happening over there...

Perhaps all these re-installments you made cause this issue?
In which case you might want to de-install all possible installations, clean your registry, appdata folder and windows cache and then re-install. (a bit far-fetched)

 

[Sir Shockwave]

And you can still open the map in the world editor?

That is indeed odd

If you might have accidentally removed it. Or if it was removed by some application.
(which I don't think is the case if your answer to the question above is yes).

You could use a data recovery application to recover deleted files (flagged files) to check if it is inside that specific test folder.
Other then that: I have no idea what is happening over there...

Perhaps all these re-installments you made cause this issue? In which case you might want de-install all possible installations, clean your registry and appdata folder and then re-install. (a bit far-fetched)

As far as I am aware, the system I have currently does not have a Data Recovery Tool. I will instead follow the second solution as best I can (having no idea how to clean the registry after all), and then either post again or edit as necessary.

 

[Hashjie]

Try an application like this:

http://ntfsundelete.com/

This is for whenever you have physically (not send it to the recycle bin)
removed files from your hard drive.

These files still exist on your hard drive and can be recovered unless you have deleted them with a secured hashing algorithm that overwrites the sectors that contain data for your file
(advanced technology for making sure a file is completely erased from the hard drive)

Sometimes these files can not be recovered because a lot of time has passed and you've downloaded/created a lot of new files that where overwritten on the corresponding sectors.
Or if you have defragmented your hard drive by changing the data inside sectors to different positions so that it is faster to read.

Ccleaner can also do a pretty good job in cleaning up your registry, but this does not nessecarely have to be true.
If you want to make sure all corrupt keys for your warcraft installation are completely removed it is better to do it manually in regedit.
(this should only be done if you know how to alter your registry, if you do something wrong in there it could potentially screw up your windows operating system).

Allthough I'm sure CCleaner can cleanup quite some stuff, including caches and appdata folders.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Okay, your not gonna belive this, but I went into RegEdit, found the Warcraft III and World Editor registries and got rid of them. I took a look around anything that looked like an AppData folder, and found nothing for Warcraft III, so either it was removed when it was uninstalled, or something is stopping it making those files. I got no idea how to access the Windows Cache, so I couldn't tinker with that admittedly...

...And I'm still getting the exact same bug -_-

EDIT - Scrap that. Somehow, little close copies are getting saved into the AppData folder. I swear to Menoth we've been saving them into the Maps section O_O

 

[Radicool]

So problem solved then??

 

[Sir Shockwave]

So problem solved then??

Of a sort. For some reason, it's saving to AppData. On a lighter note, did manage to finally find a way to change permissions, so we'll see if this works.

If that fails, looks like I may need to go rooting though there to get you your map.

I'd still like to know why it's doing this and how to prevent it.

 

[Hashjie]

I'd still like to know why it's doing this and how to prevent it.

I'd love to find it out for you, but as I'm not experiencing this same thing on my computer it's hard for me to find out :/

It's good to see that you found the source of your problem though. Way to go!

 

[Ralle]

We may need the doctor here. I will send him a message.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

I'd love to find it out for you, but as I'm not experiencing this same thing on my computer it's hard for me to find out :/

It's good to see that you found the source of your problem though. Way to go!

You understate your importance - I wouldn't have had any clue without your help. So for that, thank you if I haven't said so before.

I sent Radicool a copy of my current map, so hopefully it should be okay.

We may need the doctor here. I will send him a message.

The...Doctor?

 

[TwoVenomous]

The...Doctor?

i guess he was referring to Dr Super Good.

 

[Hashjie]

The doctor is indeed, super good.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Why are you compressing all your files? As these are game files you should never compress them for optimum performance.

The problem appears to be caused by permission settings. A file can be hidden via permissions so that it does not appear when viewed by another account. This allows you to restrict knowledge about files and folders keeping their existance secret from other accounts rather than informing the accounts they do exist but preventing them from accessing it.

The exact cause of this is not immediatly clear. I am guessing that WorldEdit is being run in a different account from the one you are using to browse the folder in explorer even though they should be the same account. A possible cause is that WorldEdit is being run by SYSTEM, a Service account or another account that are permision levels above the user account you are logged in as. These accounts create the file private to them without your main account having access or even existance permission.

If you have administrator permission over the volume the files are located on, you should be able to force a permission policy onto them under Security. In this case you will want to give "Full Control" to the appropiate account you use.

I am still very curious why you decided to compress all the files on your hard disk. I have a feeling this may be related to the problem you are having as when you turned that option on you might have messed up permissions.

As Program Files (and its x86 branch if you use a 64 bit OS) contain programs, they require administrator access to modify (not read, to change) in any way. Due to this elevated permission requirement it could explain your problem. WorldEdit is run as an administrator so you can save your map. WarCraft III is run as a user (not as an administrator) as all it does is read maps. WarCraft III will not see the map as it is created for the administrator view only.

 

[Hashjie]

The problem appears to be caused by permission settings. A file can be hidden via permissions so that it does not appear when viewed by another account. This allows you to restrict knowledge about files and folders keeping their existance secret from other accounts rather than informing the accounts they do exist but preventing them from accessing it.

The exact cause of this is not immediatly clear. I am guessing that WorldEdit is being run in a different account from the one you are using to browse the folder in explorer even though they should be the same account. A possible cause is that WorldEdit is being run by SYSTEM, a Service account or another account that are permision levels above the user account you are logged in as. These accounts create the file private to them without your main account having access or even existance permission.

If you have administrator permission over the volume the files are located on, you should be able to force a permission policy onto them under Security. In this case you will want to give "Full Control" to the appropiate account you use.

That's what I thought too and I suggested to do the same thing in my first post in this thread:
#9

However your explenation was more clear then mine was.

I am still very curious why you decided to compress all the files on your hard disk. I have a feeling this may be related to the problem you are having as when you turned that option on you might have messed up permissions.

A very good assumption.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Why are you compressing all your files? As these are game files you should never compress them for optimum performance.

The problem appears to be caused by permission settings. A file can be hidden via permissions so that it does not appear when viewed by another account. This allows you to restrict knowledge about files and folders keeping their existance secret from other accounts rather than informing the accounts they do exist but preventing them from accessing it.

The exact cause of this is not immediatly clear. I am guessing that WorldEdit is being run in a different account from the one you are using to browse the folder in explorer even though they should be the same account. A possible cause is that WorldEdit is being run by SYSTEM, a Service account or another account that are permision levels above the user account you are logged in as. These accounts create the file private to them without your main account having access or even existance permission.

If you have administrator permission over the volume the files are located on, you should be able to force a permission policy onto them under Security. In this case you will want to give "Full Control" to the appropiate account you use.

I am still very curious why you decided to compress all the files on your hard disk. I have a feeling this may be related to the problem you are having as when you turned that option on you might have messed up permissions.

As Program Files (and its x86 branch if you use a 64 bit OS) contain programs, they require administrator access to modify (not read, to change) in any way. Due to this elevated permission requirement it could explain your problem. WorldEdit is run as an administrator so you can save your map. WarCraft III is run as a user (not as an administrator) as all it does is read maps. WarCraft III will not see the map as it is created for the administrator view only.

If you check the screenshot a few pages back, I am the only user of the PC. Also, I can't access the guest account. Since installing the PC we haven't touched them before others mentioned them.

 

[Hashjie]

If you check the screenshot a few pages back, I am the only user of the PC. Also, I can't access the guest account. Since installing the PC we haven't touched them before others mentioned them.

Are you sure it's not the SYSTEM account? Or any other service accounts regardless of admin?

A possible cause is that WorldEdit is being run by SYSTEM, a Service account or another account that are permision levels above the user account you are logged in as. These accounts create the file private to them without your main account having access or even existance permission.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Are you sure it's not the SYSTEM account? Or any other service accounts regardless of admin?

I can't access the system account, so it rules that out. Oddly enough though, I did find that the drive was indexing my files. I've since unchecked that, and I'm going to run a test a little while later.

EDIT - Nope, forget that - system's still padlocking it.

 

[Hashjie]

I can't access the system account, so it rules that out. Oddly enough though, I did find that the drive was indexing my files. I've since unchecked that, and I'm going to run a test a little while later.

That is default behaviour of your drive and I suggest not changing it unless you know what you are doing

Also check out this tutorial:

http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/win...ontrol-permissions-files-folders-windows.html


I think your problem is because of the permissions being set incorrectly for the administrator which therefore denies access for you to the folder.
I'll try to find a workaround, I've previously set ownership of files through cmd, maybe that'll make this work.

Okay try this: open up a command prompt (type in cmd in windows start menu).
Type in the following:

icacls "C:/Program Files(x86)/Warcraft III/Maps/Test" /grant Sir Shockwave:F

do the same thing for:

icacls "C:/Program Files(x86)/Warcraft III/Maps/Test" /grant Administrators:F
icacls "C:/Program Files(x86)/Warcraft III/Maps/Test" /grant SYSTEM:F
icacls "C:/Program Files(x86)/Warcraft III/Maps/Test" /grant Users:F

If you are unsure of the name of your users, check the security settings in a folder that doesn't have the lock icon and make sure you use these instead.
Ow and you might want to use the OI flag in order to make all objects inside the folder inherit these same ownership rights.

Now check what happens.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

That is default behaviour of your drive and I suggest not changing it unless you know what you are doing

Also check out this tutorial:

http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/win...ontrol-permissions-files-folders-windows.html


I think your problem is because of the permissions being set incorrectly for the administrator which therefore denies access for you to the folder.
I'll try to find a workaround, I've previously set ownership of files through cmd, maybe that'll make this work.

Okay try this: open up a command prompt (type in cmd in windows start menu).
Type in the following:

icacls "C:/Program Files(x86)/Warcraft III/Maps/Test" /grant Sir Shockwave:F

do the same thing for:

icacls "C:/Program Files(x86)/Warcraft III/Maps/Test" /grant Administrators:F
icacls "C:/Program Files(x86)/Warcraft III/Maps/Test" /grant SYSTEM:F
icacls "C:/Program Files(x86)/Warcraft III/Maps/Test" /grant Users:F

If you are unsure of the name of your users, check the security settings in a folder that doesn't have the lock icon and make sure you use these instead.
Ow and you might want to use the OI flag in order to make all objects inside the folder inherit these same ownership rights.

Now check what happens.

This is why I don't like using Command Prompt:

I stopped there because if it's not reading the Administrators (or my user name for that matter), it's not going to work on the others.

EDIT - After spotting a grammar error (because my Keyboard hates me), I went and tried again. This happened:

 

[Hashjie]

The first one didn't work because space bar can apparently not be recognized for user accounts.
The second one didn't work due to a typ-o. You've typed: icalcls instead of icacls.
Please try doing it again for the Administrators, SYSTEM and Users.

EDIT: okay so we know you don't have efficient rights to set the administrator permissions (this is your problem).
Try doing it for SYSTEM, see what it does then...

 

[Sir Shockwave]

The first one didn't work because space bar can apparently not be recognized for user accounts.
The second one didn't work due to a typ-o. You've typed: icalcls instead of icacls.
Please try doing it again for the Administrators, SYSTEM and Users.

I just posted up another one about the same time you made your post. Check the edit above.

 

[Hashjie]

Check my edit too

Also, if you don't want to do this manually through cmd (which I think is fun ^.^) you might want to use this instead:
Add "Take Ownership" to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Check my edit too

Also, if you don't want to do this manually through cmd (which I think is fun ^.^) you might want to use this instead:
Add "Take Ownership" to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista

Tired both, and unfortunately got exactly the same results as previous. Unless "Take Command" is doing something I don't know about.

 

[Hashjie]

Tired both, and unfortunately got exactly the same results as previous. Unless "Take Command" is doing something I don't know about.

If I where you I'd check it out. In the meanwhile I'll check out what it does exactly
It should be similar to what we are doing right now. But I might have forgotten a step to make it work.

EDIT: It's using both the takeown and icacls commands to set the permission for the file/folder you click for Administrators.
It also uses some extra flags I didn't tell you to use. This might be why it didn't work...

@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"

This is what the take ownership command does.
Try using it on your folder and see what happens.

If this also doesn't work then I'm out of ideas unfortunately :/
The only thing to do then is try and do it in a different user account or perhaps in safe mode.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

If I where you I'd check it out. In the meanwhile I'll check out what it does exactly
It should be similar to what we are doing right now. But I might have forgotten a step to make it work.

EDIT: It's using both the takeown and icacls commands to set the permission for the file/folder you click for Administrators.
It also uses some extra flags I didn't tell you to use. This might be why it didn't work...

@="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"
"IsolatedCommand"="cmd.exe /c takeown /f \"%1\" /r /d y && icacls \"%1\" /grant administrators:F /t"

This is what the take ownership command does.
Try using it on your folder and see what happens.

If this also doesn't work then I'm out of ideas unfortunately :/
The only thing to do then is try and do it in a different user account or perhaps in safe mode.

Okay, FUN.

It looks like the command actually worked. It appeared a Reboot was all it needed.

Did not see that coming.

 

[Hashjie]

Cool, so you've got it fixed then ?

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Cool, so you've got it fixed then ?

By Odin's beard, it would appear to be so.

I'd deposit more rep, but I think I sent you some earlier. Now if people would excuse us, I have a Map to be working on.

Thank you for your time and assistance, we should have a few things to show for our efforts soon.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Still does not explain why you are needlessly compressing all your files.

 

[Hashjie]

Still does not explain why you are needlessly compressing all your files.

I have an ignorant question: from what did you derive the conclusion that he does indeed compress them?
I can't seem to find a reference in the thread? (I'm probably blind)

 

[Sir Shockwave]

I have an ignorant question: from what did you derive the conclusion that he does indeed compress them?
I can't seem to find a reference in the thread? (I'm probably blind)

I believe he's referring to the blue text my document names are written in.

Regardless, the issue is fixed, so I'm not going to be around this thread for much longer.

 

[Hashjie]

Ah... yes, I forgot about that. Blue is for compression and green for encryption.

If windows compression removes whitespace inside files I can see why it's a bad idea to compress your maps.
Or is there something more advanced going on like file headers?

Or is it because applications may have a hard time reading those compressed files?

If you could explain the problem Dr Super Good, I'd very much appreciate it.

 

[Dr Super Good]

With uncompressed files pages can be read to or from files directly. With compressed files this is obviously not possible so you may find decreased performance (which is why Windows does not advise you compress them). Compression done is also not very effective compared to true compression.

What I found outrageous is I told the guy the problem and all he does is say he is the only user on the system. What does being the only user have to do with having administrator permissions? Do you think the OS is stupid and keeps you logged in with administrator access all the time so any program can take 100% control of your system? Even if your account is an administrator it will still run in normal user mode unless you specifically request administrator mode (usually done by saying "run as administrator"). The difference with an administrator account is that once you are logged in, administrator mode can be granted at the touch of a confirmation button since the account has permission to run administrator mode.

The fact everything is compressed and the fact that your permissions are messed up leads me to conclude that you have made a mistake at some stage. You still have not even answered why you are compressing everything which could be the cause of the entire problem.

 

[Hashjie]

With uncompressed files pages can be read to or from files directly. With compressed files this is obviously not possible so you may find decreased performance (which is why Windows does not advise you compress them). Compression done is also not very effective compared to true compression.

Thank you, I learned something new today.
Not that I would compress files anyways...
I don't really see a need to on my hd except for syncing local time between ftp clients for last edited file time indications.
(which I don't really care about since I always keep backups)

What I found outrageous is I told the guy the problem and all he does is say he is the only user on the system. What does being the only user have to do with having administrator permissions? Do you think the OS is stupid and keeps you logged in with administrator access all the time so any program can take 100% control of your system? Even if your account is an administrator it will still run in normal user mode unless you specifically request administrator mode (usually done by saying "run as administrator"). The difference with an administrator account is that once you are logged in, administrator mode can be granted at the touch of a confirmation button since the account has permission to run administrator mode.

The fact everything is compressed and the fact that your permissions are messed up leads me to conclude that you have made a mistake at some stage. You still have not even answered why you are compressing everything which could be the cause of the entire problem.

I'm also interested in what Sir Shockwave has to say about this.