thumbnails gone

[Evilization]

hey everyone
guess what, its new year and all my thumbnails for video files disappeared. I have three externals and the thumbnails for all videos on all drives are gone. What could have caused this?

I specifically set my HD-cleaning software (CCleaner) to NOT delete thumbnails. This has never happened before

[Qicmee]

I thought Microsoft promised PC problems would skip New Year's Day. Oh well.

If you haven't already, I recommend doing a Google search for "thumbnails for video files disappeared". You're not the first to experience this problem. You'll need to recall what was changed between when thumbnails worked to when you first noticed they did not, for example new software, new drivers, adjustments to a configuration on your PC. That information will help you pick the most likely cause.

Of the problems I read about, this was my favorite: "I have a Win 7 machine (64bit ). I made the unfortunate choice to download 32 bit codec packs and install them, along with 64 bit codec packs."

Good Luck!

[juneau]

Doesn't windows recache thumbnails anyway? Or is it not doing that even if you visit said videos folder or even open the file?

[K PhaNTOM]

Windows will cache your thumbnails usually until there is some kind of error in the connection to the drive. Lets say you disconnect it during a transfer. It could cause that. Another thing is a BSoD seem to delete my cache sometimes. In other words, they're gone, rethumbnail. Also, that's a lot of movies. *cough* I have more

[Evilization]

thanks for the replies guys
one thing came to mind as to what might have caused this: a few days back i plugged in a fourth hard drive (a friend's hd) to copy some video files into that drive. after plugging it in, it automatically installed a driver.

Now, all 4 drives are Western Digitals. After the copying was done, i unplugged my friend's drive and uninstalled that driver that was installed for that particular drive. Could this have been the cause?

[Sirex]

its possible.
if it where a WD specific driver, i'd suspect so.
but most drives use the generic driver built in with windows.

if you deleted that then things like normal usb sticks, flash cards, phones etc wont work either.

It also means your going to have to either get it to pull it from windows update (the install device screen will search for it)
or find it on your install CD's.

Generally its a good idea not to remove drivers for things unless you know for sure there is no sharing of files involved.

[Qicmee]

I didn't find anybody mentioning WD driver installation as a cause, but as Sirex mentioned, uninstalling it might have scrambled things a little.

If you haven't already tried, these two common fixes were listed:
1. Type the following command in Start, Run dialog: REGSVR32 SHMEDIA.DLL
2. If that does not help, inspect the file association settings.

If those don't help, which type of Windows are you running, Win 7?

[JohnyRico]

OMG, I am such a noob I was afraid you had lost your actual thumbnails.

[juneau]

omg, I Am Such A Noob I Was Afraid You Had Lost Your Actual Thumbnails.