Stacking Problem

[groberts]

I realise this is an astronomy forum but I’m hoping somebody else may have seen and fixed this problem.

I am using Windows 7 and have for some time had no problem when using Deep Sky Stacker.  Unfortunately when just trying to stack today I got a reply at the registering/ stacking stage which says the folder in which I have the files (subs / darks etc) is read only and DSS needs to write files – this being the final Tif stacked image of course.

Looking at the properties of the aforesaid Folder sure enough the Attribute – Read Only is ticked, I unticked it then Apply for the folder and contained folders and files but it does not accept this.  Looking around I can see this is the case for all my folders on the Desktop – I suspect one of the ubiquitous Windows updates may have done this!!  The Windows advice seems to be to run the code: attrib -r+s \ drive\[folder name] but this doesn’t work either. http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/326549

Lots of nice images from last night and cannot stack them!  Has anybody else come across this problem + have a fix, preferably one that works for all the working folders rather than on a folder by folder basis? Thanks.

[pipnina]

Hehe, this is one of the reasons I turn windows update off. They don't provide patch notes, they could be doing anything.

My advice would be to make a new folder for all the old folders you had and copy the files over. It'll take time but it's probably the only way to get around it.

[groberts]

Yes I thinking the same with Windows, what a nuisance.

Unfortunately making a new Folder the Read Only attribute is still there, unless I have misunderstood?    

[pipnina]

Yes I thinking the same with Windows, what a nuisance.

Unfortunately making a new Folder the Read Only attribute is still there, unless I have misunderstood?    

If nothing mportant has been done on your computer since this happened, try reverting your computer back to a previous date and turn off updates.

I've never had to do it myself, and therefore don't know how to do it. But there's going to be instructions on yahoo answers or some tutorial website if you do a quick google search

Hope this solves your problem

[Oddsocks]

Just checked my old Windows 7 Pro laptop, which is patched and up to date, and all folders throughout the system show as read only in the first page of attributes but tried DSS just now and it wrote to any specified folder without a problem and allowed me to move or delete saved files etc afterwards so I think it might be something else that is stopping DSS.

Try:

Right click the DSS icon on the desktop,

Click "Properties"

Select "Compatibility" tab

Under "Privilege Level" tick the box "Run this program as an administrator"

Then try running DSS again to check if it can write to the output folder.

If no change, uninstall and reinstall DSS making sure you are logged in as administrator while installing DSS.

[Oddsocks]

It might also be an issue writing to the same folder that the source data came from, the file names might be the same so DSS is warning you it can't overwrite those files...

In DSS under settings - output  - choose a different, empty folder on the desktop to write the output image to.

[groberts]

Thanks for the further thoughts, it is working again - erratically.  The thing is I have been doing the same thing before - writing to the same folder where the files are - for some time without any problems.  I have also applied the administrator change now too and will see if that helps.  

[wxsatuser]

All my folders are read only.

I'm fully upto date and don't get this problem.

All my files/folders are under a user account btw.