Vista Can't Copy/Move Files

Sigh... Microsoft Vista is a piece of crap. Starting some time this evening, my Sony Vaio (recently restored and updated) can't copy files anymore. I was trying to move some downloaded Star Golden Bell episodes from the computer to an external hard drive. At first, it wouldn't even let me rename the files. Vista kept saying that the files were open even though I don't have anything running. Now when I drag files from one folder to another, the computer just sits there "discovering" files... whatever that means. Who writes all this useless text for dialog boxes?