Finder issues and Get Info refusing to show the number of files on items on the main hard drive.

Question

I am having finder issues. Mostly on the main hard drive. It takes ages to find things and I get the spinning wheel every time I open a folder.
So I moved all of my files to a external drive.  When I had finished transfering I hit get info on the files on the external drive and on the same folder on the main drive.  To ensure that it has copied over all the files.  Because it was acting up and not copying all the files.
Get Info refuses to show the number of files within the folders on the main hard drive. It hasppily tells me everything on any of the external drives.
I have reset, the imac.  I have re indexed 3 times.  I have deleted the finder plist files.  I have reset finder using terminal commands. I have moved nearly everything off the main hard drive. But nothing is working.
Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what could be causing my finder and get info issues.
Any help wpuld be appreciated.
Running Mountain Lion on a late 2009 Imac

Answer 1

Some of your user files (not system files) have incorrect permissions or are locked. This procedure will unlock those files and reset their ownership, permissions, and access controls to the default. If you've intentionally set special values for those attributes, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it, but you do need to follow the instructions below.
Back up all data.
Step 1
If you have more than one user, and the one in question is not an administrator, then go to Step 2.
Enter the following command in the Terminal window in the same way as before (triple-click, copy, and paste):
sudo find ~ $TMPDIR.. -exec chflags nouchg,nouappnd,noschg,nosappnd {} + -exec chown $UID {} + -exec chmod +rw {} + -exec chmod -N {} + -type d -exec chmod +x {} + 2>&-
This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command may take several minutes to run, depending on how many files you have. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear, then quit Terminal.
Step 2 (optional)
Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1, if you prefer not to take it, or if it doesn't solve the problem.
Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
          Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open. In that window, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.
Select your startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button
Select
           ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.