urgent help. no folder to locate files

Hi,

i’m back to work on my desktop that had a drive change recently.
so i import sessions from laptop to freshly 8.2
so nuendo asks to locate files but the window i get to locate them has nothing in it !!!
Google Photos

same for the kontakt instance. it’s looking for samples location so i clic “browse folder” in kontakt but the window appears empty. But in Kontakt’s case i can input manually a path in a box below the window.
but for nuendo files i’m stucked ! please help if any idea what’s going on.
if i press “locate” i get a proper normal “window search” with tree path. but not with “folder” button
is it a nuendo problem there or windows bug somewhere ? ( i did quit / load or restart computer)

aaaand my hard drive just died :laughing:
old 6y ssd… never go that far. all working fine now.