Half Life 2 saved games

[Checkm8]

I tried to play Half Life2 again.

I started it up and went to the load saved games screen. It was totally empty.
As stated by steam and other forum requests, I know the files are store in..

C:/Program Files (x86)/steam/steamapps/(username)/half-life2/hl2/SAVE

I can see the save game files and a picture file for each saved game. Half-life (the game) is not recognizing these files for some reason. So, I started a new game and saved. I looked for the current saved game file and I could not find it anywhere.

I even deleted the SAVE file to see if that affected the new saved game files but they were not affected. Has anyone run into this problem and do you know where the new saved game files are located?

I think the source of the problem may have been from when I upgraded from vista to 7. I originally played the game on vista.

So, thats where I am at. I searched for the files everywhere... from my ProgramData folder on my hard drive to the AppData file under my user documents.. I am just clueless to where these files are being saved now and how to make Half Life recognize my original saved files.