find lost files..........

[fried_gold]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me. My computer has gone over to the dark side and today randomly seems to have erased all My Documents. From the searches I've done and such like, it hasn't moved them, encoded them or hidden them, they are just not there. When I search for specifics, like Word docs, it says they are there as a 1KB shortcut and when I open it, it says it doesn't exist and would I like to delete it. Am having many an issue with this machine as it's slowly dying on me, but does anyone have any advice or suggestions as to what might have happened/how to find them/anything really! Have restored system to several points, and nothing. I would really appreciate your help..... Thank you in advance x

 

[cd1_christine]

Ouch.

What version of Windows are you running? Is the "My Documents" folder there, and empty, or is the entire folder gone?

Sounds like you could have picked up a virus similar to this:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/vbs.delete.trojan.b.html

What anti-virus software are you running, if any? Is it up to date?

Where are you located? I fix computers for a living, and could possibly recover some of the files for you, but you'd have to ship your hard drive to me.

Try http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and see if a scan with it comes up with anything? There's also http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.
Both of these could give you a good second opinion, especially if you're running Norton, which has turned into a real bloated, useless piece of shit lately.

 

[fried_gold]

hey

hey thanks for responding! am using windows XP with avast scanning virus software stuff. its just really weird - My Documents has been left with My Received files (with only a few msn chats saved, everything else, docs n pics received, gone) and My Music (empty but I don't use it anyway). All other files and docs have gone from there. And that's the only place that things have been deleted from! I know it sounds like either me being stupid or someone else being annoying has got rid of them, but really it's my evil computer I swear! I'll try running those links you recommended and see if that has any effect. Have also had some undelete-type programmes recommended to me that I might try, it can't do any harm I guess. It's just so confusing - there's no logic at all to how my computer behaves any more, it's like a crying baby that can't tell me what's wrong! Thanks for any help! xx

 

[cd1_christine]

Avast...

Avast is generally pretty good in my experience. Are you sure it's registered and active, though? You need to re-register that one every year, otherwise you no longer get updates.

Have you played any Sony/BMG music CD's in your computer lately? Take a look on all the CD's you have, and check if any of them have "Content Protected" on the front label somewhere. Take a look on the back close to the bottom, and see if there's a reference to the website http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/

If you've played a CD like this in your computer, and installed the custom player software included, your computer has a rootkit, which can be used to hide other viruses/worms/trojans from Avast.

Run Mark Russinovich's Rootkit Revealer http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/RootkitRevealer.html
to check for this. It'll take a few minutes to scan, and there is at least one thing that this program picks up that comes with Windows. Much more than that, though, and you've got something to worry about.

Let me know if you find anything.

 

[kitedemon]

hey thanks for responding! am using windows XP

Just a thought...Windows XP has a wonderful little utility called System Restore. Hopefully the technician that set up your computer turned it on. Its purpose is to hang on to the settings within your computer during any changes so you can 'go back' to what it was before. It's sort of like a recycle bin for your whole system (with some limitations).

Cross your fingers and click Start | Help and Support | Undo Changes to your system with System Restore (it's on the right side of your screen).

If System Restore was turned on, you can now follow the wizard in an attempt to get your goodies back to where they were before.

Good Luck!

 

[cd1_christine]

System Restore.

System restore in my experience only does system and program files. It doesn't do anything in My Documents, as it could easily delete new files that you've created, which would not be in the user's, or Microsoft's, best interests.

It's worth a try, though.....

 

[cd1_christine]

Wait a sec....!!!!

Are you sure you're logged in with the same account you normally use?
"My Music" and "My Pictures" are the default folders in "My Documents". If you've created a new account, or something like that, all your documents are possibly still there, just under a different user.

Try this:
Open up "My Computer", doubleclick Drive C:. It will say "These files are hidden, could damage your computer, blahbalhbah.". Ignore it, and click the link to show the contents of this drive.
Doubleclick "Documents & Settings". This is the home folder for each of the user accounts on your machine. There should be one called "All Users", and then one for each account you've set up. There are a couple of system ones, too, but they're normally hidden, unless you've played with folder settings, so they probably won't show up.

If there's more than one folder shown besides the "All Users" one, go into each one, then into the "My Documents" folder within it. Your documents should be here, if they were created in this account.