Disk Cleanup - and now all my files seems lost..

[olekvale]

I used the Disk Cleanup in order to free up some more space in my external
hard drive. The content was about 250 GB, but after using the Disk Cleanup I
had less than 2 GB left.. Only some of the folders are left, and they are all
empty.

This happened because I chose to remove "Catalog files for the Content
Indexer".
According to Microsoft this should not happened:
"Catalog Files for the Content Indexer - The Indexing service speeds up and
improves file searches by maintaining an index of the files that are on the
disk. These Catalog files remain from a previous indexing operation and can
be deleted"

Anyone who could help me with this? How can I get access to my files again?

Thank you in advance. Hope that there is a solution to this problem.

 

[Bob Harris]

It is highly unusual for the XP Disk Cleanup tool to destroy files, except
temporary internet files.

In fact, if the PC still boots, you probably have more than 2 Gig of files,
since XP itself is twice that large.

Try running CHKDSK C: /F and reboot. A confused file system might be your
problem, and CHKDSK should fix it, as best it can.

The, try changing the settings in windows explorer to view both hidden and
system files. That should display all files on XP home edition. If XP Pro,
you might need to change some security settings to view files owned by
others. If XP Pro, logon as an administrator to have less hidden from you.

If the files you are "missing" are typical user files, like JPG, DOC, PDF,
AVI, MP3, etc try one of several file restoration programs. These can find
files, even if they are not in the FAT/MFT. Here are some links to
restoration/recovery programs, many of whihc are free:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads38.html

I have some luck with PCInspector and undeleteplus:

http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1
http://www.undelete-plus.com/