files suddenly gone

[Memyself]

I log off before going to bed and everything's fine. I log on this morning
and my computer acts like a new one just out of the box with no files on it.
XP and pre-installed stuff is there, but my documents, music, pictures,
e-mails saved in Outlook; all gone. Should I just hire one of those guys who
Data Retrieval or what? System Restore is totally useless. Is Geek Squad any
good?

 

[nass]

I log off before going to bed and everything's fine. I log on this morning
and my computer acts like a new one just out of the box with no files on it.
XP and pre-installed stuff is there, but my documents, music, pictures,
e-mails saved in Outlook; all gone. Should I just hire one of those guys who
Data Retrieval or what? System Restore is totally useless. Is Geek Squad any
good?

Try to restore to yesterday and see if that will help.
Make sure the machine malware and virus free by scanning with whichever
security software you have and anti-malware.

If the above didn't help try one of the tools below.
PC INSPECTORâ„¢ File Recovery 4.x
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/download.htm?language=1
Undelete Plus
http://undelete-plus.com/
HTH,
nass

 

[philo]

I log off before going to bed and everything's fine. I log on this morning
and my computer acts like a new one just out of the box with no files on it.
XP and pre-installed stuff is there, but my documents, music, pictures,
e-mails saved in Outlook; all gone. Should I just hire one of those guys who
Data Retrieval or what? System Restore is totally useless. Is Geek Squad any
good?

It's possible the machine is simply logged on to a profile other than your
own (possibly administrator)

log off and then check your other log-on options and make sure you log on to
your actual profile

 

[Memyself]

thanks for responding so quickly. I'lltry that and see what happens. System
Restore, though, just constantly tells me that the computer can't be restored
to any of the date I try

 

[Memyself]

thanks for quick response. I'll try that, though when I clicked "options" on
the log on window, nothing happened.

 

[philo]

thanks for quick response. I'll try that, though when I clicked "options" on
the log on window, nothing happened.

Go to


Start

Shut down


then log off...


you should then be presented with a log-on window
and if your user name is not show, just type it in
and log back on .

 

[Memyself]

Well, I tried your suggestions but I can't get either one of them to work. I
sent e-mails to them and am waiting to see what they say. Thanks anyway. I do
wonder if Windows Updates can cause this? I heard that some microsoft updates
can cause problems for ZoneAlarm users. I don't use ZA, but I wonder about
other applications.

 

[Memyself]

SystemRestore keeps telling me "Cannot restore your computer to (whatever
date I tried; as of a few minutes ago must be 20 different days) No changes
made to your computer" And so far I can't get Nass's or Philo's suggestions
to work either.
I scanned for adware, malware., etc. I'm getting ready to throw this thing
in this garbage and wipe my hands of all this high tech crap. I've had it
with the constant bs. Thanks for tip on Geek Squad. Was already suspicious
when the Dell tech support gal did nothing , but recommended them.
Can anyone tell me if Microsoft will acept a check for their $59 support? I
don't, I mean Never use credit cards .

 

[Elmo]

SystemRestore keeps telling me "Cannot restore your computer to (whatever
date I tried; as of a few minutes ago must be 20 different days). No changes
made to your computer" And so far I can't get Nass's or Philo's suggestions
to work either.
I scanned for adware, malware., etc. I'm getting ready to throw this thing
in this garbage and wipe my hands of all this high tech crap. I've had it
with the constant bs. Thanks for tip on Geek Squad. Was already suspicious
when the Dell tech support gal did nothing , but recommended them.
Can anyone tell me if Microsoft will accept a check for their $59 support? I
don't, I mean Never use credit cards .

If the account (with all your settings, software and files) was damaged,
the files would still be there, on the hd. You just need to locate the
folder for the old account and move everything to the new account. You
should see the folder with all its files and settings here:

C:\Documents and Settings\Old_Username folder

This MSKB article might help:

How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811151

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...+account"+xp+copy+new+-vista#739870d68b3f197f

 

[Doug W.]

To the garbage bin...best bet.
-

SystemRestore keeps telling me "Cannot restore your computer
to (whatever
date I tried; as of a few minutes ago must be 20 different
days) No changes
made to your computer" And so far I can't get Nass's or
Philo's suggestions
to work either.
I scanned for adware, malware., etc. I'm getting ready to
throw this thing
in this garbage and wipe my hands of all this high tech crap.
I've had it
with the constant bs. Thanks for tip on Geek Squad. Was
already suspicious
when the Dell tech support gal did nothing , but recommended
them.
Can anyone tell me if Microsoft will acept a check for their
$59 support? I
don't, I mean Never use credit cards .

 

[Memyself]

Okay, I'll try that link you gave me. Thanks. Thanks to all who offered
suggestions and links to sites. I didn't about
most of these.

 

[Memyself]

Hi again,
Just thought I should point out that I never changed any user
profile or anything like that at all. As I said before, I logged off Saturday
night and all my files were there. I wake up Sunday morning and they're gone.
The only thing I can see is that either the McAfee update that occured around
1AM or the Windows Update that automatically occured at 3AM somehow caused
this. McAfee's , Dell's, and ATT's tech people seemed to not understand one
word of it. By the way, I had this computer and XP for over a year without
ever going online
as internal modem never worked. I never had any problems except not being
able to go online. In October I joined ATT and have had lots of problems I
never had before. Has anyone else had this and could it be possible that ATT
caused me to lose my files?

 

[Memyself]

Elmo, want to thank you for telling me about running Documents and Settings.
It did list my documents so I now know they're still there. Haven't been able
to get them back yet, but am working on it. Did want to put this out there
for anyone else who may be having this same problem: I just found out that
McAfee may have caused this. A few minutes ago I checked the McAfee Security
Center Event Logs. It said, "12-14-2008, 6:19AM, System Guard allowed a
change to your computer". I logged on about 9AM to find the files gone so
that must be it!
In case anyone else has this problem, don't go to McAfee's techh support.
They keep telling me that as I got the software when I joined ATT, they can't
help me. Don't do the ATT LiveChat support either. They told me to call their
phone support people. I'm going to try the things suggested here first as ATT
techies leave somewhat to be desired.

Also, I've heard that if System Restore won't go to the date you want, you
can turn it off, wait a bit, then turn it back on.
But, won't that destroy the restore points you want? In other words, if
computer was fine December 12, and you want to take it back to that point;
won't turning System Restore off erase that point?

 

[Larry]

Do your system restore in Safe Mode. Don't turn off Restore or you will
clean out all that restore info you want.

Larry

Elmo, want to thank you for telling me about running Documents and Settings.
It did list my documents so I now know they're still there. Haven't been
able
to get them back yet, but am working on it. Did want to put this out there
for anyone else who may be having this same problem: I just found out that
McAfee may have caused this. A few minutes ago I checked the McAfee Security
Center Event Logs. It said, "12-14-2008, 6:19AM, System Guard allowed a
change to your computer". I logged on about 9AM to find the files gone so
that must be it!
In case anyone else has this problem, don't go to McAfee's techh support.
They keep telling me that as I got the software when I joined ATT, they
can't
help me. Don't do the ATT LiveChat support either. They told me to call
their
phone support people. I'm going to try the things suggested here first as
ATT
techies leave somewhat to be desired.

Also, I've heard that if System Restore won't go to the date you want, you
can turn it off, wait a bit, then turn it back on.
But, won't that destroy the restore points you want? In other words, if
computer was fine December 12, and you want to take it back to that point;
won't turning System Restore off erase that point?

 

[Memyself]

Thanks Larry,
had the feeling that turning SystemRestore off would not be a good idea.
I'm a little of Safe Mode , but I'll
see if that works.
--
nothing succeeds like bs

Do your system restore in Safe Mode. Don't turn off Restore or you will
clean out all that restore info you want.

Larry

Elmo, want to thank you for telling me about running Documents and Settings.
It did list my documents so I now know they're still there. Haven't been
able
to get them back yet, but am working on it. Did want to put this out there
for anyone else who may be having this same problem: I just found out that
McAfee may have caused this. A few minutes ago I checked the McAfee Security
Center Event Logs. It said, "12-14-2008, 6:19AM, System Guard allowed a
change to your computer". I logged on about 9AM to find the files gone so
that must be it!
In case anyone else has this problem, don't go to McAfee's techh support.
They keep telling me that as I got the software when I joined ATT, they
can't
help me. Don't do the ATT LiveChat support either. They told me to call
their
phone support people. I'm going to try the things suggested here first as
ATT
techies leave somewhat to be desired.

Also, I've heard that if System Restore won't go to the date you want, you
can turn it off, wait a bit, then turn it back on.
But, won't that destroy the restore points you want? In other words, if
computer was fine December 12, and you want to take it back to that point;
won't turning System Restore off erase that point?

 

[Memyself]

Forgot to ask: Should I try Safe Mode first before trying this "Create New
User Profile " method or I should try
PC Inspector File Recovery first?
--
nothing succeeds like bs

Do your system restore in Safe Mode. Don't turn off Restore or you will
clean out all that restore info you want.

Larry

Elmo, want to thank you for telling me about running Documents and Settings.
It did list my documents so I now know they're still there. Haven't been
able
to get them back yet, but am working on it. Did want to put this out there
for anyone else who may be having this same problem: I just found out that
McAfee may have caused this. A few minutes ago I checked the McAfee Security
Center Event Logs. It said, "12-14-2008, 6:19AM, System Guard allowed a
change to your computer". I logged on about 9AM to find the files gone so
that must be it!
In case anyone else has this problem, don't go to McAfee's techh support.
They keep telling me that as I got the software when I joined ATT, they
can't
help me. Don't do the ATT LiveChat support either. They told me to call
their
phone support people. I'm going to try the things suggested here first as
ATT
techies leave somewhat to be desired.

Also, I've heard that if System Restore won't go to the date you want, you
can turn it off, wait a bit, then turn it back on.
But, won't that destroy the restore points you want? In other words, if
computer was fine December 12, and you want to take it back to that point;
won't turning System Restore off erase that point?

 

[nass]

Hi,
First of, try to disbale Mcafee and disconnect from the internet, then Turn
your machine OFF and Restart it while booting up Press F8 to get to the Boot
menu option and select Safe Mode.
In Safe Mode try To Restore your System to an earlier date and Reboot your
machine to start in Normal Mode.
If that corrected the issue then first thing to do is backup your Data to a
removable storage. If the machine behave okay after a day or so then you are
okay if it start to act funy try to gsther the info in the Event Viewer to
help pin point the causer!
If the Restore didn't take effect then try to create user profile first and
create it in safe mode and also assign it as Admin.
Log with the new Profile and open windows explorer and do the following:
Click Tools >> Folder Options >> View scroll down to the radio button for:
(*) Show hidden files folders
and aslo uncheck this check box:
[ ] Hide extension for known file types.
NOTE/Warnning: uncheck these or redo these chnages when your issue resolved!
Now, locate this directory:
C:\Documents and settings\Old corrupteduserprofile\Favorite
C:\Documents and settings\Old corrupteduserprofile\ My documents
Copy the data from this to this (follow the KB article instructions)
C:\Documents and settings\New profile\ Favorite (for fav from the old Profile)
C:\Documents and settings\New profile\Documents (for docs and pics from Old
profile)

After making sure all in and you are not missing something you can safely
delete the profile and you don't need to run any program to recover data!
HTH,
nass
---
http://www.nasstec.co.uk

Forgot to ask: Should I try Safe Mode first before trying this "Create New
User Profile " method or I should try
PC Inspector File Recovery first?

 

[Memyself]

There's just no end to Microsoft's BS. After reading Larry's post, I thought
I'd try using System Restore in Safe Mode. Well,
guess what? They've got it set up so that there's no way in hell to access
Safe Mode!!!!
why didn't someone tell me? I did everything, I mean absolutely everything
it says to do in order to access Safe Mode and you know what happens? It just
keeps starting in normal mode after a page of gobbely goop.
I now know that what I always suspected is true: Micorsoft deliberately
embeds their crap with problems, makes sure that the Help and Support feature
is loaded with mis-information so that one is forced to use the fee based
support; only I don't have that kind of money!!!!
How am I supposed to get to safe mode when all the instructions for doing it
are wrong?
--
nothing succeeds like bs

Do your system restore in Safe Mode. Don't turn off Restore or you will
clean out all that restore info you want.

Larry

Elmo, want to thank you for telling me about running Documents and Settings.
It did list my documents so I now know they're still there. Haven't been
able
to get them back yet, but am working on it. Did want to put this out there
for anyone else who may be having this same problem: I just found out that
McAfee may have caused this. A few minutes ago I checked the McAfee Security
Center Event Logs. It said, "12-14-2008, 6:19AM, System Guard allowed a
change to your computer". I logged on about 9AM to find the files gone so
that must be it!
In case anyone else has this problem, don't go to McAfee's techh support.
They keep telling me that as I got the software when I joined ATT, they
can't
help me. Don't do the ATT LiveChat support either. They told me to call
their
phone support people. I'm going to try the things suggested here first as
ATT
techies leave somewhat to be desired.

Also, I've heard that if System Restore won't go to the date you want, you
can turn it off, wait a bit, then turn it back on.
But, won't that destroy the restore points you want? In other words, if
computer was fine December 12, and you want to take it back to that point;
won't turning System Restore off erase that point?

 

[nass]

Hi,
Calm down and get focus. Winding up will not help and believe me if it is
Microsoft I will agree with you it is their problem, but this the vendor
settings not microsoft settings!
What you get when you try Safe Mode? Do you get three option CD-Rom Device
Floppy Device
Hard dribe and a number for it?
If you do try to select the HDD and immediately Press F8 to get to the Boot
Option or Safe Mode.
sometimes it gives you the option for F9 or F11 it depends on the Brand you
are using.

Take your time and try many times and I'm sure you will successed.
Good luck.

There's just no end to Microsoft's BS. After reading Larry's post, I thought
I'd try using System Restore in Safe Mode. Well,
guess what? They've got it set up so that there's no way in hell to access
Safe Mode!!!!
why didn't someone tell me? I did everything, I mean absolutely everything
it says to do in order to access Safe Mode and you know what happens? It just
keeps starting in normal mode after a page of gobbely goop.
I now know that what I always suspected is true: Micorsoft deliberately
embeds their crap with problems, makes sure that the Help and Support feature
is loaded with mis-information so that one is forced to use the fee based
support; only I don't have that kind of money!!!!
How am I supposed to get to safe mode when all the instructions for doing it
are wrong?

 

[Memyself]

I'll try that, but if you saw my most recent post, you know that the
instructions for accessing Safe Mode that are in the Help and Support feature
don't seem to work. However, as I've noticed some things work differently
when I unplug my modem, I'll try your suggestion anyway. I have to say, the
high tech has given me far more headaches than joys since I got my first
computer 7 years ago. I DO apreciate the tips from you folks here though.
Thanks for trying to help, even if it doesn't work.
--
nothing succeeds like bs

Hi,
First of, try to disbale Mcafee and disconnect from the internet, then Turn
your machine OFF and Restart it while booting up Press F8 to get to the Boot
menu option and select Safe Mode.
In Safe Mode try To Restore your System to an earlier date and Reboot your
machine to start in Normal Mode.
If that corrected the issue then first thing to do is backup your Data to a
removable storage. If the machine behave okay after a day or so then you are
okay if it start to act funy try to gsther the info in the Event Viewer to
help pin point the causer!
If the Restore didn't take effect then try to create user profile first and
create it in safe mode and also assign it as Admin.
Log with the new Profile and open windows explorer and do the following:
Click Tools >> Folder Options >> View scroll down to the radio button for:
(*) Show hidden files folders
and aslo uncheck this check box:
[ ] Hide extension for known file types.
NOTE/Warnning: uncheck these or redo these chnages when your issue resolved!
Now, locate this directory:
C:\Documents and settings\Old corrupteduserprofile\Favorite
C:\Documents and settings\Old corrupteduserprofile\ My documents
Copy the data from this to this (follow the KB article instructions)
C:\Documents and settings\New profile\ Favorite (for fav from the old Profile)
C:\Documents and settings\New profile\Documents (for docs and pics from Old
profile)

After making sure all in and you are not missing something you can safely
delete the profile and you don't need to run any program to recover data!
HTH,
nass
---
http://www.nasstec.co.uk

Forgot to ask: Should I try Safe Mode first before trying this "Create New
User Profile " method or I should try
PC Inspector File Recovery first?