Lost files in moving them in explore

[Jim H]

I was moving mydocuments folder which contained about 25
folders full of documents and spreadsheets to another
folder called mydocuments. I cannot find any data files.
All my folders under mydocuments remained but empty. I
really need these files.. How can I retreive them?
I have tried:
Searching for keywords, manually browsing for the files in
explore, looking in other folders, looked in the recycle
bin, looked in other drives, looking on the desktop. They
appear to be gone. How can this be?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

some addtional data: I had to reinstall XP, and when i did
so, there appeared to be 2 "mydocuments" folders. One was
empty and one had all my data.

Thanks
Jim

 

[Kevin]

A folder with a certain name can not reside inside another folder of the
same name as in C:\FolderA\FolderA. Did you look in both instances of the
MyDocuments folder(s). On my system, running Windows XP Home Edition, I
have a MyDocuments folder under the desktop and one in the C: drive itself,
when viewed using Windows Explorer. Your data may be gone.

 

[D.Currie]

A folder with a certain name can not reside inside another folder of the
same name as in C:\FolderA\FolderA.

Are you finding that with particular folder names? If so, which ones are
affected? I've got quite a few folders that accidentally got that sort of
naming, with no problems whatsoever.




Did you look in both instances of the

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that data, Kevin. Looks like I may have lost
it. Any idea where the data went? Is it still on the
harddisk but just not acessible? Or did it really get
deleted without being dumped in the trash bin? Appreciate
you input. Jim

 

[Kevin]

No names in particular. As in my example, C:\FolderA\FolderA, these folder
names are EXACTLY the same, same uppercase, same spelling, etc. It is my
experience that you can't do this. How can Windows organize your files and
folders if some of them, residing on the same drive, same partition, same
directory are named EXACTLY the same? You can have something like this:
C:\FolderA\FolderB\somefile.xxx but not C:\FolderA\FolderA\somefile.xxx.
This would be analogous to having a file cabinet with two drawers labeled
alike, containing two folders labeled alike with envelopes in each folder
also labeled alike. How do you know which drawer, folder and envelope to
look in to find what you want?

 

[Kevin]

While I don't know for sure, it is my guess that your data may have been
deleted without going into the trash. This happens sometimes when fooling
around with folders between drives or partitions. If Windows can't figure
out where you want the data to go, and you don't tell it, it just throws up
its hands and dumps it, willy-nilly. Then professes innocence. If your
files are still on the hard drive, but not accessible through Windows
Explorer, you could send the drive to a data recovery specialist. This
could be VERY expensive. If you are going to do that, do not use the drive
any further. Any writing to the drive could destroy your data for good.
Have you checked out the other MyDocuments folder on your drive, as per my
post below?

 

[Johnny Lingo]

Actually you CAN have identical folder names inside the same folder as in
C:\FolderA\FolderA\FolderA\FolderA\FolderA\FolderA\
It works!

 

[D.Currie]

The way you've got that written, you've got folders of the same name inside
each other, and there's no problem doing that. Feel free to try it. Name a
folder FolderA, then create a folder inside it called FolderA. You can keep
going until you reach the maximum path length. No problems.

But what you've described in words is two folders of the same name which are
residing in a common location, which isn't possible.

 

[D.Currie]

Do a search for file recovery software and undelete software. There are some
free ones that work fairly well. There are also some pretty costly ones, and
some have demos that will view the files but not restore them unless you buy
the full version. It all depends on how important the data is. Keep in mind
that the less you use the drive, the more likely you are to be able to
retrieve the files.

 

[Guest]

Yes, I did look in both MY Documents folders as well as
many others, just in case I slipped and it all went in
another folder. I also looked to see if there were hidden
files anywhere, also to no avail. No luck on any of that.
If that is the case, that Windows just does not deal with
it, then that action is a serious glich in the Windows
software. You'd think they would warn you before just
throwing everything away! Thanks for your counsel.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestoion on the file recovery software.
I have ahd to use the drive a bit, so I hope I have not
lost what could have been found. Appreciate your help.

 

[Kevin]

The way you've got that written, you've got folders of the same name inside
each other, and there's no problem doing that. Feel free to try it. Name a
folder FolderA, then create a folder inside it called FolderA. You can keep
going until you reach the maximum path length. No problems.

But what you've described in words is two folders of the same name which are
residing in a common location, which isn't possible.

Yes! That's what I meant. Windows wouldn't be able find a thing. Whew . .
.. got that out of the way, on to the next crisis. Thanks for the input!
Have a great day!