Subfolders under My Documents dissappeared

[ncskibum]

Hi,

I have lost all the subfolders three levels deep under My Documents
folder. For example, Under My Documents, I have a folder called Word,
and under that I have folders called Home, Work, etc. I have another
folder called Graphics, and under that I have folders for each project.
And so on for each of my file types. All those subfolders are now
missing, meaning all my data is missing. Fortunately, I have a backup
service and was able to recover the missing files. But, I feel the
need to know why they went missing!!

This problem has not affected other folders, just those under My
Documents.

I ran my virus checker, and no problems found.

I ran a checkdisk and defrag, and no problems found.

I also went to the command prompt and did a "dir" and those subfolders
do not appear there, either, so it's not just a Windows not seeing the
files issue.

Any other ideas?

Thanks, Carol

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Hi,

I have lost all the subfolders three levels deep under My Documents
folder. For example, Under My Documents, I have a folder called Word,
and under that I have folders called Home, Work, etc. I have another
folder called Graphics, and under that I have folders for each
project. And so on for each of my file types. All those subfolders
are now missing, meaning all my data is missing. Fortunately, I have
a backup service and was able to recover the missing files. But, I
feel the need to know why they went missing!!

This problem has not affected other folders, just those under My
Documents.

I ran my virus checker, and no problems found.

I ran a checkdisk and defrag, and no problems found.

I also went to the command prompt and did a "dir" and those subfolders
do not appear there, either, so it's not just a Windows not seeing the
files issue.

Any other ideas?

Thanks, Carol

Event logs? Is this a standalone computer? Got good antivirus/firewall
enabled, etc?

NB: I suggest you redirect My Documents from the default profile directory
to something like c:\data or d:\myfiles or something....you can do this in
the properties of the desktop icon by changing the target path. I find it a
lot more reliable - if a profile goes south, I don't have to worry about
losing all a user's data.

 

[ncskibum]

Event logs? Is this a standalone computer?

Got good antivirus/firewall enabled, etc?

My computer is on a home network. My Documents folder is NOT shared.
I do have anti virus running at all times. I also did a virus scan on
all computers on the network. I have a firewall (Zonealarm), but have
shut it off most of the time because it didn't allow me to access the
internet half the time. (i have since turned it back on and don't see
any suspicious things in the alert logs). My husband tells me that I
don't need a firewall because of the way he has the router configured
to block incoming ports.

I did recently install a VPN client and RealVNC service so I could
access a client's computers (at their request). Their IT guy told me
to put a password protection on the VNC server mode, which I did. The
password was something like apple51, so it had letters and numbers. I
wonder if a hacker got in via this route, tho. Think I should tell
this client that I don't want the security risk of having these
programs running on my computer?

Thanks again for your help. Carol