Home XP: I have lost a folder and its files, please help!!

R

rdb1972

Situation: I have "lost" a folder that I created on the C
drive which contained pictures.

Background: XP Home; v.2002. When I first booted the
machine I received some sort of message in lieu of the
usual password screen or the default owner's profile
loading. At the time, I did not think anything of that
message, and hit either OK or Cancel to move past it(in
hindsight, I do not remember what I selected).

I created a new folder on the C drive named Campbell
Family Photos (C:\Campbell Family Photos). I placed all
of the photos in that particular folder, and left the
duplicates in there present location to be dealt with at a
later time.

I was not able to back up the newly created folder (no
burner), so I left the PC alone.

The next time I booted the machine, the owners profile
automatically loaded, unlike my previous session with the
PC.

When I went to Windows Explorer there was no Campbell
Family Photos directory to be found. The only pics that I
could find were those for which there were duplicates. My
question is, what has happened with the photos? There is
only one profile (the owner) on the machine. I logged in
as Guest to see if the folder was visible with another
profile. My thought being that I might have initially
logged in as guest and saved the new directory and all the
pics under that profile. Maybe the folder could be viewed
if I logged in as guest again. No such luck.

I have checked the recycle bin, logged in as guest,
searched the entire harddrive (through Windows Explorer)
for these pics, and nothing has come up. They just seem
to have disappeared.

Are these pics gone forever?
If I created the folder directly on the C drive wouldn't
it show up in the directory tree regardless of which
profile is active?
Does anyone have a suggestion for a way to find these
pics?

I was doing this work for a friend of my boss. I feel
horrible that I have seemed to have lost this person's
memories, but I'm really at a loss to explain what
happened, or understand it. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.
 
G

Guest

why don't you do a search with *.jpg or what ever
extention you were using.

or

if you know basic dos, use the CMD prompt and go to
c:\doucments and settings\ there you will see the accts,
look at each one to see where the folder is listed.
 
G

Guest

Thanks for the resposne.

When I perform a search using *.jpg, the only files that I
find are those duplicate pics that I left in there
original locations.

I don't believe that simply taking owndership of the file
or folder is my problem as I can find neither one of them
in the directory tree. It is if they have simply
vanished!!!

I'll give the command prompt idea a shot, but I"m
wondering if there's anything else thta can be done. The
folder and its files do not show up at all, but I know
that they haven't been deleted.

Frustrating!!
 

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