missing Excel files in My Documents folder

[Guest]

I first posted this in the Excel group but it was suggested I try a Windows
group since the issue relates to Windows Explorer and My Documents.

We save or Excel files in the default location "My Documents" A few days ago
we noticed that all Excel files starting with the letter "K" and all the way
to "Z" are missing from this location. It is Office XP with only SP2 so far (
this might be the issue)( Also SP1 for Windows so far) and we are able to
locate the missing files by opening the "more worksheets" option in the Task
Pane(which opens My Documents) and typing in the first few letter of say a
"Wells Fargo...." spreadsheet. We can open the doc and when we try a "save
as" it tells us that the file already exists! We did a "Search" for "*.xls"
and couldn't find the missing files there. We tried a System Restore to no
avail. Any suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Malke]

I first posted this in the Excel group but it was suggested I try a
Windows
group since the issue relates to Windows Explorer and My Documents.

We save or Excel files in the default location "My Documents" A few days
ago we noticed that all Excel files starting with the letter "K" and all
the way to "Z" are missing from this location. It is Office XP with only
SP2 so far ( this might be the issue)( Also SP1 for Windows so far) and we
are able to locate the missing files by opening the "more worksheets"
option in the Task Pane(which opens My Documents) and typing in the first
few letter of say a "Wells Fargo...." spreadsheet. We can open the doc and
when we try a "save as" it tells us that the file already exists! We did a
"Search" for "*.xls" and couldn't find the missing files there. We tried a
System Restore to no avail. Any suggestions. Thanks!

What is the virus/malware-status of the computer? Be sure it is clean:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

I would take the time to also run either Sysclean or David Lipman's
Multi_AV. Details and links are at the site above.

Malke

 

[RobertVA]

I first posted this in the Excel group but it was suggested I try a Windows
group since the issue relates to Windows Explorer and My Documents.

We save or Excel files in the default location "My Documents" A few days ago
we noticed that all Excel files starting with the letter "K" and all the way
to "Z" are missing from this location. It is Office XP with only SP2 so far (
this might be the issue)( Also SP1 for Windows so far) and we are able to
locate the missing files by opening the "more worksheets" option in the Task
Pane(which opens My Documents) and typing in the first few letter of say a
"Wells Fargo...." spreadsheet. We can open the doc and when we try a "save
as" it tells us that the file already exists! We did a "Search" for "*.xls"
and couldn't find the missing files there. We tried a System Restore to no
avail. Any suggestions. Thanks!

Is this phenomena occurring when logged onto the SAME user log-on that
originally saved the file? Don't forget that if Windows XP is set up
with separate log-ons for Sally and Mike (example names) each will have
a separate "My Documents" folder ("\Documents and Settings\Sally\My
documents" and "\Documents and Settings\Mike\My Documents"). Set
applications to a default save location in a Shared Documents folder
within "\Documents and Settings\All Users\" if you want them available
to all users.

If that isn't the problem try:

Setting Windows Explorer to show hidden and system files AND show
extensions for known file types.

Searching for those file names with other extensions, including, but not
limited to .xlw and .xml. For example: if you wanted myfile.xls search
for myfi*.*

And as always when odd things happen, run scans for viri, Trojans, ad
ware and other malicious software in case one of those is messing with you.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response. Yes it is the same user logon(Administrator) that
can't see the files as the user who created them. I did uncheck "hidden
files" and "known extensions" I am going to uncheck "protected operating
system files" when I am onsite on Monday. I did mention already I think that
the computer does not have SP2 yet and also is missing SP3 for Office XP. I
don't know if this is affecting things. I will try virus scans and spyware
scans.

 

[Don Taylor]

I first posted this in the Excel group but it was suggested I try a Windows
group since the issue relates to Windows Explorer and My Documents.

We save or Excel files in the default location "My Documents" A few days ago
we noticed that all Excel files starting with the letter "K" and all the way
to "Z" are missing from this location. It is Office XP with only SP2 so far (
this might be the issue)( Also SP1 for Windows so far) and we are able to
locate the missing files by opening the "more worksheets" option in the Task
Pane(which opens My Documents) and typing in the first few letter of say a
"Wells Fargo...." spreadsheet. We can open the doc and when we try a "save
as" it tells us that the file already exists! We did a "Search" for "*.xls"
and couldn't find the missing files there. We tried a System Restore to no
avail. Any suggestions. Thanks!

I had a fairly reproducible bug at one time with XP where all
the files on the desktop with similar names would would
disappear at once, and none of the other files would disappear.

No it wasn't the ever popular "It must be a virus if you have
any problem of any kind."

It has been so long that I can't be certain but I think the
"answer" ended up being that this was claimed to be some sort of
feature, that I was deleting SOME of these files and the rest
were taken with it at the same time because something thought
that was supposed to be what it thought I would want it to do.

I might have been exporting parts of a document I was working
onto the desttop as html, close the original document on the
desktop, deliver the html to someone, and delete the html files
by highlighting those with the mouse and then delete and not
notice until a little later that not only were all the html that
I had specifically highlighted gone but all the work that had
gone into my original document was gone too. (And they never
ended up in the recycle bin, they were just gone)

I cannot remember what the term was that someone said related to
this.

Any chance your user might have been deleting one item and that
then killed all the rest?