Mystery of the disappearing files

[Guest]

I had some Word files go missing from my computer, along with the entire
contents of my Outlook Inbox folder. The Word documents were all accessible
from my Desktop, and the file folders which contained some on them was left
intact. When you open these folders (now empty), it shows they were last
modified at a time and date when I was not present and the computer was
supposedly not in use.

Do you you all know of any kind of glitch or malfunction that would alter
these date/time readings without likewise affecting other documents on the
hard drive?

More generally, what can a technician do to try to figure out the cause of
files' disappearance?

 

[Ted Zieglar]

The first thing a technician - and you - can do is to remove all forms
of malware from your computer.