Sudden loss of data

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Pinnell
  • Start date Start date
T

Terry Pinnell

Bit of a disaster this morning. Not sure what is at fault, may be
nothing to do with XP, but thought I'd report it in case anyone has
ever had anything similar.

I was working on a folder of about 490 MB of MP3s, about 350 tracks
altogether. I had been using several programs:

- Win XP Explorer, generally viewing, changing a few filenames
- MediaMonkey, my main player, organising and adding/editing tags like
title, artist, year, and playing tracks while I was doing this
- Bulk Rename Utility, to delete unwanted prefixes from some
filenames, etc

Of course, several other programs were running too, such as my Firefox
browser, text editor TextPad, Newsreader (Agent), Screen Capture
(Snagit), although I was not actively using these.

Suddenly, all but one track I was playing vanished from the
MediaMonkey. The files appear to have somehow been deleted beyond
recovery. Using Recycle Bin and Norton Unerase Wizard I could find
none of them. Using XP Find across the entire HD found none.

Anyone have any ideas on what can have caused this? Pretty scary to
think I can suddenly lose massive amounts like this!
 
Terry Pinnell said:
Suddenly, all but one track I was playing vanished from the
MediaMonkey. The files appear to have somehow been deleted beyond
recovery. Using Recycle Bin and Norton Unerase Wizard I could find
none of them. Using XP Find across the entire HD found none.

Anyone have any ideas on what can have caused this? Pretty scary to
think I can suddenly lose massive amounts like this!
Click to expand...

Sounds like a filing system corruption problem. I'd look for tools to
recover the filing system.

I don't know this program but it's the sort of thing I mean...

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Misc__Utilities/DiskInternals_NTFS_Recovery.html
 
Terry said:
Bit of a disaster this morning. Not sure what is at fault, may be
nothing to do with XP, but thought I'd report it in case anyone has
ever had anything similar.

I was working on a folder of about 490 MB of MP3s, about 350 tracks
altogether. I had been using several programs:

- Win XP Explorer, generally viewing, changing a few filenames
- MediaMonkey, my main player, organising and adding/editing tags like
title, artist, year, and playing tracks while I was doing this
- Bulk Rename Utility, to delete unwanted prefixes from some
filenames, etc

Of course, several other programs were running too, such as my Firefox
browser, text editor TextPad, Newsreader (Agent), Screen Capture
(Snagit), although I was not actively using these.

Suddenly, all but one track I was playing vanished from the
MediaMonkey. The files appear to have somehow been deleted beyond
recovery. Using Recycle Bin and Norton Unerase Wizard I could find
none of them. Using XP Find across the entire HD found none.
Click to expand...

1. Check for viruses/malware since there are viruses that target mp3's:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

2. If machine is clean, run Chkdsk:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx

3. Couldn't hurt to test the drive's health with a diagnostic utility
from the drive mftr. Download the utility to make either a bootable
floppy or cd-r. Boot with the media and do a thorough test. If the
drive has any physical errors, replace it.

Malke
 
Malke said:
1. Check for viruses/malware since there are viruses that target mp3's:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

2. If machine is clean, run Chkdsk:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx

3. Couldn't hurt to test the drive's health with a diagnostic utility
from the drive mftr. Download the utility to make either a bootable
floppy or cd-r. Boot with the media and do a thorough test. If the
drive has any physical errors, replace it.

Malke
Click to expand...

Thanks both. Neither Spybot nor Adaware reported any problems. Nor did
chkdsk on either OS or data partitions.

Googling turned up a few reports of some bizarre RIAA-developed
malware (Nopir.B worm?), which indiscriminately wipes MP3s, presumably
in a sort of misguided vigilante spirit. These downloads may well have
included some which were 'illegal' in the strictest sense, although
I'm confident the great majority were not. I was using my NewsRover
program, trying to get some 1940s 'hit songs' from 3 binaries
newsgroups (alt.binaries.sounds.1940s.mp3, etc). I planned to select a
few to accompany a slideshow I'm making for some elderly family
members, based on old scanned photos.

I also posted to MediaMonkey Forum earlier today, but (apart from the
lead about the 'RIAA virus' which led me to Nopir.B), no-one could
conceive of any way MM could cause the deletion.

I'm waiting to hear back from NewsRover support.

Any other thoughts please?
 
Terry said:
Thanks both. Neither Spybot nor Adaware reported any problems. Nor did
chkdsk on either OS or data partitions.

Googling turned up a few reports of some bizarre RIAA-developed
malware (Nopir.B worm?), which indiscriminately wipes MP3s, presumably
in a sort of misguided vigilante spirit. These downloads may well have
included some which were 'illegal' in the strictest sense, although
I'm confident the great majority were not. I was using my NewsRover
program, trying to get some 1940s 'hit songs' from 3 binaries
newsgroups (alt.binaries.sounds.1940s.mp3, etc). I planned to select a
few to accompany a slideshow I'm making for some elderly family
members, based on old scanned photos.

I also posted to MediaMonkey Forum earlier today, but (apart from the
lead about the 'RIAA virus' which led me to Nopir.B), no-one could
conceive of any way MM could cause the deletion.

I'm waiting to hear back from NewsRover support.

Any other thoughts please?
Click to expand...

What antivirus are you using? Neither Spybot or Ad-aware are antivirus
programs. Also, do all scans for malware in Safe Mode. Perhaps you had
a "slip of the wrist" while using your bulk renaming utility. When all
else fails, I swear by Ontrack's Easy Recovery Pro, but it is not
cheap.

Malke
 
Malke said:
What antivirus are you using? Neither Spybot or Ad-aware are antivirus
programs. Also, do all scans for malware in Safe Mode. Perhaps you had
a "slip of the wrist" while using your bulk renaming utility. When all
else fails, I swear by Ontrack's Easy Recovery Pro, but it is not
cheap.
Click to expand...
Thanks. NAV, which is usually pretty reliable. (Mind you, I've always
scanned in normal, not Safe Mode.)

File recovery seems to be one application for which there's no
freeware ;-(

On reflection, NU is supposed to *protect* me, and I paid for that!
 
Terry said:
Thanks. NAV, which is usually pretty reliable. (Mind you, I've always
scanned in normal, not Safe Mode.)

File recovery seems to be one application for which there's no
freeware ;-(

On reflection, NU is supposed to *protect* me, and I paid for that!
Click to expand...

Yes, but only from viruses. There is no way to tell from your post what
caused the issue. As I said, you might have had an "accident" while
using that bulk renaming program.

Malke
 

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