XP folder has vanished/is lost - please HELP! (my son's pictures all gone)

[jonny]

Hi,

I use XP Pro and had all my digital pictures/videos (mostly of my 2
year old son) in a single folder on the C: drive. I logged on today and
there is no sign of that folder (everything else is intact). I share
the PC with my wife (and no she hasn't deleted the files). I logged on
as my wife and still no sign. I had yet to back them up so I am a bit
gutted as I stand to lose a lot of history (I have yet to take my
Maxtor out of its box).

- I have switched on the option to see all hidden folders/files and no
sign of the folder
- I have run a file/folder search to see if it was moved - no sign of
folder or contents
- I have looked at the drive using a DOS cmd window and no sign of the
folder
- I have done a chkdisk and no problems reported
- I have received no disk warning/error messages
- I have run a complete virus check (McAfee) - nothing found
- I have run a system restore and no sign of the folder
- I have run 4 different 'undelete'/recovery type programs and there is
no evidence of the folder or ANY of the files
- Bizarrely my hard drive is still reporting that it is almost full and
given the cause of that was largely due to the amount of JPEGs & AVIs I
have then I still hold out hope they're still there (they don't appear
to have been deleted given the recovery programs can't find any remains
- unless somehow they were shredded by McAfee? - but if so my disk
space would be much more freed up)

Many thanks in advance for any help, Jonathan

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Have you searched for the files by extension via a command prompt?

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Malke]

Hi,

I use XP Pro and had all my digital pictures/videos (mostly of my 2
year old son) in a single folder on the C: drive. I logged on today
and there is no sign of that folder (everything else is intact). I
share the PC with my wife (and no she hasn't deleted the files). I
logged on as my wife and still no sign. I had yet to back them up so I
am a bit gutted as I stand to lose a lot of history (I have yet to
take my Maxtor out of its box).

- I have switched on the option to see all hidden folders/files and no
sign of the folder
- I have run a file/folder search to see if it was moved - no sign of
folder or contents
- I have looked at the drive using a DOS cmd window and no sign of the
folder
- I have done a chkdisk and no problems reported
- I have received no disk warning/error messages
- I have run a complete virus check (McAfee) - nothing found
- I have run a system restore and no sign of the folder
- I have run 4 different 'undelete'/recovery type programs and there
is no evidence of the folder or ANY of the files
- Bizarrely my hard drive is still reporting that it is almost full
and given the cause of that was largely due to the amount of JPEGs &
AVIs I have then I still hold out hope they're still there (they don't
appear to have been deleted given the recovery programs can't find any
remains - unless somehow they were shredded by McAfee? - but if so my
disk space would be much more freed up)

Filling up a hard drive until it "almost full" will cause some bizarre
behavior. At this point, I'd take steps to retrieve the data by trying
some of these things:

1. Boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE or a Linux live cd
such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here is information on
using Knoppix for this:

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw
OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an
external usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS). To get
Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and
third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your
bootable cd. Then boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows
files. If you are using the usb thumb drive or the external hard drive,
right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and
uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it.
Note that the default mouse action in the window manager used by
Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS
Windows' double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn
the files to cd/dvd-r's.

http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder

2. If the target computer is a laptop or you don't have an external hard
drive or usb thumb drive (or the machine has other hardware problems
and won't boot), you can pull the drive and slave it in a computer
running a working install of XP. Depending on the target drive's
characteristics, you may need a drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a
SATA controller card, etc. Use the working Windows Explorer to copy the
data to the rescue system's hard drive. Often XP will not boot with a
slaved drive that has a damaged file system. In that case, boot your
rescue system with a Bart's PE or Knoppix cd.

3. If a Bart's PE or Knoppix won't work, you can try using data recovery
software. Here are some links to various programs. I use Easy Recovery
Pro, but it is expensive. People whom I respect have recommended
R-Studio and Restoration. YMMV.

*IMPORTANT* - DO NOTHING FURTHER ON THE DRIVE. The data is still on the
hard drive but if you overwrite it, it will be extremely difficult or
impossible to recover it. If you use data recovery software, install it
on another machine and either use it from that operating system or
create a bootable cd/floppy and work with that.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software “Undelete†-
http://www.execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
BadCopy Pro (CD recovery) -
http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/cdrecover.asp?rid=google&kid=gccr0205
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

4. As a last resort (because of the expense) send the drive to a
professional data recovery company like Drive Savers (my preference) or
Seagate Data Recovery. General prices run from $500USD on up. Drive
Savers recovered all the data on a failed laptop drive for one of my
clients and it cost $2,700. He thought it was worth the money; only you
know what your data is worth. Since your hard drive has apparently not
failed, I doubt it would cost that much but it will not be cheap.

Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

*IMPORTANT* - If you don't have the skill and/or equipment to do these
procedures and the data is crucial, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop that has experience in doing data recovery. This
will not be your local version of BigStoreUSA. In-shop data recovery is
usually not exactly cheap (for ex., my charges are generally
$150-350USD), but it normally costs less than sending the drive to a
company like Drive Savers. You need to make the determination of the
value of your data and decide what to do.

Malke

 

[Seahawk60B]

Instead of searching for the folder, search the entire drive, including
hidden/system folders for *.jpg - perhaps the folder got inadvertently
renamed and/or moved. The search results should reveal if the photos
are actually still on your system.

 

[Guest]

Your wife may have inadvertently deleted the pictures/folder.
Download the below small app to a floppy disk or a CD and run it
from there, so you will not overwrite what you may be trying to retrieve.
Free Download - Restoration 2.5.14
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4474.html

 

[jonny]

Thanks all for your responses to date. For the more complex suggestions
I'll have to wait till I return from my hols - I was going to burn some
pictures for little man's granny (

Re. file searches, I have done all that. The photos were 99% of the
jpegs on the machine (yes it is a laptop) and searches only return
relative few, i.e. the other 1%. So I can confidently say the folder
hasn't been moved or hidden and there is just no sign of the files on
the disk. Even the recovery programs I've run to date don't identify
ANY of the missing photos!

 

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maps, destination information, travel news and more. Don't forget to use
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planning and flight-booking site. You are able to purchase airline tickets
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maps, destination information, travel news and more. Don't forget to use
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planning and flight-booking site. You are able to purchase airline tickets
onlinen, find vacation package and make hotel and car reservations, find
maps, destination information, travel news and more. Don't forget to use
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in the U.S. and Canada or 00-800-11-20-11-40 in Europe.

 

[Guest]

Northerntravel.net and Northerntravel.co.uk is a premier online travel
planning and flight-booking site. You are able to purchase airline tickets
onlinen, find vacation package and make hotel and car reservations, find
maps, destination information, travel news and more. Don't forget to use
discount code 149395. We can also be reached by calling either 800-780-5733
in the U.S. and Canada or 00-800-11-20-11-40 in Europe.

 

[RA]

Thanks all for your responses to date. For the more complex
suggestions I'll have to wait till I return from my hols - I was
going to burn some pictures for little man's granny (

Re. file searches, I have done all that. The photos were 99% of the
jpegs on the machine (yes it is a laptop) and searches only return
relative few, i.e. the other 1%. So I can confidently say the folder
hasn't been moved or hidden and there is just no sign of the files on
the disk. Even the recovery programs I've run to date don't identify
ANY of the missing photos!

Is it possible that the folder had been overwritten?