Crippling problem.

Hey,

I have a rather crippling issue more so because I'm currently in the middle of designing my employers website :/ Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Here's how it went down: I come home and my computer is fine but lagging a bit (which isn't a problem, my computer is fairly old) so I decide to reboot it to give it a chance to do all it's updates and whatnot. When it turn back on, I notice my background has been replaced with standard blue, more over my desktop is empty. When I go into My Documents, everything is gone. There is absolutely nothing left. I check my C drive and it says that I'm using 75 gigs, which is normal but I have no idea where they went. I manually searched and used the search function, they are definitely gone. What's weird is that all my programs are in place, and everything is running smoothly. I scan my C drive and it tells me it's working normally. Out of desperation I use one of my system restore points, and it has no effect. The system restore works fine and says it has been completed successfully but all my files are still gone. (Also my computer no longer recognizes my MP3 player for reasons unbeknownst to me)

Anyone have any idea what's going on or how this happened?

Thanks so much: Leo1422

 

Click the Start button and check the user name at the top. Is it your usual username?

 

-.- Yes it is my user name. Do you really get people here that don't know who's account they're on? I'm the sole user on this computer.

 

Though that would explain everything, interesting. But there is only one account on this com.

 

Sometime Windows will create a temporary account when a user profile is corrupted and log into that. I was checking if that was the case.

I'd check C:\Documents and Settings and right-click each user folder and select Properties and let it calculate the size of the folder. See if your user name or any other contains the bulk of the used space. [To try to figure out where your files may be stored]

 

Sorry I forgot to mention that bit. I tried that already, while my C drive properties suggests that 75 gigs are in use, when i searched all the files inside it, I found nothing over a gig.

 

And firefox has reverted to it's base form. My persona is gone, as are all my add-ons and preferences.

 

Hmmm, it sure sounds like you are using a different user.

Maybe run spacesniffer and check if it sees the files.

Also, if you are on XP Try Start>Run>type in control userpasswords2 <enter> and see if it shows any users besides you, administrator, guest and (last one don't remember the name but it is something like ASPNET).

 

Space sniffer is extremely cool, never heard of it before. It found the files but I still can't access them. I told it to make a shortcut on my desktop. It did but the short-cut is broken.

 

It is pretty good at showing hidden files that other programs won't.

Space Sinffer's font is very small but there are little title bars for each folder, it should show where the files are located. Are they in the usual folder?

I wonder if a chkdsk /f would help. If an index is corrupt perhaps chkdsk can fix it. You can use the command line or My Computer>right-click C:>Properties>Tools>Check Disk for Errors. Tick both boxes and let it reboot to run. I think it is worth a go, sometimes it actually fixes major errors automatically.

 

No the files are still missing, can"t access them. I already tried that with the C drive. :/ Bah, This blows.

 

What folder do they say they are in? Can you try to go to that folder through Explorer starting by clicking on C: in My Computer and double clicking each folder until you get to the folder SpaceSniffer says they are in.

If WinDirStat can see the files it has a right-click Explore Here option that should open the containing folder where the files are located.

 

Nope, tried that. The files are there but I can't access them. Much like an apple tied on a stick and hung over a horses head.

 

I'm not sure what is going on with your user profile. My Documents disappearing is one thing but FF losing its settings in another. I don't know where the problem lies.

Are you getting an "Access Denied" message when trying to access your files? You could try to take ownership of the files.

Perhaps someone else has some ideas.

 

Thanks, it's a whole bunch of stuff that doesn't really seem connected but useless system restore points to lost FF settings to missing files :/ but it all happened at the same time so it must be connected. Anyway, thanks for your help.

leo1422