OMG! has this happened to anyone before?

[Alusnova]

Basically I don't have a way to explain what just happened to me.


I purchased a new Sony DVD-R drive, installed it and everything looked fine, I never had any problems installing anything.


Anyways I played a bit of Pirates, figure going to sleep , when I decide to check My Documents folder and all my Roms,ISOs,MP3's,Emulators,movies, EVERYTHING is just gone!

I didn't delete anything, My document folder is still there, the name of the specific folders are there i.e. SNES,Genesis,PSX,etc but all the stuff inside gone. =(

With no real reason as to why everything is just gone, I rebooted and nothing, 50+GB worth of stuff . Sorry to even post this but this is so odd , but I heard that there are data recovery programs right? This sucks, that's like countless hours of downloads.

Alusnova

[RainyShadow]

Generally you should avoid writing to this partition until you check for recoverable files.
If you dualboot, use your other OS for now.
I preffer to use UnErase from Norton Utilities but there are some other helpful apps on the net (just can't think of the names atm)
If you have some DOS at hand (not XPs command prompt, but Win9x or pure DOS) you may have the undelete.exe and/or unformat.exe tools somewhere in your system.

Also, check the size of the folder (your stuff may got hidden somehow).
Check in near folders too ( I sometimes accidentaly move folders when clicking, etc.)

Good luck !

[Alusnova]

I checked my HD size went to a meager 20gb used from 78used before.


Trust me when I say this is weird, can people access your computer and delete files over the internet?

I mean if the entire folder was gone , then yeah I can accept I made a mistake maybe, but all the folder names are there, just the content is not.


I'm literally crying right now, lost everything!


=(

[AKUMA™]

Maybe the Pirates stole your stash LOL!!! But no, seriously, this is quite odd, do you live with anyone who might have fiddled with your PC while you were sleeping? Maybe a little brother or sister or a vengeful girlfriend might have deleted your stash?

[almighty bob]

hey there

first, dont write anything more to your hd. get a file recovery prog (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...toration.shtml)
try that. i use it and its quite good. dl it to a diskette so another drive. scan you hard drive, cuz perhaps the pointers to the files have been deleted, but the actual information should still be there.

if u find the iso files, make sure u restore them to a cdrw or another hd in the mean time. reason being, if u restore to the hd where they came from, u may inadvertantly write over the very files u are trying to recover.

obviously, restoration isnt the only file recorvery program out there. its just one that doesnt require installation and such.

if all else fails, check the pirates folder or even the cd. i mean, they gotta hide their stash somewhere.

good luck man

[DonQuixotes]

Indeed, you need some kind of recovery software. R-Studio is the ideal 'cause it can handle large files such isos. The drawback is that you have to do the whole procedure in an another PC, or to install a new HD with fresh OS.
I had more or less the same problem a year ago. The cause was a defragment software and a power failure.
Also never use 'My Documents' to save files. This folder is monitored by system/user profiles scheme and I bet you have to wait ages in every reboot.

Good luck!

[Valholy]

I checked my HD size went to a meager 20gb used from 78used before.


Trust me when I say this is weird, can people access your computer and delete files over the internet?

I mean if the entire folder was gone , then yeah I can accept I made a mistake maybe, but all the folder names are there, just the content is not.


I'm literally crying right now, lost everything!


=(

yes people can delete files over internet hacking you with some spy program like subseven,little witch etc,but i dont think thats your problem since those people need to apply social ingeenering or whatever it is said,they send you a file disguised as a normal one and then when you run it they infect you letting them to access your computer,in any case my best guess is that you got a virus or either way installing your dvd got you this problem,i had the same prob over here when i installed some new things in my comp i got to use my recovery disks since in my case they deleted even my software from all places and i couldnt access my pc nor anything,try that recovery files program maybe it will help.

[master]

odd... well, one thing you have to learn is BACK UP!!!!!!! I back up my files to a cd twice a month, put it in a case, and stow it away in my desk drawer. Also, I ghost it to a hard drive that i also keep in that drawer.

you should also start using go-back, or a file similar. It allows you to go back to a certain date that the computer was on and resets all files that were on there, or replace files that were lost.

[Valholy]

ill keep that in mind

[Soeru]

Basically I don't have a way to explain what just happened to me.


I purchased a new Sony DVD-R drive, installed it and everything looked fine, I never had any problems installing anything.


Anyways I played a bit of Pirates, figure going to sleep , when I decide to check My Documents folder and all my Roms,ISOs,MP3's,Emulators,movies, EVERYTHING is just gone!

I didn't delete anything, My document folder is still there, the name of the specific folders are there i.e. SNES,Genesis,PSX,etc but all the stuff inside gone. =(

With no real reason as to why everything is just gone, I rebooted and nothing, 50+GB worth of stuff . Sorry to even post this but this is so odd , but I heard that there are data recovery programs right? This sucks, that's like countless hours of downloads.

Alusnova

I've never seen such an odd case of data loss... It could be that your hard disk/comp was near something emitting lots of magnetic shiznit, maybe you left a magnet/oddly powerful cell phone/etc. near your comp overnight, or your hard disk may be of very bad quality. Try the data recovery appz other people have mentioned, also run scandisk when you boot next time...

[polobunny]

I've never seen such an odd case of data loss... It could be that your hard disk/comp was near something emitting lots of magnetic shiznit, maybe you left a magnet/oddly powerful cell phone/etc. near your comp overnight, or your hard disk may be of very bad quality. Try the data recovery appz other people have mentioned, also run scandisk when you boot next time...

Magnets don't affect hdd's btw. Well not usual home magnets.
I'm almost sure someone did this, may it be you or not, as 50Gb of stuff never dissapears like this. Virus? Yes/no/maybe, but as the other members suggested use a recovery program, and if possible use it from another computer.

Maybe your mft bugged if you're in Fat32 (as NTFS use more than 1 MFT), or you bugged the (E)MBR somehow, but that would be really weird unless you fiddled with any partitionating tool,

[Alusnova]

I used the Restoration program and I managed to recover 4 PSX ISOS and a few SNES roms.


Odd that it would let me recover some not all files.

And btw I bought a DVD-R drive, as I mentioned before I installed that along side with the Nero software that came with it, now that i have had time to think, can Nero delete any files stealthetly? maybe it checks for "copy protected" files or something?


Can think of anything else that could have done this to me, unless someone did indeed installed a Virus, I didn't know a virus could be so specific though, it only deleted:

ISO,IMG,BIN,CDD,SUB and CUE files,all my emulators,Roms,save states for christ sake!,plug-ings for the emulators!,MP3's, my entire 8 seasons of South Park episodes in rm format,some porn movies (lol I admit I had a couple of them) .... so you see this seems so fn random, nothing else on my computer was touched.


Lastly it couldn't have been anyone , I know that for a fact.


so odd.... =(



Alusnova

[sniperrfl1011]

this really is odd... all i can think of is spyware/adware/virus type thing, or maybe a "friend" of yours was really gifted in hacking and somehow deleted your files? i really can't imagine nero doing something like this...

[AKUMA™]

I used the Restoration program and I managed to recover 4 PSX ISOS and a few SNES roms.


Odd that it would let me recover some not all files.

And btw I bought a DVD-R drive, as I mentioned before I installed that along side with the Nero software that came with it, now that i have had time to think, can Nero delete any files stealthetly? maybe it checks for "copy protected" files or something?


Can think of anything else that could have done this to me, unless someone did indeed installed a Virus, I didn't know a virus could be so specific though, it only deleted:

ISO,IMG,BIN,CDD,SUB and CUE files,all my emulators,Roms,save states for christ sake!,plug-ings for the emulators!,MP3's, my entire 8 seasons of South Park episodes in rm format,some porn movies (lol I admit I had a couple of them) .... so you see this seems so fn random, nothing else on my computer was touched.


Lastly it couldn't have been anyone , I know that for a fact.


so odd.... =(



Alusnova

Okay, something I noticed. All the files that you mentioned that disappeared have something in common, they are all (more than likely) pirated software, and what I mean is, stuff you downloaded from the internet, ya know, stuff you shouldn't have unless you "legally" own it. Basically what I'm saying is if someone did hack into your computer, they knew what they were looking for, or perhaps dumped a virus in there that specifically targeted such data files. Why would just those files be gone and not everything? Hmmmmm.....

[polobunny]

They got another thing in common, they were all in the My Documents folder.