Lost folder, NOT deleted, on Dell Inspiron desktop

j0hn · 19 Mar 2013

My wife this morning reported that an important folder vanished - it wasn't in Recycle, it wasn't Hidden. She had been using it, and viewing content from a professional CD-Rom which seems innocent enough.

She's no computer expert, but canny enough not to shift-delete something without realising it.

I did searches for the missing folder and some of the files that were in it. None of them showed up even when I searched the whole hard drive!

I ran a free-downloaded program, Recuva, to try to locate the folder, but could not see it. Then realised my mistake - perhaps the new program was written on the missing files - but it's only a 3.4MB program. It couldn't have covered all the files, surely.

Unfortunately the folder is recent and there hasn't been a backup for a while (I know - bad, bad

)

ANy clues as to how this folder may have vanished off the face of the desktop?

Any clues on effective recovery tool?

John

marsmimar · 19 Mar 2013

Hello John and welcome to Seven Forums.

Sometimes malware can cause files and folders to go missing. Have you run a full scan with your updated resident anti-virus program? Since no anti-malware program is 100% effective 100% of the time (if there was such a thing we'd all be using it) you could also use the free Malwarebytes as a second on-demand scanner.

Malwarebytes

If you're familiar with editing the registry, you could open regedit and search for the name of the missing folder. If regedit finds your search value a file path should appear at the bottom of the regedit screen. Use the F3 key to continue searching the registry for any other values containing the missing folder's name. When you've finished searching the registry you could use the start menu search box to manually look for the various file paths. NOTE: Do not make any changes to the registry. Just use it as a search tool.

How to Use the Windows Registry Editor (Regedit) in One Easy Lesson

And these Microsoft articles offer a few other suggestions.

Find a file or folder

Help To Find Lost Or Hidden Files and Folders Windows 7 after rogue - Microsoft Community

j0hn · 20 Mar 2013

Thanks. I'll try that. Actually Malwarebytes is exactly the program I've tried. I'll look into trying another, loading it onto the external hard drive.

mitchell65 · 20 Mar 2013

If all else fails try system restore to before you installed the new program!