Power outage system memory loss unexplained

basils57 · 29 Jul 2014

Hi Guys

I've got a strange occurrence that I don't understand and would like some input on please.

Overnight my computer was left on, and we had a power failure. On restarting my computer I found the following:

Excel 2013 didn't provide the updated files which I had saved the previous day - but indicated that the latest saved files were 6 days previous (23rd)
Outlook 2013 showed the latest files as 23rd i.e. six days missing
Chrome history shows nothing between the 23rd and today, the 29th. and recovered pages don't show any open pages from these dates in between.

Any help would be appreciated as I feel I might have been dreaming!!!

Layback Bear · 29 Jul 2014

Power outages do strange things to computers left on. Doesn't seem to be a pattern. Different computers have different problems.

Do you use a surge protector?

After saving all those things was their a reboot before the power went off?

basils57 · 29 Jul 2014

Yes I do have a surge protector and there wasn't a reboot prior to the power cutting off.

I just can't comprehend how this magic period of 6 days has occurred and has wiped so much from programs and memory?

Layback Bear · 29 Jul 2014

With a power loss or reboot you will always loose what ever is in memory.
If you use sleep or hibernate when the power fails everything that is on memory will be lost. What is on the hard drive or ssd should be saved.
It's hard for me to think that their would be 6 days worth of data in memory.

Can you be more exact on what was lost and what was left open.
Where the programs open when the computer left on.
Were you using sleep or hibernation or did you just leave the computer on.

Lets say you were writing a book and you just completed about 20 pages and left the computer on then the power went off. You would loose all 20 pages.
If you would of closed the programs in a normal fashion it would ask you if you wanted to save the changes. You select save. Now the 20 pages is saved in that program on your hard drive. Windows or a program can't do that when the power goes off.

If you had no programs open the power loss just should of cleaned your memory and cleaned nothing saved to a hard drive/ssd.

basils57 · 29 Jul 2014

Thanks again for coming back Layback Bear.

I'ts most annoying due to the loss of info, which shouldn't have occurred.

Outlook, Excel and my browser were all left open and my computer would have been in sleep mode.

On Excel, instead of - as normal - listing the last saved recovered file, it wasn't there, just showed the 23rd. I deliberately save as I go along, so there would have been 'saved' info on there.
More excruciatingly, I seem to have 6 days loss of mail on Outlook - when I powered back up everything is at the 23rd, my inbox and none of the mails I had read and filed etc were there after 23rd. Same for deleted items. This is info that I really need.

If it hadn't been for the missing history on Google Chrome, I would have thought I had an Office problem, but the co-incidence is too marked.

Layback Bear · 29 Jul 2014

I do it simple.
When I'm not using my computers I close and save what I'm doing and do a normal Windows 7 shut down.
Hit the happy button on my surge protectors to shut off the power to my computers and any thing that hooks to them. Now all power from the wall is stopped at all 3 surge protectors. For me I see no reason to leave things running in any fashion when I'm not using them. Today's systems boot so fast hibernation and or sleep is no longer needed in my opinion.

When I ready to use the computers again.
Just hit the happy buttons on the surge protectors and the start buttons the the two computers and I'm up and going in 30 to 60 sec. Just enough time to lite a smoke and start enjoying a cup of coffee.

Simple, old fashion but it works.

PS: I did loose power today. Saw a bunch of Ohio Edison trucks running around looking for the problem and a hour later the power came back on. The only problem is I couldn't make more coffee for a hour.

basils57 · 29 Jul 2014

Thanks for the advice for the future.
However it could have happened in the daytime with the same consequences, and it still doesn't explain the loss?

Layback Bear · 29 Jul 2014

I can not explain 6 days of lost data/work. If it was saved on your hard drive/ssd it should still be there. If it wasn't saved on your hard drive/ssd it's probable gone.
That is the best answer I can give.

Hang in there for more replies from other members awaking around the globe.

LMiller7 · 29 Jul 2014

When there is an unplanned power failure data loss is virtually inevitable. I don't know why you lost 6 days worth of data. The best anyone could do is make a guess, which could be wrong. In any event it would not bring the data back.

But it could have been much worse. Hard drives fail, often without warning or apparent cause. This happened to me some years. One day the drive had no known issues, and there were no warnings, The next morning the drive wasn't even recognized by the BIOS. Everything on the drive was lost. Most likely a data recovery professional could have restore most of the data but I didn't need it.

The only way to protect yourself from data loss is to make backups. Any data that has not been backed up could be lost, and with no asaurance that it could be recovered. That is why businesses (at least the smart ones) make daily backups of changed files as a matter of routine.

This is the only protection from data loss.

windude99 · 29 Jul 2014

Could you try running check disk on your drive? Here are the instructions on how to do so: Disk Check
I agree with what others above have said about power loss. RAM is volatile, which means it will lose whatever information it has in it if power is lost. I know Office has an auto-save feature because we have lost power before and a family member had a document open and it had not been saved, so we thought we had lost it. Luckily, Office had been auto-saving it. I cannot explain the 6 days of data loss other than corruption on the drive or maybe you have a hard drive that is going bad.