Data files revert to previous versions after restart

Thanks for your replies. The only AV software that I have, and I usually disable it, is the old Trend Micro PC-cillin. I find that AV stuff really slows down the PC and you are constantly receiving large-file updates. A little less than 2 months ago, installed a new WD hard drive in my computer but left the original in as a "slave". I did this because the original was making little squeaking noises upon start-up. I also purchased full version Acronis True Image and something known as a bootable image, aside from backing up my files weekly on an external hard-drive (WD Passport). I'm not that well versed in this deeper computer stuff, but I can say that my Passport is showing 191GB used, so I'm guessing that there's a large, bootable image, on there.(?) Last night my system finally "let" me use safe mode to initiate a check-disk process. I ran it on my "C" drive and the "H", which are both of my hard-drives. A few files were repaired via chkdsk. I awoke to the computer having restarted itself, despite my not initiating a restart. There was one of the 3 last desktop photos showing. I never know which one will show up on restart. Sometimes desktop icons show a more recent layout. Other times, it seems to go back to a day before, or? I know this because I cleaned up my desktop while mentally preparing for a complete system recovery. I guess I'll see which computer decides to show up and run today. It's like it's taken on multiple personalities, some of them with severe dementia. Thanks again. MrR

Thanks for your response,fseal. Sort of an interesting thing happened last night. We had a brief power outage. At the time, my computer was on standby. When I got up and attempted to start 'er up, it was a no go. Multiple beeps from tower. I unplugged the power cord and tried again. She started up and, of course, went to one of the earlier version screens. I ran checkdisk on the "C" drive, but blinked while the program was showing whether or not files had been corrupted, repaired, etc. The next line before restarting said something like "volume was clean". Upon restart, the "right" screen came up. My faith in my computer is being shaken a bit. I want to squeeze a little more life out of it before it's hopelessly obsolete. It's been a good one, Sony Vaio PCV-RX650. As I said, it's got a new 300GB WDC Caviar Blue HD in it as of September '11. Do you have a good disk checking utility to recommend? Terabytes of "thanks". MrR

I ran diagnostics on my hard drives using the WD/DataLifeguard utility. I need more computer "creds" to be able to read the report. Then, after reading someone's post on the WD discussion page, and seeing a report generated by HD TunePro, I downloaded a free trial version and ran it. My new drive seems to be o.k., but the old drive, now in "slave" position, showed a "warning" under "Reallocated Sector Count". So, I'm guessing that I at least made the right call in replacing the "master" drive. I'll just have to see what the future holds, since the main drive checks out. Thanks again, fseal, you've been very helpful. MrR