Am I Tripping Or Are My Files Disappearing & Relocating

[BruhthaKuga]

It seems that after I do a clean install I find missing files and folders, obviously I am not talking about the C: drive which is a SSD on which I keep only the Windows installation and apps.

I have an eighty GB HDD on which I keep basic drivers, hardware and software PDF manuals and other files related to the PC. I also relocated the Desktop, Favorites , and Links there. I also have a 500GB drive that ejects to be used as an external USB HDD on other PCs that I have relocated, My Pictures, My Music, My Videos to.

On both of these other drive I have seen files and folders become MIA, I know that I didn't delete them, anyone else have had this problem with Windows 7?

 

[richc46]

Welcome

I cannot speak for others, but I never had that problem. Now that you know that you do have that situation. Keep your drives backed up and on a separate hard drive.
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

Seven also has back up and restore and system restore. Backup and restore is for your personal documents.

 

[CommonTater]

It seems that after I do a clean install I find missing files and folders, obviously I am not talking about the C: drive which is a SSD on which I keep only the Windows installation and apps.

I have an eighty GB HDD on which I keep basic drivers, hardware and software PDF manuals and other files related to the PC. I also relocated the Desktop, Favorites , and Links there. I also have a 500GB drive that ejects to be used as an external USB HDD on other PCs that I have relocated, My Pictures, My Music, My Videos to.

On both of these other drive I have seen files and folders become MIA, I know that I didn't delete them, anyone else have had this problem with Windows 7?

First... do I understand correctly that you're locating Shell folders (My...) on a removable drive?

WOW.... You're real lucky you haven't crashed that system yet. Win7 has a real bad time with broken hardlinks.

This might also account for some of the magic folder activity you're seeing.

 

[BruhthaKuga]

First... do I understand correctly that you're locating Shell folders (My...) on a removable drive?

WOW.... You're real lucky you haven't crashed that system yet. Win7 has a real bad time with broken hardlinks.

This might also account for some of the magic folder activity you're seeing.

The 500GB HDD is an internal drive and is connected by sata when it is in this PC but there is a button that ejects it where it can be used by an esata or USB cable, it does not show as a removable drive in Library. The 80GB drive is also an internal drive and does not show as a removable drive.

Please explain what a "Broken Hardlink" is?

 

[CommonTater]

First... do I understand correctly that you're locating Shell folders (My...) on a removable drive?

WOW.... You're real lucky you haven't crashed that system yet. Win7 has a real bad time with broken hardlinks.

This might also account for some of the magic folder activity you're seeing.

The 500GB HDD is an internal drive and is connected by sata when it is in this PC but there is a button that ejects it where it can be used by an esata or USB cable, it does not show as a removable drive in Library. The 80GB drive is also an internal drive and does not show as a removable drive.

Please explain what a "Broken Hardlink" is?

A hardlink is like a shortcut on steroids. Essentially the connection between the link and it's target is so complete that you can open and save files through the hardlink.

The more dangrous fact here is that these are Shell Folders (My Pictures, My Documents, etc) These are folders Windows stupidly actually needs to run correctly and it will create them in default locations if they are absent. It even forces you to have these folders, if you want them or not, by treating them as default save locations... What folder does the "Save" dialog begin in when you click "Save Picture" in Explorer... Where does it start when you create a new Text file, etc...

When you take out that drive you are breaking the connection between the Hardlink and it's target... Since it's a shell folder Windows will try to re-create it... OOPS, can't create a folder in thin air!

I made a mistake, my first try at Win7, when relocating these folders to my Data drive and ended up with no access to my desktop at all. All I got was a "Server Failed to Start" error and the only thing that worked was the Winkey+R to launch a run dialog...

So when you remove the 500gb drive is there any chance the system can be turned on without it?

 

[Barman58]

This could of course just be a simple permissions error, As NTFS file permissions are persistent over an OS install and even if we use the same username windows will actually treat the old and new users as different users. If by any chance the new users groups do not have at least read access to a file then it will appear to vanish.

The best way to eliminate this is to take ownership of the complete data drive and then give your specific user name at least read access, (I would actually suggest full control), and let this propagate down the folder tree.

This type of issue has been present in all windows OS's that utilize NTFS drives and can apply from single files up to an entire disk, dependent on the actual original state of permissions at the time the OS is changed.

There may well be other causes in this case but over many tears I have seen this particular permissions issue so many times that it is now always the first I check, when this missing files problem is reported

 

[rjobeid]

I don't really know where you guys left off...but I have experienced whole folders disappearing on me! I'm using Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit and my other laptop is Win Vista Business 32 bit. I have experienced both operating systems losing full folders. I lost a 'Personal' folder from My Documents and I lost a 'My Movies' from my Documents folder. I never deleted them...why would I?...It took me forever to build up!!!
SOMEONE HELP!!!! I don't know where all these files have disappeared to!!!

 

[Tews]

Try doing a system restore to a point before your problem started ...