Solved Disappearing files\programs

[barcodenation]

re: files disappearing

I am using no antivirus as it's not hooked up to the internet and no way for any viruses to get on it. Besides Win 7 the only program I have running on it is MPCStar because it plays all media files at least all that I have.

 

[Zomby88]

Never !!

 

[Zomby88]

What did you install that has dissapeard ? Does it show up in program files?

pardon my spelling , it`s late.

 

[barcodenation]

What did you install that has dissapeard ? Does it show up in program files?

pardon my spelling , it`s late.

The files are media files. 100's of gigabytes. I copied all our dvd's to the computer. It has 4tb hdd's with all our movies and other misc dvd's on it. All files are still there, but the folder that they were in is gone. If I do a hdd recovery they will show up and I can copy those files to another hdd. This also happened on another drive and also my jump drive. The jump drive just shows empty folders but in my computer it shows the drive has 2gigs free space of 32gigs. This has got me so stressed out!!! I'm pretty good with computers and i've never seen anything like this in my life unless the drive was bad, but the drives are still good. no bad sectors or anything. just when the computer restarts the files are hidden beyond my capabilities of viewing...

 

[DC Brannan]

Had my business folder dissappear from documents folder, seriously pi$$£d off
Had windows seven up and running for one week, XP on back up harddrive. Both went down at same time. Got 'Black screen' on W7 and 'blue screen' on XP. had both hard drives taken out, W7 had files missing!!!

 

[Lordbob75]

Had my business folder dissappear from documents folder, seriously pi$$£d off
Had windows seven up and running for one week, XP on back up harddrive. Both went down at same time. Got 'Black screen' on W7 and 'blue screen' on XP. had both hard drives taken out, W7 had files missing!!!

That is really odd. Did you run any cleaners or anything that may have caused this?

~Lordbob

 

[lupette]

I formatted a large hard drive so that I could store files on it away from the operating system and the C drive. When windows 7 crashed, I reinstalled and some of the files stored away on different drives disappeared. Anyone know how I can get them back? Also, why was windows unable to restore from my backups and from my SRD? Is this operating system really this useless or am I missing something?

 

[DC Brannan]

Had my business folder dissappear from documents folder, seriously pi$$£d off
Had windows seven up and running for one week, XP on back up harddrive. Both went down at same time. Got 'Black screen' on W7 and 'blue screen' on XP. had both hard drives taken out, W7 had files missing!!!

Hi Lordlob 75

Ran no cleaners, Booted into XP on my back up hard drive to check it was able to run (sage was on there for my accountant), ran ok, account came in to office tried running XP, it wouldn't have it kept blue screening her. I came down booted computer as normal to W7 (32) all i got was black screen. Had cousin look at it apprently Vga drivers had gone from the registry (not sure i describing it correctly). Took both hardrives out, within My docs of W7 two years of quotes, invoices etc had gone. Ironically W7 did completely take the PI$$ it left only a scanned copy of my electrical trade certificate!!!! this was within in a folder with all my Health and safety stuff which was gone. There was no virus's found on the hard drive. AVG was is my anti-virus and using W7 own fire wall. No games or downloading music, videos or the like have been to this computer. The XP hard drive will not run now (blue screen) although i can view all my files, this too is virus free.
In Short the following had Been installed, AVG, Wifi drivers, printer driver, electrical certification sortware, wireless keyboard/mouse driver and word and XL docs for business. It worked for about 1 week.

Regards
Craig

 

[Lordbob75]

I recommend trying a repair install.

Sounds like you may have started a format of the external drives or something....

~Lordbob

 

[CommonTater]

a) path 1

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

b) path 2

C:\Users\[...]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Its not two different paths. There are different things in each section, though I don't know why it does that.

~Lordbob

The one in Program Data is the "All Users" start menu. The items in it appear on all users' start menus.

The one in Appdata is your personal Start Menu. The items in it appear only on your personal start menu.

When you log in, Windows ORs the two together so that you see the sum of both.


Links (and the stuff on your start menu is all links) can appear to disappear if you are logged in as Fred install some stuff then log in as Tom the next time... the stuff you installed is on Fred's menu, not Tom's.

You will have the same apparent problem with your Documents, Videos, Music, Pictures et. folders from your user root folder... Fred's folders are on a different path than Tom's so when logged in as Tom, you won't see Fred's files. They may appear to have disappeard but they're still on your hard disk.

 

[lupette]

Well that makes sense but only if you have more than one user on your computer! If I have more than one . . . well . . . then I do have a problem! Could you please tell me how to check to see if I have more than one user account? Is it possible that the new installation is confusing the old installation and a seperate user?

 

[CommonTater]

Well that makes sense but only if you have more than one user on your computer! If I have more than one . . . well . . . then I do have a problem! Could you please tell me how to check to see if I have more than one user account? Is it possible that the new installation is confusing the old installation and a seperate user?

Yep... it's possible.

Unless you entered the same user name both times they will be stored separately. There's nothing preventing you from going into the other set of folders with Windows Explorer and poking around... You can move the files to your own folders and probably get most of them back without incident. All you ahve to do first is take ownership of them ... see the tutorials section on this forum.

You user accounts are at... (No surprises here folks)...
Control Panel -> User Accounts

 

[Stevie No Toes]

Hello,

I'm addressing the "stuff" that is there one moment then disappears. My primary problem is using a Phonic Helix Board 24 Firewire MKII and pumping recording into Cakewalk 3. Basically, on a good day the Phonic will pump into the "puter" and I can record, usually 12 channels.

Then, the nice little "B" for Phonic cuts out and disappears.

I know that Phonic seems to acknowledge both support and lack of support for Windows 7, but their drivers dated in January 2010 sometimes work.

The work around for the Cakewalk issue seems to be a simple use of "Program Compatibility", and on Monday it recorded as needed. It just won't play back tonight.

Breaking down the problem is such a simple musician thing.

I am able to plug in a patch cord into the headphones jack of my computer (and the make and model does not make a difference.) I'm getting good tunes as I type.

Next issue seems to be the board and the Firewire aftermarket connection I've installed.

On the board sometimes I get the "blue" light next to the Firewire legend on the tip right of the board. Sometimes I don't. I could have a problem with the board, but if I shift from the bottom to top Firewire input, I still get "Blue".

From there, it's the matter of the Firewire board on the computer. I have three inputs, and sometimes when I swap from one to another, and that involves a combination of "hot" swapping, that is, the board is on, and "cold" swapping, power down, and powering up. Sometimes it works, usually now it does not.

So, I hope both Phonic and they guys who sold me Guitar Tracks pay attention, and you nice people at MicroSoft notice.

Windows 7 is the OS. The nice protection systems are in place. The hardware works. The software is bizarre. It is sort of like, putting my elbow on the control key, using my left toe to push "sys rq" and hoping it works.

Now to the basics.

I uninstall the Phonic from the computer.

I reinstall the Phonic and I get all sorts of Windows 7 messages telling me it works.

I check my sound settings and it is alive and well and default.

And it does not work.

What the heck am I missing?

I'm sort of computer savvy as well as a musician of sorts. All I want to do is power up and record, master and listen, and I'm screwed!

Help!

Steve

 

[Silencer]

I am having the same problem as the title of this thread.

I have experienced Windows 7, (I think this is the third time now,) make some of my files just 'disappear'.

When is it acceptable for an Operating System to do this?

I was just now cleaning up some TV show episodes, and suddenly, S01E03, is just GONE. It was just there. It's nowhere on my computer, and I did not delete it.

I know this is the third time that this has happened to me over the last 8 months.

So I just now Googled it. And I came here. I'm telling ya:

THIS IS A SEVERE WINDOWS 7 PROBLEM, THAT NEEDS ANSWERED BY MICROSOFT IMMEDIATELY, PLEASE. PLEASE REPORT ON THIS, TECH REPORTERS, THANK-YOU!

 

[MacGyvr]

I am having the same problem as the title of this thread.

I have experienced Windows 7, (I think this is the third time now,) make some of my files just 'disappear'.

When is it acceptable for an Operating System to do this?

I was just now cleaning up some TV show episodes, and suddenly, S01E03, is just GONE. It was just there. It's nowhere on my computer, and I did not delete it.

I know this is the third time that this has happened to me over the last 8 months.

So I just now Googled it. And I came here. I'm telling ya:

THIS IS A SEVERE WINDOWS 7 PROBLEM, THAT NEEDS ANSWERED BY MICROSOFT IMMEDIATELY, PLEASE. PLEASE REPORT ON THIS, TECH REPORTERS, THANK-YOU!

No, there's no problem with Windows 7 deleting files. More than likely you have a virus. The file is probably there, just hidden. I'd say the same to just about everyone who has posted in this 2 year old thread. The OS isn't deleting your files. If this were the case, it would have been addressed with a patch from MS LONG ago.

Don't go all wild on a MS rant....find the real issue. Either you or something you installed (a virus) is deleting or hiding your files. Period.

 

[Silencer]

It is not a virus. (I'll explain in more detail if necessary.)

Re-read my post, please. I said:

I has happened to me THREE times, over EIGHT months.

I am REPORTING this PROBLEM, with > WINDOWS 7. <

Your comment has done NOTHING to help here. It is NOT a virus.

"No, there's no problem with Windows 7 deleting files." ... Dear god named 'MacGyvr', you are wrong. I am reporting the problem.
"More than likely" ... is not a solution. Nor is it a "virus".
"The file is probably there, just hidden." ... This is a different answer, that is just as incorrect.
"I'd say the same" ... No offense. Based on the above, I don't care what YOU say.
"2 year old thread" ... This comment of yours doesn't solve the problem.
"2 year old thread" ... Don't care that it's 2 years old. New, but same, problem.
"The OS isn't deleting your files." ... Repeating yourself, still wrong. I said it is.

"If this were the case, it would have been addressed with a patch from MS LONG ago." ... You assume way too much.
Such as "LONG ago." Windows 7 is new. Like a couple-years new. And...
"If this were the case, it would have been addressed" ... Um, not until IT'S REPORTED. AND ALSO, THEY DON'T WANT TO PUBLICIZE THIS SORT OF THING A BUNCH, YOU THINK MAYBE? YOU THINK MAYBE IT COULD ALSO BE A *BIG* PROBLEM MAYBE? Please, really, don't answer.

"Don't go all wild on a MS rant" ... YOU'RE THE 'RANTER'. YOU'VE CONTRIBUTED NOTHING BUT EXCUSES, MIS-DIRECTION AND CONFUSION HERE. TOTAL B.S.

"find the real issue." ... YOU FIND IT, IN MY POST PLEASE, IT IS: "I have experienced Windows 7, (I think this is the third time now,) make some of my files just 'disappear'."

"Either you or something you installed (a virus) is deleting or hiding your files. Period."

NO! DOUBLE-PERIOD.

NOW, I'd appreciate any -> HELP <- with this PROBLEM of WINDOWS 7.
But not from MacGyvr. You've given me all the help you can.

I have 30 years of computer experience. I am a master of eight disciplines, including Windows Virus Security. Please don't talk to me like a newb, NEWB.

No Thanks for your help.

P.S. To people that CAN HELP, I also have an SSD, but this last deletion occurred on my new external 2TB WD. (Internal in an enclosure.) (Rolling with MS driver of course.)

Edit: Patch Tuesday, about 12 updates... If it does; I'll re-post, hopefully with useful details, next time it happens.
Also, if I were to guess, I'd say the problem may have been introduced by a security update, and may also disappear with one. Just guessing at this point.

 

[MacGyvr]

It is not a virus. (I'll explain in more detail if necessary.)

Re-read my post, please. I said:

I has happened to me THREE times, over EIGHT months.

I am REPORTING this PROBLEM, with > WINDOWS 7. <

Your comment has done NOTHING to help here. It is NOT a virus.

"No, there's no problem with Windows 7 deleting files." ... Dear god named 'MacGyvr', you are wrong. I am reporting the problem.
"More than likely" ... is not a solution. Nor is it a "virus".
"The file is probably there, just hidden." ... This is a different answer, that is just as incorrect.
"I'd say the same" ... No offense. Based on the above, I don't care what YOU say.
"2 year old thread" ... This comment of yours doesn't solve the problem.
"2 year old thread" ... Don't care that it's 2 years old. New, but same, problem.
"The OS isn't deleting your files." ... Repeating yourself, still wrong. I said it is.

"If this were the case, it would have been addressed with a patch from MS LONG ago." ... You assume way too much.
Such as "LONG ago." Windows 7 is new. Like a couple-years new. And...
"If this were the case, it would have been addressed" ... Um, not until IT'S REPORTED. AND ALSO, THEY DON'T WANT TO PUBLICIZE THIS SORT OF THING A BUNCH, YOU THINK MAYBE? YOU THINK MAYBE IT COULD ALSO BE A *BIG* PROBLEM MAYBE? Please, really, don't answer.

"Don't go all wild on a MS rant" ... YOU'RE THE 'RANTER'. YOU'VE CONTRIBUTED NOTHING BUT EXCUSES, MIS-DIRECTION AND CONFUSION HERE. TOTAL B.S.

"find the real issue." ... YOU FIND IT, IN MY POST PLEASE, IT IS: "I have experienced Windows 7, (I think this is the third time now,) make some of my files just 'disappear'."

"Either you or something you installed (a virus) is deleting or hiding your files. Period."

NO! DOUBLE-PERIOD.

NOW, I'd appreciate any -> HELP <- with this PROBLEM of WINDOWS 7.
But not from MacGyvr. You've given me all the help you can.

I have 30 years of computer experience. I am a master of eight disciplines, including Windows Virus Security. Please don't talk to me like a newb, NEWB.

No Thanks for your help.

P.S. To people that CAN HELP, I also have an SSD, but this last deletion occurred on my new external 2TB WD. (Internal in an enclosure.) (Rolling with MS driver of course.)

Edit: Patch Tuesday, about 12 updates... If it does; I'll re-post, hopefully with useful details, next time it happens.
Also, if I were to guess, I'd say the problem may have been introduced by a security update, and may also disappear with one. Just guessing at this point.

Again, there is no such issue with Windows 7. You can go on this wild goose chase all you like, but you'll be going alone.

 

[Silencer]

"Again, there is no such issue with Windows 7. You can go on this wild goose chase all you like, but you'll be going alone."

I didn't think of that. You're right. Thanks! Bye! :O)

 

[Crazytekkie]

I too have this issue and it IS AN ISSUE

I tend to think MOST... perhaps I should just say many are clued in enough to know to check for virus/malware before bringing this post to a forum...

Silencer I couldnt agree with you more and love hearing someone get the point across.. .its wonderful people try to put their 2 cents in but many should do the rest of the community a favor and stay out of it.. especially those that dont read others posts fully and say some of the stupidest things just to hear them speak.. especially when things have already been done and some dumb sh*&^% posts a reply saying to do those things.. hello... are these threads not big enough sometimes to not have to deal with pages of more BS.

 

[ChefHeph]

My 2c worth on this issue is its a Security/Permissions problem hidden somewhere within windows. Im currently overseeing 4 laptops and 3 workstations as well as the server in our small business, and im constantly getting hounded as well as experiencing the same problems first hand. To take it another notch, we've encountered situations where a user modifies and saves a document, then goes to retireve it later in the same day or the next day and all the changes are gone! Some of the software we're currently using is also setup to run over the network. Not surprised to see it go apes*%t when it cant find the files it needs to run. Upon further investigating, the files are infact there, just some machines cant see them, others can. Once you modifiy the file, it re-appears! I cant do much about the work environment since everyone is comfy with using PCs, but this kind of "quality" ive encountered with microsoft products over the last 15 years, and ESPECIALY with their vista/win7 lineup has me thinking my next personal computer will be a Mac.