Downloads have disappeared- folders only showing in "recent"

[sportsmomma]

Help! I am trying to open files that I have previously saved into "downloads" and they have all disappeared. I can find the folders where they were saved in "recent" as a shortcut but when I try to open the folder I get the following error - "The item 'name of file' that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly". I have tried searching for the files and have had no luck.

 

[Brink]

Hello Sportsmomma,

That error just means that the shortcut listed in "Recent" is no longer available at it's original location you saved it to.

Did you delete them by mistake, or move the Downloads folder?

 

[sportsmomma]

I don't think I've moved or deleted anything. It seems that there are many files that I can't find- all that were placed in a folder. Again, the folder is in "recent" but I can't find the files anywhere. The missing files are Word files and mp3 files. IT's very strange.

 

[Brink]

The "Recent" folder is just a list of shortcuts to what you have opened recently, and are not the actual files.

If you are using Internet Explorer, double check using the tutorial below to see what you default download location is set as.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/112232-internet-explorer-change-default-download-location.html
​

Next, double check using step 2 in OPTION ONE of the tutorial below to see if the download location folder or the files in it may be hidden.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/394-hidden-files-folders-show-hide.html
​

 

[sportsmomma]

I'm using Chrome- do you have any tutorial for that? thanks for your help. I'm just totally confused as to why all of my folders are gone.

 

[Brink]

Sure thing. Here's the one for Chrome below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/265614-chrome-browser-change-default-download-location.html
​

Double check the second part of what I posted above to see if the folder may just be hidden by mistake.

 

[sportsmomma]

Brink- I've tried all of this and still can't find any of the files. I'm so frustrated. I've searched for the folders and files and can't find anything!

 

[Sir George]

Brink- I've tried all of this and still can't find any of the files. I'm so frustrated. I've searched for the folders and files and can't find anything!

You could try using a search utility to attempt locating the files. I find Agent Ransack a good choice and have used it for years. It is free and can be downloaded from the following site;

Agent Ransack - Free File Searching Utility

HTH

 

[sportsmomma]

Brink- I've tried all of this and still can't find any of the files. I'm so frustrated. I've searched for the folders and files and can't find anything!

You could try using a search utility to attempt locating the files. I find Agent Ransack a good choice and have used it for years. It is free and can be downloaded from the following site;

Agent Ransack - Free File Searching Utility

HTH

Thanks Sir George. I tried this but can still only find the shortcuts and files with extension .lnk.

I'm pretty sure all of the files that are gone were Word files. I'm just so frustrated! I'm starting to think that they are gone forever!

 

[Brink]

In that case sportsmomma, you might see if you may be able to use the free program Recuva to recover the files.

Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

 

[sportsmomma]

I'll give that a try Blink. It is also mp3 files, and pictures that I've saved- into a specific folder.

 

[nilank]

OK sportsmomma, one last try.

Click Start rb: > Type 'folder options' and hit Enter.
Go to 'View' tab and check the radio button against 'Show hidden files and folders' and also uncheck 'Hide protected system files' to make sure everything can be searched.

Now open Computer and type the following one by one in the search box on the top right corner.

*.doc
*.docx
*.mp3

This will search all hidden files, system hidden files and non hidden files on all drives for all DOC, DOCX and MP3 files

If you still can't find, they are gone for good. Though you may try recovering them as Brink said.

 

[sportsmomma]

Brink- will the free version of this work or do I need to purchase the software?

 

[Brink]

Yes, the free version of Recuva is fine. No need to purchase the other version.

 

[sportsmomma]

Brink- Using Recuva I was able to find many of the files but unfortunately most of them showed "unrecoverable". What was strange is what it showed they were overwritten by- one was overwritten by a picture from my ipad. Very strange.

 

[Brink]

I'm sorry to hear that you weren't able to recover all of them.

It sounds like they may have deleted by mistake. When deleted, they are just marked deleted and not actually wiped out until something else (ex: from iPad) is saved to the same sector location on the hard drive that makes the deleted files overwritten.