Hi. I have a problem, and would greatly appreciate any assistance given.

Recently, I discovered that a number of sub-folders disappeared from my PC. These were folders I created under the My Documents and My Pictures folders. I have checked recycle bin to no avail. I have also run undelete software which found other files and folders that were intentionally deleted, but not the missing folders.
A virus check showed 2 viruses on my system (Exploit-Codebase and Exploit-MhtRedir) but the descriptions of these viruses that I have read don't seem to point the finger conclusively in that direction.
I'm hoping that these folders are somehow recoverable, but its not looking good.
Thanks in advance for any help offered.

reply #1
Hi Lee

There are a couple of quick things to try first:

1. If your folders have somehow been marked as 'hidden' folders, they still exist but will not be visible. Open My Documents and click on Tools then Folder Options. Click on the View tab and under the Advanced Settings list tick 'Show hidden files and folders' and click OK.

2. The folders may have accidentally been moved to somewhere else on your system. Click on the Start menu and Search all files and folders. Type in the name of the missing file or folder and see if Windows can find it.

If none of this works, can you think of any new programs you've recently installed that may have affected your folders?

reply #2
Thanks for your suggestions Paul. Unfortunately the missing folders don't seem to be moved, nor hidden.

The only software that I installed around that time was the latest Nero suite of applications.

Thanks again

reply #3
Hmm it doesn't sound too promising, unfortunately.

What types of files were in the folders? Music, images, documents?

I found a forum where a few people have reported missing files, it might give you some ideas to try:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-26653-Missing-files----HEEELPP.html

On that forum they suggest using System Restore, you could use it to go back to the last time you can remember the files being on your PC (or before you installed Nero):

Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore

They also mention a couple of tools for retrieving missing data:
Directory Snoop from http://www.briggsoft.com and Mediarecover from http://mediarecover.com

reply #4
Thanks for the additional info Paul. Will check these things out. I hadn't thought of system restore, as I thought it only restored system settings. But my knowledge of that feature is zero, so I will give it a go.

The files were mainly photos, JPEGS, TIFFS and the like, but also some folders with all sorts of files- excel, word, access databases, PDFs - a wide range of stuff.

I do agree that it doesn't look good though