Destroyed files/SP2?/what happened?

[Sondra]

After a couple of crashed drives, I got a new motherboard. When I got a virus, a shop removed the virus and I stayed off the Internet. After a while I got a new C drive but kept the old one as one of the 3 other drives (plus a removable one). I knew I should get more drives and make backups, but I put it off--even after one of my old drives crashed on the new motherboard.

I installed SP2 over XP Professional on the new C drive. No anti-virus, no Internet, just Adobe Premiere 6, Quicktime and a couple of other programs. Premiere had always crashed all the time, and I hoped the new motherboard would solve that, but it didn't. I removed all unnecessary programs and kept trying to work in Premiere. I was going to reformat the C drive to try another fresh install of Premiere, but, as one last effort before I did that, I uninstalled SP2.

It said it needed to restart. I wasn't paying that much attention when Chkdsk started. It went through a huge number of orphaned files (and maybe non-orphaned ones) on the former C drive. I tried to stop it. I was afraid to just shut off the computer. When it finished, the results said something about zero bad sectors. Looking in My Computer, the 5 installed drives said they were about as full before, but most of my files had disappeared, mainly from the drive Chkdsk had gone through and one other. The affected drives, ranging from 160-250GB, look almost empty.

I can't really see paying to have them restored, but is it likely there's readable information there?

Could removing SP2 be the sole cause of this? I pull out the power cables from my other drives when I format a system drive, but it never occurred to me to do that while uninstalling the service pack. Could the cause be weaknesses in the drives caused by problems from the old motherboard? Before this, one of my old backup drives also lost files, I think while it wasn't installed. How can I find out why this is happening?

I'm writing this on the 1999 Free PC Windows 98 Compaq I've been using for the Internet, and this computer doesn't have anything approaching these problems.

 

[Balt]

I'm not quite sure exactly what caused the problem you're having, but you asked if the files were probably still there.

I imagine that they are. You also said that the drives appear to be as full as they were before? So Windows is recognizing that you have data on the hard drive, but not showing you the files? If you were prepared to format the C: drive anyway, I'd go ahead and do that. Immediately afterwards (esp before you reconnect the computer to the internet, if you were going to) I'd install SP2 again. You can either slipstream it on a CD or just install it immediately after re-installing XP. Far fewer problems this way than installing on an older copy of XP.

After installing all of the necessary security updates, you may want to use a free online virus scan service if you don't have a program. It's possible that the shop that cleaned your system missed something. If you still can't see all of your files perhaps you might try purchasing a file recovery program.

Perhaps this is some well-known XP problem, so I'd check back here frequently to see if someone has better advice. I'm still kind of new to XP myself, since I was using 98 almost exclusively until a couple of months ago.

As for the hard drive failure problems... you seem to have a lot of them. Are you running on a clean power source? A UPS might do you a world of good in the future.

 

[Sondra]

Balt, thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm really upset with myself for not doing things I know I should have, and it's very calming, for tonight at least, when you say that if the drives say they have more on them than I can see, the files might still be there.

I do wonder what happens to files that Chkdsk shreds, or whatever it does to them.

I have SP2 on a CD from Microsoft. It was behaving fine, as I'd expected on a clean install, and I only removed it to do an experiment with Premiere. I'll put the service pack back before I go online and probably after another reformat.

I'm pretty sure I ran Norton right after I got the infected drive back. The computer guy said the virus wouldn't have any power on a non-system drive. I don't like Norton's invasiveness. I'm thinking of trying AVG.

Yes, a UPS sounds like a necessity. Do you have any suggestions for a good reasonably priced one? When I take out the removable drives, they're pretty hot to touch if they've been in a while. Is that unusual?

Companies that recover files say you can do a lot of damage with recovery software. I know it's in their own interest to say that, but it sounds plausible.

 

[Balt]

Originally posted by: Sondra
Balt, thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm really upset with myself for not doing things I know I should have, and it's very calming, for tonight at least, when you say that if the drives say they have more on them than I can see, the files might still be there.

I do wonder what happens to files that Chkdsk shreds, or whatever it does to them.

I have SP2 on a CD from Microsoft. It was behaving fine, as I'd expected on a clean install, and I only removed it to do an experiment with Premiere. I'll put the service pack back before I go online and probably after another reformat.

I'm pretty sure I ran Norton right after I got the infected drive back. The computer guy said the virus wouldn't have any power on a non-system drive. I don't like Norton's invasiveness. I'm thinking of trying AVG.

Yes, a UPS sounds like a necessity. Do you have any suggestions for a good reasonably priced one? When I take out the removable drives, they're pretty hot to touch if they've been in a while. Is that unusual?

Companies that recover files say you can do a lot of damage with recovery software. I know it's in their own interest to say that, but it sounds plausible.

I would keep an eye open for flyers from Office Depot, Staples, CompUSA, etc. Usually one of them will have a deal going on some type of UPS. APC is the brand that I've used and I haven't had any problems. Just make sure it will supply enough power to keep your system going for a couple of minutes so you can shut down.

As for the files, I've never heard of file recovery software leading to hard drive failure, but to be honest I've never used it. On the other hand, using a file recovery service will probably be very costly. You're going to have to weigh risks vs. rewards vs. cost I guess.

I would first download something for free just to ensure that the files are recoverable before you might decide to drop money on a professional software solution.

You might try this. I can't personally recommend restoring files with that program, but at least it might give you an idea of what can be recovered.