HELP! Windows XP Deleted an Important Folder!

[NivekC4]

Here's the story...

I have a folder on my computer in my "My Documents" folder called "school". I was trying to access a file in this folder and it said that the location did not exist or was corrupted. I just worked and saved some documents in this folder last night, and I've been storing all of my stuff from school in this one folder. I thought maybe it was a freak error, and restarted my computer. Upon restarting, Windows XP said it wanted to check my two harddrives for consistency (says this sometimes) so i say ok.

After about 3 minutes, it says everything is fine and it will restart...so I'm back in Windows XP and i'm now going directly to this folder's location to make sure everything is ok, and now it is GONE. So my question is...does anyone know how to recover files that are now gone? I don't even know where to start!

Please help me if you know how to fix this, or even point me in the right direction. Thanks!

-Kevin

 

[fluxquantum]

windows xp has an option called system restore. you can always try that. System Restore

 

[NivekC4]

Ok, this is weird...i just went through c:\documents and settings\... and found "My Recent Files". I found a couple of documents that I've been working on, and when I double click them...they still open!

So i'm pretty sure my files are still there, it's just...how do I recover that folder?

I'm trying system restore as we speak...but it says I need 200mb on my c:\ harddrive...which I have! I have like 3 gigs open to be exact, and it's being weird.

Thanks for the advice fluxquantum.

-Kevin

 

[NivekC4]

Sorry to say, but i can't get system restore to work. I don't think I had it on previously on my computer so therefore it probably can't restore anything.

Any other suggestions?

 

[DaveSimmons]

must...not...give...the...smartass..."make backups"...speech!

Sorry nothing helpful except that you might want to install antivirus software if folders are deleting themselves. If you already had a "file undelete" program installed it might find your files, but installing one now could write over the files you're trying to find.

 

[Yomicron]

Originally posted by: NivekC4
Ok, this is weird...i just went through c:\documents and settings\... and found "My Recent Files". I found a couple of documents that I've been working on, and when I double click them...they still open!

So i'm pretty sure my files are still there, it's just...how do I recover that folder?

where do the shortcuts in "My Recent Documents" point to? (right click -> properties -> target)

 

[dethman]

i don't believe system restore does anything to your directory or file structure, only your registry.


yes the best idea is to try to find out where those shortcuts point to, and make your own shortcuts to the files you needed...

 

[WinkOsmosis]

WHY did you put stuff in My Documents? I stopped using that folder the first time I reinstalled Windows and my files were gone.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: NivekC4
Here's the story...

I have a folder on my computer in my "My Documents" folder called "school". I was trying to access a file in this folder and it said that the location did not exist or was corrupted. I just worked and saved some documents in this folder last night, and I've been storing all of my stuff from school in this one folder. I thought maybe it was a freak error, and restarted my computer. Upon restarting, Windows XP said it wanted to check my two harddrives for consistency (says this sometimes) so i say ok.

After about 3 minutes, it says everything is fine and it will restart...so I'm back in Windows XP and i'm now going directly to this folder's location to make sure everything is ok, and now it is GONE. So my question is...does anyone know how to recover files that are now gone? I don't even know where to start!

Please help me if you know how to fix this, or even point me in the right direction. Thanks!

-Kevin

It seems the W2K/XP, when fixing file/folder corruption, simply end up deleting the "corrupted" file. Really annoying when you need the contents of the file, but perhaps slightly less annoying to the general user than the FILE0001.CHK files showing up in the root directory. I just wish that it would leave a "chkdsk.log" file somewhere, describing the files/folders that it removed, so that the user can restore/re-install them. (Especially in the case of corrupted system files that manage to get deleted, what a hassle.)