Lost files after defragmentation

drunkenmunky

drunkenmunky

drunkenmunky

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I've just defragmented my hard drive using Diskeeper 10 then rebooted my computer to find all the files in My Documents folder have disappeared (about 25Gb's worth of music, photos and downloads). All the subfolders are still there but everything inside has gone, they are just empty folders.

I've always used Diskeeper but never had this happen to me before. Have my files really gone?
 
Did you receive any errors during the defrag process? I find it really hard to believe Diskeeper would lose 25GB of data lol.

The files havent been hidden or anything daft like that?

SiriusB
 
Nope, I've tried searching for the files they have gone. Before I ran Diskeeper I did find some spyware that Bit Defender blocked. It appeared in my start up folder after downloading and running Process Explorer. The spyware was called Reg Scheduler.exe (or something like that). Not sure if that has anything to do with my files being lost. But I removed it before running Diskeeper and had no errors.
System Restore didn't recover my files so I'm trying File Scavenger now.
 
It's pretty impossible for your files to be "lost" due to defragmenting. On NTFS that is. Anything can happen on FAT32...

I'd lay the blame at the malware. Some malware can get pretty nasty as soon as they realise you've detected them. Deletion of your My Documents folder is certainly an easy thing to do.
 
I would say it's not impossible to loose files when degfragging!

I have a 160GB disc NTFS formatted and after defragging it appeared as a 127GB disc - loosing lots of files!!!!

127GB is the original size limit for windoze 2k and XP pre XP SP2 unless you ran the "large disc" registry fix.

Apparently you have to run this BEFORE the initial format or Windoze can get confused and revert to the 127GB limit - the rest is still there but widows doesn't recognise it.

Could this be your problem??

Mel P
 
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Cant see that being it. All the sub-folders are still there. If you lose a chunk of your HDD youd lose all the folders as well, not just specific files.

Also, your data isnt necessarily lost. If you remind Windows its a bigger drive than it is detecting I think your data will be restored - but I am not entirely sure on that.

SiriusB
 
I had same problem - most folders there - some or all of content missing. (Mine was a separate "data" drive.) Files weren't just choppped in half! There were empty folders. Sounds a similar event to me.

I couldn't persuade windoze to remember it was a bigger drive - had to back up and reformat.

Mel P
 
sounds like your hard drive MAY be on its way out..

personally i've never used diskkeeper, but i'm 99% sure the writers didn't put a "del *.mp3" filter into it!

file scavenger 3.0 -try using that, its very good at recovering things, even from broken raid arrays etc

also, make a backup next time!, they're priceless!
 
drunkenmunky said:
I've just defragmented my hard drive using Diskeeper 10 then rebooted my computer to find all the files in My Documents folder have disappeared
Click to expand...

Questions

- what is size of disc
- what is OS
- did you run the "big disc" regsitry fix?

Mel P
 
bledd. said:
sounds like your hard drive MAY be on its way out..

personally i've never used diskkeeper, but i'm 99% sure the writers didn't put a "del *.mp3" filter into it!

file scavenger 3.0 -try using that, its very good at recovering things, even from broken raid arrays etc

also, make a backup next time!, they're priceless!
Click to expand...


My hard drive is less than a year old. It's a Seagate 200Gb.
I used File Scavenger, it managed to find my missing photos but none of my mp3s.
I never back up my system but now I think I will. Thanks.
 
Mel_P said:
Questions

- what is size of disc
- what is OS
- did you run the "big disc" regsitry fix?

Mel P
Click to expand...


Seagate 200Gb
Windows XP Pro SP2

What's the "big disc" registry fix? Windows XP alreadys detects bigger hard drives than 127Gb, at least mine does.
 
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