nothing could have gone so wrong.

Furnace1987

Furnace1987

Furnace1987

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Joined
11 Apr 2004
Posts
116
Location
Isle of Man
So, i was using my computer fine all day, i leave unattended for like 3 hours, i come back to it and my desktop image has changed, on further looking all the files on the desktop have gone. More looking finds something or somehow massive amounts of programs and files have been deleted and i have no idea how!!!!!!

seriously pheeved!!!!!! has anyone EVER come across this?

O and the cherry on top, i can't seem to use system restore as they have gone too.

i'm using xp sp3 on alienware laptop.

Any ideas on how this happened and how to fix would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!!

Furnace:mad::eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
Whilst you were away, would it have been possible for somebody else to physically gain access ot the system or not?
 
it is networked, but only read access, and only local access. plus i doubt my housemates would have known what to do.

any ideas to how to salavage outlook? or desktop files?
 
sounds like something or someone's used the built-in recovery partition and reset everything to factory defaults. sucks to be you eh? :(

rule number 1 of leaving an important system unattended: Press "Win" + L.
 
sometimes windows seems to corrupt profiles

seen this happen a handful of times in the past

check..

c:\documents and settings\

see if your files are in any folders in there
 
Same thing happened to me a while back, what I lost were about a dozen full apps. They had completely gone as if properly uninstalled. I ran virus checkers which found nothing. Since then the PC has been fine, none of the lost programs were important so it was no big deal just very strange. Oh and they were all on the same drive and partition.
 
bledd. said:
sometimes windows seems to corrupt profiles

seen this happen a handful of times in the past

check..

c:\documents and settings\

see if your files are in any folders in there
Click to expand...

We had this happen at work once or twice.

In docs and settings there will be folders called

<user name>
and
<username>.<computer name>

If the profile corrupted the second one will be your current one and the first one the orginal profile.
 
okay, so i managed to recover the folder i was looking for. decided that enough was enough with the system as it was, and went to reinstall and format.

I have my files backed up. put in the xp disc and started the format. it begins then turns straight off. now it only really stays 'on' for about 5 minutes. i cant seem to get past this.

any ideas?! :)
 
re-sat the memory, hard drive checked the xp disc and drive. all working fine.

memory i cant do a memtest on because none of the other systems use ddr.

as far as i am aware its not overheating. turned it off for a few hours. took the bottom off, checked the fans and heatsinks/pipes all seem fine.

it got to installing this time then shut off. so although ive got a bit further with installing xp, i'm still in the same situation!

any more ideas? thanks for the ones above! keep them coming!
 
I would say overheating. Next time it cuts out turn it back on and go to the BIOS and see what your temps are.
 
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