Help!!!!

I am running winxp home, completely up to date with all security patches, anti-virus and adware/spyware protection, and I'm behind a firewall via a router.

Files and whole folders full of Documents, pictures, music, etc. have all disappeared from within my My documents folder. I tried to recover them using a recovery program but was only able to get 2 files. I have lost more than 5 years of work. It seems like it is deleteing files/folders in alphabetical order. It doesn't seem to be deleting the folders that come with My Documents, just the files and folders I have created myself.

Any idea what may be causing this?

McAfee and Ad-Aware come up with nothing of note. Just your average everyday ordinary adware nothing else.

Most of the stuff that is gone is no big deal, but I had the last message my brother left on the answering machine before he died in one of the folders that has been deleted from my PC, and now its gone.

If its not a virus, or adware/spyware and its not a rootkit, What is it?

Is it possible someone hacked me and is just F-ing with me Deleting files intermittently?

 

Have you tried doing a system restore? Try that. If that works, make sure you back up your data somewhere safe, whether it be somewhere else on your computer or on a cd! Both would work fine actually.

 

Yeah tried that, files are still gone!

 

OMG! Five years of not backing up your work? Aren't there criminal penalties for that? Seriously though, I'm sure you've learned your lesson like many others have. Recovery software may or may not help you.

 

Does anyone actully read my post. I already tried recovery software. What I'm really looking for is what caused this. And so I am perfectly clear, I am current with mcafee for antivirus, ad-aware for adware/spyware, microsoft secrity updates, and my fire wall is locked down.

So please no more obvious answers about, "you should have backed up" or did you try restoring your PC". I'm just looking for what might have caused this. Not commentary on why you don't like the programs I have chosen to use.

That being said, Does anyone have any idea what CAUSED the problem?

 

Sorry to hear that. The only way someone could delete your files manually from another location is if they accessed your computer using remote desktop, or a program---such as Symantec PcAnywhere. All this is very unlikely unless you've knowingly installed a program that allows other people to do this. If you did not bother to set up your router and its password, they could set up a bypass to access vulnerable ports on your PC as well. The most likely cause however, is that after five years (!!!) your installation of Windows has finally had it and is simply crapping out on you. This is in fact pretty common, which is why backing up and annually reformatting/reinstalling Windows is extremely important. You should immediately salvage what you can, and do as I've advised...I wouldn't trust your installation of Windows to do anything right now.

 

Did you log on as a different user? If you did, then the "my documents" would be different from your real "my documents".

 

Yes, good catch rbdesign. Check your user profiles as well by going into START--->Control Panel--->User Accounts and make sure that you are on the correct profile. If you've never used this before or don't know what it is, then there should only be one and it should have administrator privileges. The other, which should be OFF, is the guest account.

 

My initial thought would be...

Does anyone else have access to your computer? Having been the "kid breaking dad's computer" myself, could it be that someone else is doing this (whether on purpose or by mistake). Alternatively have you checked into the folders fully to make sure that they haven't just been moved (again by mistake) unfortunately windows can be very easy to accidentally move things.

 

Unfortunately, most of the time when you want a simple answer, people question something about your question before answering it and you never get the answer you ultimately want. And it is supremely annoying. However, some questions do help lead to a useful answer.

I think a few good suggestions have been posted, though. Have you checked your disk usage? Does your harddrive look like there's recently been a sudden change in how much space you're using? If anyone has physical or remote access to your computer, I think I'd suspect that first and foremost.

 

Ouch! Sorry.