Some, but not all folders on Vista Desktop dissapeared

I have been working on a problem for someone, and it is a bit strange. There are about 4 folders that disappeared from the desktop, and I can't figure out what happened. Of course these are important files for the user, so getting anything back will be great..

Simple stuff:
Virus scans have been clean on this system, its not used for any filesharing or anything like that, AVG on it and its been updated regularly, so not feeling like a virus (system runs fine too, CPU usage and system logs look normal)

The files are not in the trash can,

after a system restore it actually shows the folders for a second, then they populate with thumbnails, then dissapear! (I'm thinking this may have something to do with a cache or something from the desktop.ini or simmilar file being restored though, and not actually the files) wierd thing is, after a system restore 2 of the 6 original missing folders did come back, but missing a few files withing those folders. I have tried too dates, but in case the files are acutally deleted, I dont want to keep making changes to the drive in case I can recover them thru an undelete program

Tried SFC /scannow - it has found a problem that it could not fix, still digging thru the .log (giant!) and looking online for the problems, but haven't found them yet. Once I get details I will post

Currently trying a file restore program to see if there is a shadow image on the drive if the files were somehow deleted (but the trash can on this computer was full of files from months back, so doubt it was an accidental delete) also, this is the basic vista, so some of the slick recovery software in Ultamate and business are not options..

I have found a lot of simillar problems online but no solution, if I didn't see it myself I would have just passed it off as someone just deleted the files or human error, but nothing really changed, there was a java update on the system, and a language program that was un-installed, but even that is back on the system after the restore.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated- Thanks all

 

If it happens to you you should load EASEUS deleted file recovery (witch must be already installed for future same problems) and scan drive. It should help you to restore them. Also check your hard drive for bad sectors or smth. (there are different programs like HD Tune) perhaps your HDD is old or going to dye soon). Keep important data on flash card just in case.

 

Thanks for the Idea, I will definately look into that.. also forgot to mention, i did run the chkdsk, first without auto correct just to see if there are errors, and nothing, went ahead and did a second run with auto correct checked, but still no changes reported. Its still scanning for deleted files, so who knows at this point, but kinna thinking that the NTFS table got jacked up somehow.. do you know if EASEUS will correct those issues as well? ..Client is definately hating life for not backing up all the data, we got some thru emails, but Just one more step in my STRONG belief that nothing should be stored in the desktop, whether is for performance or whatever...of course I stare at my destop covered with all sorts of whatnot.. lol

 

To be honest.... depending on what the issue is, I would have highly recommended NOT writing to the drive.

(Even if the file is there, not writing to the drive is the safer option )

Now, you could have used WinDirStats - that should have been able to tell you what's in the desktop location. (or any other location on the drive)
Another idea would be to use a Linux LiveCD to copy all files to a known "good" location. KNOPPIX - Live Linux Filesystem On CD

Regarding the folders:
What springs to mind... Desktop icons aren't switched off/set to not show? (i.e. you have other icons?)
Folders aren't set to "hidden" by any chance?

 

The Desktop is just a folder like any other - it doesn't matter if you store files there or not.
On slow HDDs you might benefit from stashing files away on another drive/partition - but on a modern one, even that's not needed for most people. And SSD users, well, they don't have to care at all.

 

In agree with writing to the drive, tried as much as I could before I started to make changes, but may have written over something with the restore at this point.. odd thing is the files didn't show up deleted with the program I used (NTFSundelete ISO), I will definitely try looking at the drive with that linux disc link, I have been needing to make one of those anyway -Thanks for that.

I did try all the show hide folders, and cycling the "show desktop icons" button, but no luck with that either.. even tried restarting explorer just to see if it was not loading the profile correctly on boot.. but nothing yet.. I will glance at it with windir stats too (forgot about that program, it is a slick interface!), but I still think that the file table has gotten messed up, I am also thinking a low level search for deleted & Not marked deleted files, maybe they will show up as a non deleted file in linux.. who knows..

Actually yea a SSD probably would have no issues with lots of things on the drive, still might give it a little extra wear and tear (but not enough to add up I'm sure) I cant say there is a good solid reason not to use the desktop for storage, but just always seems to make issues more complicated..

 

I think he meant desktop as a desktop computer, not a desktop as a folder. There are notebooks, desktops etc

 

Are you so sure about that Read again. Besides, I think if he did, then he'd have pointed it out in his reply.

On another note - thinking about a desktop computer would not make contextual sense - why should it be bad to keep files on a desktop computer while a laptop is fine?

 

Because as one IT specialist said: Hard drive is not the right place for keeping important information
But still perhaps I was wrong. I wrote that I thought so but not that it definitely was

 

So where else do you want to keep it?

Paper? -> bad for editing photographs...
Tapes? Expensive, and not ideal for constant use - backup, yes.
SSDs? To expensive for storage.

HDDs are the only mass storage medium we have that isn't for all practical applications "1 way".

 

Ha! no I did mean the desktop as a folder, the problem is on a notebook computer anyway.. If you look there are actually issues related with the desktop folder on occasions, being tied to the profile like my docs and other things, it is handled somewhat differently, more use means more chance for failure if nothing else.. but I'm no MS programmer.. I like knowing what both my left hand and right are doing when I work..

 

OMG! USB flash drives and flach cards for example. Don't tell me that you never heard about such thing. Or it is too convenient or too simple to be good? It IS safe for KEEPING information if you just download and put somewhere in safe place. You can't keep it safely enough in HDD as you always use it in machine and if you put it to external one heads and other can be damaged after simple fall.

Whatever. It is not on-topic talk for this thread.

Besides some items can be not shown on desktop suddenly but you can try to find them in direct directory (C:\Users\ User\Desktop)

 

Well just an update, looked with the linux disc as well that "DetlevCM" posted, and no luck on finding any new files.. it would seem they got sucked into the windows black hole.. Did get a laugh out of the talking OS on the Knopplix disc though ..

 

Did you use Arianne? That's meant for blind people.

-> Well, at least you know it's not a windows issue that the folders aren't seen.
-> Still you mentioned the ntfs table - recovery software under Linux would be good, I just don't know - alternatively, use a second PC and take out the drive...

 

no one suggested yet some tool like recuva? i only skimmed trough but it might be worth a try. found some deleted files for me.

 

SFC will only restore protected files. Not user files. System restore also will not restore lost user data.

Have you tried searching multiple user profiles on the computer for the files? Is it possible that the profile the user currently logged in as could be corrupted and he is getting a default temp profile upon loggin in? It would only show icons in the All Users profile. This happens occasionally and can be fixed in the registry. If this was happening, the users data would be in his original profile still.

Do you know any of the file names? Or types? You could try searching for them manually.

Are you sure they are not shortcuts? Starting with Vista, Windows deletes shortcuts from the desktop that it cannot resolve to correct target addresses. These are often valid shortcuts, but if it finds one invalid, I think it deletes them all.

Just a couple of suggestions. Sorry if they are obvious or have already been tried. If they were valid files that were deleted, I think you would have found remnants of them somewhere. Unless this was a long time ago and they have been overwritten.

 

Sometimes at work we will get customers who come in and their desktop looks like a generic user desktop, and all their files are gone.

Sometimes this is because those files are now stored in a different user profile which you can find in C:\Users (in Vista or 7) or in C:\Documents and Settings (in XP).

This doesn't actually sound like the symptoms you are describing, but it's worth a shot to go and see if there are any other user profiles that has those folders in them.

 

No worries on pointing out anything obvious.. I have done searches for one folder specifically that the client could recal, but no luck.. even showed hidden files and turned off indexing just to make sure that wasn't complicating anything..

Actually I have looked for other profiles, I have dealt with a bug in the past that was causing windows to create new "profilename".001, .002 etc for users each login, which caused users desktops to dissapear, but we found the old profile and clean up the issue. The odd thing is that some of the profile (well desktop) is still there for this user, and nope, the files were not shortcuts, a couple were documents I had scanned for the user as well.

I didn't really expect that the windows system restore would help, but there was a language translation program that was un-installed, so I was thinking that the user had started using some sort of folder it created on the desktop (even if this was the case though, most unistallers will leave any folders/files that are not listed in the uninstall) ...BUT, low and behold, after the first system restore, a couple things did actually show up? however they had nothing to do with this language program.. Who knows..

I will look into "recuva" and give it a shot, but at this point I'm stumped.. this was definately not a normal issue, and an external scan on the system shows no viruses/odd rootkits or anything like that.. Odds are I'm gonna back up the files and reinstall the OS after I'm done trying to solve the problem..