Case of disappearing desktop files

bioeng

New Member
Hi, everyone. I'm hoping someone reading this can solve the problem that I haven't been able to.
So, here is the story:
My wife bought a new Dell last month. It had Vista Home Premium installed on it. She has been using the computer to store school-related documents; class notes, chapter reviews, etc. She turned the computer on this morning, and all of her desktop folders with the school-related documents were gone. I searched for the files and found them in her C drive, under her username and AppData. No matter what I do, I can't seem to pull those files out or view them. I tried ShadowExplorer and that did not help.

What I think happened is that in switching between two networks (one at home and one at school) her desktop files were relocated from her C drive to the school network. I don't know how that happened or if that is even possible. She often does not shutdown her computer when she leaves school. So, as I have seen in the past, her Dell cannot connect to the school network, but no errors come up as she edits documents and saves those changes.

Is there anything I'm missing here? Could there be a simpler solution? Could some files have been corrupted and are those files lost for good?

Any help you might be able to offer would be appreciated. Thank you.
 

My Computer

Just one thing comes to mind. If the the school network is domain controled it could be that your wife would have two accounts one local and one controlled by the domain at school. are the documents normally created at school while on that network?.
if this is the case then it could be that these files are set to "Make available offline " and would therefore normally be available to use when at home. What may have happened is some glitch when logging off from the school network has left some Phantom files on your local harddisk.

you did not indicate in your post if you had re-connected to the school network since the problem occured. Hopefully re-connecting to the network will re-connect the files also

You could have a look at the files you can see and right click one of the files and select properties then Security and in the dialog that appears check what rights you have to the file. If you see your account it should have ticks against all items. If you see an id starting with S- and a lot of numbers then that would be a user not known to your system and would point to the scool network identity.

as a local administrator you should be able to alter the rights to give yoursefe full rights which would then allow you to edit the files.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro x64 Latest Release Preview
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer G276HL 27", (DVi) + Samsung 39" HDTV (HDMI)
    Screen Resolution
    2 x 1920x1080 @50Hz
  • Manufacturer/Model
    Real World Computers (Custom by Me)
    CPU
    AMD FX8350 Vishera 8 Core @4GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus M5A78L-M USB3
    Memory
    32GB [4x8GB] DDR3 1600 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Asus nVidia GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 (2GB DDR5)
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xoner DG + SPDIF to 5.1 System + HDMI
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 32" TV
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Internal
    Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SSD,
    Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH1 2TB,

    External (USB3)
    Seagate Backup+ Hub BK SCSI Disk 8TB
    2.5/3.5 Hot Swap Cradle, USB3 + eSata (client HDDs)
    NAS 4TB
    PSU
    Aerocool Templarius Imperator 750W 80+ Silver
    Case
    AeroCool X-Warrior Red Devil Tower
    Cooling
    Hyper103 CPU, Rear 120mm, Front 2x120mm, Side 2x120mm
    Internet Speed
    68 MB Down 18.5 MB Up
    Other Info
    Six Sensor Auto / Manual Digital cooling (Fan) control with Touch control Panel
Thank you, Barman58 (cool name). I should have clarified in my original posts; I do not see the actual files, I see shortcuts for which I cannot view Security under Properties. The desktop folders contained the actual documents, but those are no longer visible. When I search for the files, the only reference that comes up have been converted into shortcuts.

I have not tried to re-connect to the school network as I am awaiting VPN software to do so. My hope is that the school network account was backed up so the files should be there once the Dell is re-connected to the school network.

Thanks again.
 

My Computer

yes hopefully when you re-connect to the school server the files should re-appear or as you say they will have been backed up on the network.

It may be worth while talking to the school network admin to explain their rules for logging on/off the network to ensure that this does not occur again.

you may also want to consider making personal backups of these files to CD/DVD/PenDrive the next time you have the files at home to be totally safe in future.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro x64 Latest Release Preview
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer G276HL 27", (DVi) + Samsung 39" HDTV (HDMI)
    Screen Resolution
    2 x 1920x1080 @50Hz
  • Manufacturer/Model
    Real World Computers (Custom by Me)
    CPU
    AMD FX8350 Vishera 8 Core @4GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus M5A78L-M USB3
    Memory
    32GB [4x8GB] DDR3 1600 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Asus nVidia GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 (2GB DDR5)
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xoner DG + SPDIF to 5.1 System + HDMI
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 32" TV
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Internal
    Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SSD,
    Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH1 2TB,

    External (USB3)
    Seagate Backup+ Hub BK SCSI Disk 8TB
    2.5/3.5 Hot Swap Cradle, USB3 + eSata (client HDDs)
    NAS 4TB
    PSU
    Aerocool Templarius Imperator 750W 80+ Silver
    Case
    AeroCool X-Warrior Red Devil Tower
    Cooling
    Hyper103 CPU, Rear 120mm, Front 2x120mm, Side 2x120mm
    Internet Speed
    68 MB Down 18.5 MB Up
    Other Info
    Six Sensor Auto / Manual Digital cooling (Fan) control with Touch control Panel
Update:
An hour spent talking with Dell Support revealed some Vista diagnostic files were corrupted. Pressed F8 repeatedly during start-up and it allowed the software to circumvent the corruption. Normal re-start produced all of my wife's files right there on the desktop. Thanks for your help, Nigel.
PJ
 

My Computer

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