Vista - Pictures disappeared from Pictures folder!

Hello!

All the pictures in my Pictures folder have disappeared, leaving behind a bunch of empty folders. I did not delete them, and I have no viruses according to AVG. It appears that this happened to a few others on this forum, but no solutions were presented.

If it helps - I noticed that the Read Only button was checked on the main folder, so I unchecked it, and I watched the status window un-apply "read only" protection from all my actual pictures files, so it seems to me that they're still there but invisible.

I performed a system restore, and Recova is in the process of performing a "Deep Scan" for my pictures (the quicker scan did not find the files). Has anyone solved the problem of the disappearing pictures? Is this a Vista problem, or perhaps a problem with an update? Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!
-thepluck

Read only shouldn't have anything to do with it. Have you checked the Recycle Bin and AVG's quarantine? Is the Hidden attribute cleared? Have you installed any new programs or updates?

Nothing in the Recycle Bin, don't see anything in AVG's quarantine. The Hidden attribute is NOT checked. I did do a series of the latest Vista updates recently, as I have it on automatic update.

The crazy thing is that the properties menu on the main Pictures folder shows that it contains 10GB of pictures, but then when you go inside the folder, it and the subfolders are all empty. Some of the subfolders show up with sizes too. Strange.

Do you have any software that monitors the pictures folders or manages the picture folder?

No, I don't use photo managing software. I do use IRFANVIEW as a viewer, and the program can't find pictures where they were before.

Try this restoration program:

Restoration Freeware download and review - file undelete utility from SnapFiles