Disaster Barely Avoided, Spontaneous File Loss

Edymnion

New Member
Hi, my name's Chris, and I was *THIS* close to finding the nearest Microsoft representative in my area and crushing the life out of him with my bare hands.

I do 3D modelling on the side, and sell the models I make. I have a model I've spent, oh, about the last 3 months working on that Vista seems to have suddenly forgotten that it ever existed.

My save file vanished. The sub folder with the texture files I had made vanished. All gone. The main file and the textures were in different folders, and it wiped the files out of my backup directory even. They weren't deleted, there was nothing even there that Windows would let my file recovery software see, they just weren't there. I just finished a full system restore to a checkpoint from a few hours ago. The folders and files still aren't there when I browse through the folder structure, yet somehow, magically, my 3D modelling software and my image editing software can see the files and folders just fine.

I've checked, the folders are set to show hidden files (in case they suddenly went Hidden for some reason), I've disabled UAC in case it was some setting there that decided I wasn't allowed to see my own damned files, no good.

Honestly, the fact that I was able to get system restore to let my editing software see the files long enough to save copies of them is the only reason I'm not looking up legal precedences right now.

Needless to say, I am *VERY* interested in finding out exactly why this happened, how to access my "invisible" files, and how to prevent it from ever happening again.
 

My Computer

Welcome
In the future
Shadow explorer will do the trick
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...hadow-copies-on-any-version-of-windows-vista/
If that does not work
Recuva should be just the software that you need
Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

This may have happened due to a bad shutdown.
Conflict with other software, most likely the antivirus
A little know fact about comptuers if you lose power while saving, all will be lost and not just what you wanted to save.

Go to search type event viewer. Look for errors at the time of the problem

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/86163-hidden-files-folders.html
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
Nope, I had just finished using the software, had closed it to go look something up, reloaded it and the files were gone. No power outage, no improper computer shutdown.

And I've already tried running file recovery software, it won't work. I just tried both of the ones you linked, they do not see the files as being recoverable because they have not been marked as deleted by the system. After the system restore I can still access them via programs, I just can't see them in Explorer. Even ShadowExplorer doesn't show the files/folders as being there.

Also already checked my event logs, windows did not register any errors during that time period.
 

My Computer

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