filenames intact, but file contents gone, vanished

This machine runs Vista Ultimate 64.

Yesterday I was trying to backup my document files to a DVD. I used a Vista utility for this purpose, one that comes up automatically when you load a blank DVD disk.

I couldn't get the utility to work. You specify a format (Free or mastered) and then drag & drop a list of files to be burned onto the DVD.

Following these procedures I made three coasters in a row. In the most successful of these disks, the file names made it over to the DVD, but the files were empty.

I decided to put the problem aside. Then it turned out my hard drive had been affected. Seriously.

First, I noticed the Favorites were not working in my Internet Explorer. The list of bookmarks was displayed ok, but the underlying link files were gone. I then checked my other documents. The file names are intact, and show up in perfect order on Windows Explorer. But the files are all empty.

Not to panic. I have a DVD backup from January, so I have only have potential loss of the files written since the backup. At the time I made the backup, the Vista DVD utility worked without problems.

Anyone ever encountered this? File names intact, but all files empty?

Thank you for your insights, and any ideas on how to proceed.

John

From another thread on this site I learned about a file restoration feature.

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/114389-file-contents-lost.html

The procedure suggested in the thread worked for me on a small selection of Word files I tried. So the data is preserved by Ultimate 64 in a "shadow" file, and so I should be able to follow through and restore the whole loss.

But what happened here? Scan shows no virus.

Is there a backup-to-DVD utility that runs reliably under Ultimate 64? I used to use Nero under XP, but have not tried it under Ultimate 64.

Thank you for your insights, John