Vista - Files found using search but Missing from C:

Had some issues with my login profile, basically when I selected my account and entered my password and I was given some message about being unable to load my profile. Luckily I had two administrator logins. Initially I tried just changing the password to my account to see if any changes to the account may solve the corruption. In the end I just removed the account and created a new one. I selected keep files when prompted.

Since then, I have lost some wmf files which took my several hours to download from a Camcorder. These were stored in the Users\Public\Videos directory. The files show up when I search for them but when selecting one of the missing files I get the following message :

<filename> refers to a location that is unavailable etc.....

The hard disk usage shows that these files must still be taking up space even though they are missing from the directory.

Is there any way of retrieving these files?

When you selecting one of the missing files, I assume you are clicking on a shortcut? In that case , it could be the details changed since you deleted the user account.
Try looking under the proerties tab of the shortcut and see what it says under the General tab for Location, and under the shortcut tab for Target.

You may find it works again if you precisely recreate the user profile you deleted.

Alternatively, you may need to recover them from the hdd - using the free

CONVAR & PCinspector Data Recovery Datenrettung recupero dati datarecovery récupération données

or the free

Glary Utilities

Be aware that if those files have been deleted, any writing to your hdd may overwrite them - keep your pc activity to a minimum until you have recovered your files - and download the recovery program and recover the files onto a separate drive or partition, if you have one.

If you only have one partition you may be able to create another smallish partition without damaging the files - depends how big your hdd is, and how full it was. Recovery onto a separate partition is likely to be more successful

Disk Management - Shrink Partition

Hope this helps

SIW2

The "Shadow Copy" feature in Windows Vista can be used to recover a lost
file. See:

Recover deleted files using Previous versions (Shadow Copy) in Windows
Vista:
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/re...windows-vista/

See also:

Deleted files are shown when performing a search in Windows Vista:
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/de...-search-vista/

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
The Winhelponline Blog http://www.winhelponline.com/blog


"The Tanster" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:bd39576a49f6ab3b330bd9d6e7717001@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Thanks for the responses guys. Here's some feedback for anybody else with the same problem.

Ramesh
I only have Vista Home Premium so the shadow copy facility is unavailable.

SIW2
The files I was trying to access wasn't a short cut it was the actual file name and the location it should have been present in. Anyway I downloaded both the suggested utilities. The first one didn't work at all. The second one (Glary Utilities) was a real Gem. It found several registry errors and when I looked at the disk analyser I found the files in C:\$Recycle.bin\<big number>\<original directory name>

You have my permission to be smug and walk about in a smooth manner.

Once again many thanks to both of you for your suggestions

Hi Tanster

Glad it worked out for you and that at least one of the apps. I suggested did the trick!

SIW2