Vista - items in folder just dissapeared... need help

So I'm on Vista and I have no idea what happened to items I had in a folder
on my D drive. I was surfing the web and I believe some update was in
progress and all of a sudden the computer restarted... once computer restarts
I go and check folder on the D drive and realize all the contents are
completely gone. No trace in Recycle Bin. Tried searching the whole computer.
Looked in quarantine files in Windows Defender. I found absolutely nothing. I
have no idea where the files went and how they dissapeared. I believe the
first sign of it missing was once the computer automatically restarted itself
after the updates. I dont believe there was any virus or spyware in there but
it could be possible, but the folder was about 10 gigs of material. I dont
understand how the whole thing got emptied. I dont think anything is wrong
with the hardrive because other folders on that same drive are also still
there with items inside. Anyone know what happened? Any way to get it back?

After restart did you log back in to the same account?

"Anonymously Confused" <Anonymously Confused@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote in message news:BBE539F4-DEB2-467B-AE3E-E46D785AF3AA@microsoft.com...
> So I'm on Vista and I have no idea what happened to items I had in a
> folder
> on my D drive. I was surfing the web and I believe some update was in
> progress and all of a sudden the computer restarted... once computer
> restarts
> I go and check folder on the D drive and realize all the contents are
> completely gone. No trace in Recycle Bin. Tried searching the whole
> computer.
> Looked in quarantine files in Windows Defender. I found absolutely
> nothing. I
> have no idea where the files went and how they dissapeared. I believe the
> first sign of it missing was once the computer automatically restarted
> itself
> after the updates. I dont believe there was any virus or spyware in there
> but
> it could be possible, but the folder was about 10 gigs of material. I dont
> understand how the whole thing got emptied. I dont think anything is wrong
> with the hardrive because other folders on that same drive are also still
> there with items inside. Anyone know what happened? Any way to get it
> back?

"Anonymously Confused" <Anonymously Confused@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote in message news:BBE539F4-DEB2-467B-AE3E-E46D785AF3AA@microsoft.com...

> So I'm on Vista and I have no idea what happened to items I had in a
> folder
> on my D drive. I was surfing the web and I believe some update was in
> progress and all of a sudden the computer restarted... once computer
> restarts
> I go and check folder on the D drive and realize all the contents are
> completely gone. No trace in Recycle Bin. Tried searching the whole
> computer.
> Looked in quarantine files in Windows Defender. I found absolutely
> nothing. I
> have no idea where the files went and how they dissapeared. I believe the
> first sign of it missing was once the computer automatically restarted
> itself
> after the updates. I dont believe there was any virus or spyware in there
> but
> it could be possible, but the folder was about 10 gigs of material. I dont
> understand how the whole thing got emptied. I dont think anything is wrong
> with the hardrive because other folders on that same drive are also still
> there with items inside. Anyone know what happened? Any way to get it
> back?

Have you checked to see whether the total amount of space used on the disk
has reduced by about 10GB?

Did you have the files backed-up?

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

Maybe check 'Control Panel/Uninstall a Program/View installed updates. See
what was installed on the date the problem happened.
A System Restore Point might help??

Paul

"Mac" <mac@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:90F5E805-F6F6-4EDE-AA47-967427F260A2@microsoft.com...
> After restart did you log back in to the same account?
>
> "Anonymously Confused" <Anonymously Confused@discussions.microsoft.com>
> wrote in message
> news:BBE539F4-DEB2-467B-AE3E-E46D785AF3AA@microsoft.com...
>> So I'm on Vista and I have no idea what happened to items I had in a
>> folder
>> on my D drive. I was surfing the web and I believe some update was in
>> progress and all of a sudden the computer restarted... once computer
>> restarts
>> I go and check folder on the D drive and realize all the contents are
>> completely gone. No trace in Recycle Bin. Tried searching the whole
>> computer.
>> Looked in quarantine files in Windows Defender. I found absolutely
>> nothing. I
>> have no idea where the files went and how they dissapeared. I believe the
>> first sign of it missing was once the computer automatically restarted
>> itself
>> after the updates. I dont believe there was any virus or spyware in there
>> but
>> it could be possible, but the folder was about 10 gigs of material. I
>> dont
>> understand how the whole thing got emptied. I dont think anything is
>> wrong
>> with the hardrive because other folders on that same drive are also still
>> there with items inside. Anyone know what happened? Any way to get it
>> back?
>

Unfortunately system restore was not on. Also I checked to make sure how much
space was gone and was approximately 10 gigs gone as well. I dont know what
happened. Still pretty baffled. Does Windows automatically delete filed for
some reason? Also there is only one account on the computer, and it is mine.

"Qu0ll" wrote:

> "Anonymously Confused" <Anonymously Confused@discussions.microsoft.com>
> wrote in message news:BBE539F4-DEB2-467B-AE3E-E46D785AF3AA@microsoft.com...
>
> > So I'm on Vista and I have no idea what happened to items I had in a
> > folder
> > on my D drive. I was surfing the web and I believe some update was in
> > progress and all of a sudden the computer restarted... once computer
> > restarts
> > I go and check folder on the D drive and realize all the contents are
> > completely gone. No trace in Recycle Bin. Tried searching the whole
> > computer.
> > Looked in quarantine files in Windows Defender. I found absolutely
> > nothing. I
> > have no idea where the files went and how they dissapeared. I believe the
> > first sign of it missing was once the computer automatically restarted
> > itself
> > after the updates. I dont believe there was any virus or spyware in there
> > but
> > it could be possible, but the folder was about 10 gigs of material. I dont
> > understand how the whole thing got emptied. I dont think anything is wrong
> > with the hardrive because other folders on that same drive are also still
> > there with items inside. Anyone know what happened? Any way to get it
> > back?
>
> Have you checked to see whether the total amount of space used on the disk
> has reduced by about 10GB?
>
> Did you have the files backed-up?
>
> --
> And loving it,
>
> -Q
> _________________________________________________
> Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
> (Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)
>
>

"Anonymously Confused" <AnonymouslyConfused@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
in message news:E4BE6AB0-FE7E-44EB-9BDF-B87082AFADBC@microsoft.com...

> Unfortunately system restore was not on. Also I checked to make sure how
> much
> space was gone and was approximately 10 gigs gone as well. I dont know
> what
> happened. Still pretty baffled. Does Windows automatically delete filed
> for
> some reason? Also there is only one account on the computer, and it is
> mine.

Well no, as crappy as Vista may be, I don't think it has a feature that
deletes 10GB of user files just for the heck of it. I cannot explain what
has happened in your case other than to suggest that you may have
accidentally highlighted the folder(s) and pressed Del or Cut and not
realised it. Unfortunately without System Restore or a backup I'd say those
files are gone forever. Unless you want to try a recovery program that
scans a hard disk looking for deleted but not overwritten blocks. You will
probably have to pay for it though.

It's up to you: how important were those files?

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)