Computer Deleted Files By Itself.

[Neocubes]

I turned on my computer this morning to find that my picture and video folders were empty. I checked the recycle bin, tried doing a system restore, tried showing hidden files, nothing worked.

Any ideas on how i would get them back, had some very important files in there.
Thanks in advance.

[RATTER15]

Have you tried restarting computer, it may have just been a glitch or open MS Word (assuming you have some missing word Docs) and go to open recent files and see if they are there and if word can locate them.

or just do a search for one of your missing files to see what comes up.

[chrisgel]

First thing. Don't do any more work on your pc until you have tried to recover the files. If they have been deleted you may overwrite them.

Check this article and let us know how it goes. There are loads of free recovery files available.
http://lifehacker.com/393084/how-to-recover-deleted-files-with-free-software

[The Builder]

Try "Recuva" Neo

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

[Neocubes]

Tried various recovery software, including Recuva, all of which couldn't find the pictures and videos I wanted. Perhaps this is just one of those times where I just have to accept it and move on.

[society]

Did you try searching for the files, perhaps they might show up. You could then see where they are 'hiding'.

[bibblebub]

if you know the names of some of the missing files then you could try a file search engine such as Everything http://www.voidtools.com/ to see if they still exist in an unexpected folder

[Neocubes]

*Sigh*, Nope, looks like they're gone forever. Any ideas what might of caused this?

[jno]

no idea, but can I sugggest you get yourself an external hard drive (or similar storage device) and in future back everything up on to it? Once a week or so if necessary.

I've been there, though not as deeply in it as you are.

[boxtops]

Goodness yes, I agree with jno - we back everything up externally, it justs runs by itself all the time.

[WyeDyed]

It may be worth running Scandisk the see if your hard drive is failing.

[Ellipsis]

Sometimes you can find you've dragged a folder and dropped it somewhere else on your hard drive, by mistake.

Check how much space you've got left on your hard drive. Is there loads of space, as if you have deleted all your picture and video folders?

If you suspect you haven't deleted them, try doing a search for a known file name that has been lost. You may find it somewhere else on the hard drive.

[tamborine]

Download a pic again from your camera or phone to see where they file to and if the pc asks to 'replace' original file. Your files may be in a temp file.

What OS are you on ?

[factor-fiction]

I think Ellipsis's suggestion is worth following up. I have accidentally dragged whole folders into other folders and found them after a short panic

[Neocubes]

If i had dragged the folder into another by accident, surely i'd still be able to find it by searching its name in the start menu? Unfortunately nothing comes up when i type in the file's name.

[Neocubes]

Windows 7 64bit, I only have the C drive.

[Neocubes]

Ill give it a try, thanks.

[Old_Geezer]

R-Studio is good but not cheap. And can look as if you need a course to interpret what it's found, but if you are just looking for particular files, then searching through what it does find, can be successful.