Harddrive gone?

[gforever]

Hello, I left my computer on all night. But I came back from work and my sister had turned off my computer while I was away. I turned it back on and one of my harddrives seemed to have been completely wiped out..... I've never had so many harddrive problems before. Is there a virus out there that deletes all files on a harddrive? Or is this a hardware issue??? I ran a quick format and it seems some files are still there but I will need to buy a need harddrive before I can recover anything.

My sister told me she properly shutdown the computer but even if it was powered off improperly, the harddrive shouldn't be wiped out and only the opened files might be corrupted correct? This is really strange so I am hoping someone has some knowledge of this happening before. Thanks.

[gforever]

I hooked up the drive in question as an external drive and the drive still shows as 90% free space.....

How can this be when I did not even format or delete any files??? Could a harddrive failure be at fault?

[GDH]

It is more likely to be a logical error than a physical error. Something sounds like it has gone wrong with the Microsoft Operating System information that tells the computer about partitions and files on the drive. This can happen for a whole bunch of different resons (power surge etc.).

You should be able to get all your data back by downloading Recover My Files and running the Format Recover options.

[gforever]

thanks, I will run a scan when my new harddrive arrives. By the way, should I run a complete format scan or which option would you recommend the fastest or more importantly, most effective recovery scan?

Do you have any suggestions to prevent this from happening again in the future?

[GDH]

Hi,

First try the Fast Format Recover - because it is fast (should be less than 30 minutes).

Then try the Complete Format Recover and search the "physical drive" for the default selected file types only.

Im not sure why this happened in the first instance. Probably the best advise I can give you is to get a new drive.

[gforever]

Hello, I tried running the Fast Format and Full Complete Format Recover. The Fast Format Recover did not do much. So I ran the Complete Format but did not select any file type. It shows a lot of my original files are there but after I saved them to my new harddrive, very few are able to open.

Most of the photos cannot be viewed, MP3s do not play, and movies "cannot render." Is there something I am doing wrong? An option I need to set? Thanks.

[GDH]

Hi,

When you run a Complete Format Recover, please search for .doc, .xls, .ppt, .avi, .bmp, .zip and .pdf files only.

If you don't get good results from this search, run a "Complete File Search" for specific file types. You may not get the orginal file names back in this search.

[gforever]

Originally Posted by GDH

Hi,

When you run a Complete Format Recover, please search for .doc, .xls, .ppt, .avi, .bmp, .zip and .pdf files only.

If you don't get good results from this search, run a "Complete File Search" for specific file types. You may not get the orginal file names back in this search.

Hi I tried scanning with those file types but there is "no preview for this file type" and when I save it to the new harddrive, the files do not open. The file size and names do look correct but just nothing is viewable. Please help. I really want to restore my files. Thank you.

[GDH]

Was this drive encrypted? or password protected in any way?

[gforever]

Originally Posted by GDH

Was this drive encrypted? or password protected in any way?

No, it was not. I unchecked "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching" under properties but now the check mark is back. This is another WD 160 GB.

I had a recent upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP mid-Feb. However, this drive is NOT the C drive and there is no OS installed on it.

I did look at the permissions and it seems that only my Admin & System are listed as users with all permissions unchecked. I am logged on ad Administrator, I just changed the permissions to "Allow" (Full Control), also went into Advanced and checked the "Replace permission entries on all child projects with entries shown here that apply to child objects".

Not sure if that will do anything. Any suggestions?