Checkdisk removed my files!

[jjuurree]

I couldn't open folder with lots of downloaded stuff in it. The files in folder where .avi, .mpeg, .jpg, winrar, etc...

 

I restarted PC and WinXP automatically did Checkdisk and removed all the files from that folder.

 

From the free space on disk D: I can see that those files are still somewhere on it.

 

When I tried Disk Cleanup for D:, I got option to delete "Old Chkdsk files" from "disk drive's root folder".

 

I didn't, of course, cos those are the missing files. But I don't know how to get to them! I tried search for hidden & system files with no success.

 

Please, help!

 

PS: My IT knowledge is rather limited.

[RandyL]

Is drive D the drive Windows is on?

[jjuurree]

Windows are on C:, D: is for storing stuff. D is FAT32 if that is important.

[jjuurree]

I found missing files when I unchecked "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" in Folder Options - View.

 

They're located in D:\FOUND.001 (that was invisible before). They're all turned into .CHK (Type: Recovered File Fragments) and there's a whole bunch of them.

 

I'll try to recover them with "UNCHK3" program.

 

If it doesn't work, since - D:\FOUND.001 - is rather big folder can I delete it or its contents?

Its contents are: FILE0000.CHK, FILE0001.CHK,... to FILE0092.CHK.

 

These are "protected operating system files" so I'm not sure if it's safe to delete.

 

Thanks.

[RandyL]

Since Windows is on C and these files are on D which would be a second drive or a partitioned drive then it can't hurt to delete them.

 

Those files would have come from the Chkdsk when it ran. It appears that Chkdsk found bad sectors on the drive and you chose not to delete the damaged files. Probably useless at this point. I can't think of anyway to get anything off of them.

 

I would be concerned that your drive might be failing if Chkdsk fired up and found problems. It sounds like it to me. Backing up your data to a different source would be a good idea just in case.

[jjuurree]

Thank you, RandyL.

[Comp1]

Data Recovery

 

I couldn't open folder with lots of downloaded stuff in it. The files in folder where .avi, .mpeg, .jpg, winrar, etc...

 

I restarted PC and WinXP automatically did Checkdisk and removed all the files from that folder.

 

From the free space on disk D: I can see that those files are still somewhere on it.

 

When I tried Disk Cleanup for D:, I got option to delete "Old Chkdsk files" from "disk drive's root folder".

 

I didn't, of course, cos those are the missing files. But I don't know how to get to them! I tried search for hidden & system files with no success.

 

Please, help!

 

PS: My IT knowledge is rather limited.

 

You could try downloading the following free application to try and recover the missing/lost data - Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

[Tootech]

If you use Recuva make sure anything on your drive is backed up first. A potentially failing drive being scanned for data could become unreadable....:)

[jjuurree]

Thanks, everybody!

[jjuurree]

I did it.

First I tried 'Unchk3', but either I didn't know how to use it properly, or something else,

but 'Unchk3' went on for about an hour and after it finished, in folder designated for new renamed files was nothing!

Than I tried 'FileCHK' and it took less than 10 seconds (for over 3GB of data!) and managed to rename (recover) about 80% of files: Pics, videos, Rar... Good enough.

After that I did: start–>run–>cmd–> chkntfs /x c: d: which is supposed to cancel automatic Checkdisk at trouble restart. Is that a safe thing to do?