mikehende Posted July 23, 2015 Posted July 23, 2015 Guy with a laptop says all of his pics and music which he had on his desktop suddenly vanished, they are not in the recycle bin and since he did not delete them, any ideas please? Quote
FPCH Admin AWS Posted July 23, 2015 FPCH Admin Posted July 23, 2015 Did he by chance change the desktop settings to hide icons? Quote Off Topic Forum - Unlike the Rest
mikehende Posted July 23, 2015 Author Posted July 23, 2015 He said he didn't do anything out of the norm and suspects virus Quote
FPCH Admin allheart55 Cindy E Posted July 24, 2015 FPCH Admin Posted July 24, 2015 In that case, it sounds as if it could be malware to me. I'd do some scans first and see what you come up with. You may want to have Pete take a look, Mike. Quote ~I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.~ ~~Robert McCloskey~~
mikehende Posted July 24, 2015 Author Posted July 24, 2015 I don't have the guy's unit, he just called in to make the inquiry, thing is he wants to recover the files more than he wants to fix the unit so if the files are nowhere to be found on the unit then wouldn't make sense I ask him to bring it in. Quote
FPCH Admin allheart55 Cindy E Posted July 24, 2015 FPCH Admin Posted July 24, 2015 Does he have any icons or folders on his desktop at all or did everything disappear? Quote ~I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.~ ~~Robert McCloskey~~
FPCH Admin allheart55 Cindy E Posted July 24, 2015 FPCH Admin Posted July 24, 2015 So his icons (shortcuts) are there but any folders containing documents and pictures are gone? Quote ~I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.~ ~~Robert McCloskey~~
mikehende Posted July 24, 2015 Author Posted July 24, 2015 No, not the missing data icons, just osme other icons which were there before, he did not specify exactly which icons are there. Quote
Plastic Nev Posted July 24, 2015 Posted July 24, 2015 Providing he knows what the titles are of the files, he could try a normal search for them, if they haven't been deleted, they should show up somewhere. Actually, the little doggy on XP search is one of those silly things I miss in W7. :big_grin: Nev. Quote
mikehende Posted July 24, 2015 Author Posted July 24, 2015 I am wondering if he did a system restore would that restore deleted files? Quote
FPCH Admin allheart55 Cindy E Posted July 24, 2015 FPCH Admin Posted July 24, 2015 System Restore doesn't usually affect files, Mike. Quote ~I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.~ ~~Robert McCloskey~~
mikehende Posted July 24, 2015 Author Posted July 24, 2015 That's what I figured so no hope for this guy I think to recover those missing files. Quote
Mommalina Posted July 24, 2015 Posted July 24, 2015 Providing he knows what the titles are of the files, he could try a normal search for them, if they haven't been deleted, they should show up somewhere. Actually, the little doggy on XP search is one of those silly things I miss in W7. :big_grin: Nev. Mike, I don't think I'd give up until trying Search as recommended by Nev! Over the years, I've had good luck with that. Quote
mikehende Posted July 24, 2015 Author Posted July 24, 2015 I had advised the owner to try that so it's up to him. Quote
starbuck Posted July 24, 2015 Posted July 24, 2015 (edited) Hi Mike, Haven't seen it around for awhile, but there is The FakeHDD rogue malware that deletes the following folders and stores them into a numbered folder under %Temp%\smtmp: Start Menu Quick Launch Documents Desktop If the temp files are removed..... so will the smtmp folder containing these. So don't run any temp file cleaners until you are sure of what you are dealing with. Edited July 24, 2015 by starbuck 1 Quote
mikehende Posted July 24, 2015 Author Posted July 24, 2015 The guy did not bring his machine to me pete, he was simply trying to see if there is a way to recover the missing files. Quote
Kick Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 Mike, if your contact did actually accidentally delete the files, a file recovery program such as Recuva (http://filehippo.com/download_recuva/ or https://www.piriform.com/recuva/download) or its portable version which can be run from a usb memory stick (https://www.piriform.com/recuva/features/portable-version) may be able to recover them. The sooner this is tried, the better as delay means the deleted files space on the drive will be overwritten so much by subsequent file saving activity that that the original deleted files become unrecoverable. Good luck, Kick. Quote
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