Solve : Files not in folders, but still on HD. How do I find them??

1.	Solve : Files not in folders, but still on HD. How do I find them??
Answer» A friend of mine recently deleted a chunk of Windows files from her laptop HD. I tried for a couple of weeks to fix this issue using every known fix I could find short of re-installing Windows clean, I have an original Xp Pro CD I have been using. I'm at the point where I have the hard drive in an external enclosure and hooked via usb to my computer. I just want to get the files they want off the HD, then I will perform a clean INSTALL and start from scratch. I have Windows XP Home Edition, SP2. They have Windows XP Pro, SP2. I have changed all the permissions and ownership so that I supposedly have access to all the folders on the HD, but they are all empty, there are no files anywhere. (Ex: In music folder, every artist folder is intact, but no mp3's inside.) At first I booted in safe mode, used security tab and changed permissions and ownership, but that didn't seem to work. I could not get my user or the admin to have special PERMISSION no matter what I did in the advanced menus. Then I used the cmd prompt in the start menu and the cacls command to change ownership. That granted me access to the folders, but I STILL have no files. I know the files are still on the HD because over 42 gigs of space have been used. I did a search for various file types (ex. mp3, jpg) but nothing was found. Before I removed the HD from the laptop I ran chkdsk and chkdsk /r a couple times and everything SEEMED to be working fine. So I am just stumped as to why the files are not populated in the folders. Please help!Don't mean to be offensive, but you have definitely tried to enable the view of hidden files and folders? What you can do, just in case Windows deleted them is use Glary Utilities PRO. You can get a 30 day trial and access to a file undelete program which may let you see if Windows XP (or Windows XPoop, as my Vista-loving father affectionately refers to it as.) has deleted them. Quote from: green_burger on June 06, 2008, 04:31:44 PM Don't mean to be offensive, but you have definitely tried to enable the view of hidden files and folders? What you can do, just in case Windows deleted them is use Glary Utilities PRO. You can get a 30 day trial and access to a file undelete program which may let you see if Windows XP (or Windows XPoop, as my Vista-loving father affectionately refers to it as.) has deleted them. Recuva (Piform Data, the creators of CCleaner) is a freeware program with no limitations, I would recommend going with this simply because of the fact that it wont disable itself. A note about "undeleting" files: When a file is deleted on a Windows/DOS Filesystem, the file is MARKED as "hidden" in the volume. (No, not the hidden that you find in the properties window of a file or folder, a different type of hidden) The first letter of the filename is replaced with a dollar sign ($) The space where the file was once stored is then marked as "usable 'free' space" When you do a quick reformat, these files get left behind. If you did a full reformat, more advanced forensics utilities would be needed to recover the files. The problem: If any other file decides to "take the place" of a "deleted" file, the deleted file may be completely or partially overwritten, and may not be recoverable. NEVER recover and use system files! Often, "Undeleted" files have an extremely high chance of becoming corrupt, and causing more problems if you try and put them back in place. Avoid modifying the contents of the disk as much as possible until you have recovered the files you need to avoid overwritting. Defragmenting is about the worst thing you can do, as it will usually assure nearly all your files will be overwritten and lost forever. Norton has a diskedit program that would allow you to see everything that is on that drive, size, etc you can also change to attributes on those files. If your friends system is NTFS and yours is FAT 32 you will not be able to see those files, unless you were to boot from your friends drive. However, I believe that DiskEdit will show both. Also, doesn't windows xp have and undelete in their recovery panel?A Home edition CD cannot be used to facilitate any repairs on a Pro edition install.Thanks for all the responses. I used Recuva to see what was deleted and there is quite a bit, but none of the files I am looking for. I just want to recover the photos and music, the reinstall Windows. I think it's an access issue or something. All the aritst's folders are in iTunes, the music just isn't in them. Is there a different way to get to them off the hard drive? I also tried to find the files my friend deleted, but I'm just not sure what she deleted, so that isn't really much help. I was using an XP Pro CD, not my Home Edition one. That's how I was able to at least replace some of the files that were deleted and get Windows to almost boot up as opposed to the computer crashing right away. Then I got a winsrv error, then a system32 error. Thanks again for all your help.Clik Here...I've already taken ownership of all the folders. The files just aren't in them. Is there a different way to pull them off the HD? Do you know why they wouldn't be in the folders? They have to be somewhere on the HD, it's still more than half full; 42+ gigs. Thanks for your time. Quote A friend of mine recently deleted a chunk of Windows files from her laptop HD. Without knowing this it's impossible to guess at this point... Sometimes in Windows when files are deleted they still show up as used disk space so they may be there or they may be not...Well, thanks again for your time. I will just reformat the HD and re-install windows. Maybe next time she won't be so foolish and just start deleting things. This is my first time using this site and I am grateful for the help. I'm sure I'll be around for a while. Quote from: the mixologist on June 16, 2008, 07:09:29 PM Well, thanks again for your time. I will just reformat the HD and re-install windows. Maybe next time she won't be so foolish and just start deleting things. This is my first time using this site and I am grateful for the help. I'm sure I'll be around for a while. Before you format move the drive into another working XP machine and connect it as a slave drive instead of in a USB enclosure and then try the same procedures including chkdsk /r and then do another search: for example *.jpg in search will find ALL .jpg's... See if your results yield anything.

Answer»

A friend of mine recently deleted a chunk of Windows files from her laptop HD. I tried for a couple of weeks to fix this issue using every known fix I could find short of re-installing Windows clean, I have an original Xp Pro CD I have been using. I'm at the point where I have the hard drive in an external enclosure and hooked via usb to my computer. I just want to get the files they want off the HD, then I will perform a clean INSTALL and start from scratch.

I have Windows XP Home Edition, SP2. They have Windows XP Pro, SP2. I have changed all the permissions and ownership so that I supposedly have access to all the folders on the HD, but they are all empty, there are no files anywhere. (Ex: In music folder, every artist folder is intact, but no mp3's inside.) At first I booted in safe mode, used security tab and changed permissions and ownership, but that didn't seem to work. I could not get my user or the admin to have special PERMISSION no matter what I did in the advanced menus. Then I used the cmd prompt in the start menu and the cacls command to change ownership. That granted me access to the folders, but I STILL have no files.

I know the files are still on the HD because over 42 gigs of space have been used. I did a search for various file types (ex. mp3, jpg) but nothing was found. Before I removed the HD from the laptop I ran chkdsk and chkdsk /r a couple times and everything SEEMED to be working fine. So I am just stumped as to why the files are not populated in the folders. Please help!Don't mean to be offensive, but you have definitely tried to enable the view of hidden files and folders? What you can do, just in case Windows deleted them is use Glary Utilities PRO. You can get a 30 day trial and access to a file undelete program which may let you see if Windows XP (or Windows XPoop, as my Vista-loving father affectionately refers to it as.) has deleted them. Quote from: green_burger on June 06, 2008, 04:31:44 PM

Don't mean to be offensive, but you have definitely tried to enable the view of hidden files and folders? What you can do, just in case Windows deleted them is use Glary Utilities PRO. You can get a 30 day trial and access to a file undelete program which may let you see if Windows XP (or Windows XPoop, as my Vista-loving father affectionately refers to it as.) has deleted them.

Recuva (Piform Data, the creators of CCleaner) is a freeware program with no limitations, I would recommend going with this simply because of the fact that it wont disable itself.

A note about "undeleting" files:
When a file is deleted on a Windows/DOS Filesystem, the file is MARKED as "hidden" in the volume. (No, not the hidden that you find in the properties window of a file or folder, a different type of hidden)
The first letter of the filename is replaced with a dollar sign ($)
The space where the file was once stored is then marked as "usable 'free' space"

When you do a quick reformat, these files get left behind. If you did a full reformat, more advanced forensics utilities would be needed to recover the files.

The problem:
If any other file decides to "take the place" of a "deleted" file, the deleted file may be completely or partially overwritten, and may not be recoverable.

NEVER recover and use system files! Often, "Undeleted" files have an extremely high chance of becoming corrupt, and causing more problems if you try and put them back in place.

Avoid modifying the contents of the disk as much as possible until you have recovered the files you need to avoid overwritting. Defragmenting is about the worst thing you can do, as it will usually assure nearly all your files will be overwritten and lost forever. Norton has a diskedit program that would allow you to see everything that is on that drive, size, etc you can also change to attributes on those files.
If your friends system is NTFS and yours is FAT 32 you will not be able to see those files, unless you were to boot from your friends drive. However, I believe that DiskEdit will show both. Also, doesn't windows xp have and undelete in their recovery panel?A Home edition CD cannot be used to facilitate any repairs on a Pro edition install.Thanks for all the responses. I used Recuva to see what was deleted and there is quite a bit, but none of the files I am looking for. I just want to recover the photos and music, the reinstall Windows. I think it's an access issue or something. All the aritst's folders are in iTunes, the music just isn't in them. Is there a different way to get to them off the hard drive? I also tried to find the files my friend deleted, but I'm just not sure what she deleted, so that isn't really much help. I was using an XP Pro CD, not my Home Edition one. That's how I was able to at least replace some of the files that were deleted and get Windows to almost boot up as opposed to the computer crashing right away. Then I got a winsrv error, then a system32 error. Thanks again for all your help.Clik Here...I've already taken ownership of all the folders. The files just aren't in them. Is there a different way to pull them off the HD? Do you know why they wouldn't be in the folders? They have to be somewhere on the HD, it's still more than half full; 42+ gigs. Thanks for your time. Quote

A friend of mine recently deleted a chunk of Windows files from her laptop HD.

Without knowing this it's impossible to guess at this point...
Sometimes in Windows when files are deleted they still show up as used disk space so they may be there or they may be not...Well, thanks again for your time. I will just reformat the HD and re-install windows. Maybe next time she won't be so foolish and just start deleting things. This is my first time using this site and I am grateful for the help. I'm sure I'll be around for a while. Quote from: the mixologist on June 16, 2008, 07:09:29 PM

Well, thanks again for your time. I will just reformat the HD and re-install windows. Maybe next time she won't be so foolish and just start deleting things. This is my first time using this site and I am grateful for the help. I'm sure I'll be around for a while.

Before you format move the drive into another working XP machine and connect it as a slave drive instead of in a USB enclosure and then try the same procedures including chkdsk /r and then do another search: for example *.jpg in search will find ALL .jpg's...
See if your results yield anything.

Solve : Files not in folders, but still on HD. How do I find them??

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