- Jul 4, 2008
- 4
- 0
- 18,520
I apologize in advance for this REALLY long post.....couldn't explain it any other way.
Computer specs (not sure if it will be helpful in this situation)
MB: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
RAM: 1x2GB DDR2 @ 667MHz (all I could afford at the time of build)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core 4800+ @ 2.5GHz
HDD (C): Western Digital Blue 500GB SATA
GPU: Onboard Radeon HD3200
External HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA installed in an enclosure and hooked up via USB
Notes about the external drive: It is a new drive. Purchased some time ago with the intention of setting up an incremental backup but never got around to it. ...so until now it hasn't been used.
Very recent upgrades:
RAM: 2x2GB DDR2 @ 800MHz (upgraded 2 days ago)
GPU: MSI Radeon R7 250 (installed yesterday...had to take original back to store since it was an unmarked open box item and gpu was just sitting there naked on bubble wrap)
My Problem...(full course of events leading up to this is in Background Information below)
On my external drive I have a folder named "Pictures". Every picture in it is missing, including psd files. Only pictures that are not missing are bmp files. I had Windows search all those zip files from backup and restore...same thing. I have other work related jpg files and psd files stored in a different folder and all of these are still there and can open/edit them. My personal stuff tho...GONE. Funny thing is...before all the "disappearance" I checked the available space of the drive...nothing has changed. I am pretty sure they are still there...just can't see them.
Before all this happened my folder of "backup and restore" zip files was 299GB. After the data went missing it was still 299GB. All of the catalog files and MediaID.bin are still there in their same place. Considering this I really do not understand why the pictures seem to be missing from the zip files as well.
What I've done so far:
The computer was rebooted after completing steps that made changes to the external drive. ...each individual step of 4, 5, 6, and 7 below. (ie...complete step 4, reboot, step 5, reboot, etc)
1) Check to be sure "show hidden files" was enabled...yes it was.
2) Checked available freespace of drive...no change since disappearance of data
3) Searched the Pictures folder and zip files....nothing found
4) Chkdsk /f on the external drive ...no errors
5) Booted from Ubuntu LiveCD hoping I would see them and copy them over to C....didn't work. I did think this would work since Ubuntu is a totally different OS.
6) Followed instructions I found elsewhere in the forums on here for the attrib command...pictures still not visible
7) Tried copying (not cutting) a few of the pictures folders to C (hoped simply changing the location would help)....didn't work.
8) Checked Properties > Permissions (everything is as it should be...nothing denied)
Plan A is in process right now...Recuva deep scan on the entire drive since I didn't get the results I wanted when I just did the Pictures folder. I won't know anything for several hours.
Plan B....I don't know. I'm at my wits end and could use some help here. Professional data recovery is not an option....can't afford it. The only data that is missing is personal stuff...downloaded wallpapers, digital art projects, etc, nothing work related. I can always search Google for the wallpapers and start new digital art projects. It would just be really nice to have this data back.
Background Information:
I included this information because I thought it might be helpful to know the course of events leading up to the problem.
I recently did a clean reinstall of Win 7 Ultimate. My computer was running slow and felt starting over with a "clean slate" might be the best solution.
Before I did this I used Win 7 back up and restore to back the data up to my external HDD (specs above). After the resintall of Win 7 and my most important software was complete I proceeded to restore the data and just leave it on the external drive since I was going to setup a dual boot with Ubuntu. I was hoping to eventually move 100% to Ubuntu but the experiment ultimately failed since I couldn't run AutoCAD 2012 with WINE and the Linux CAD software didn't seem as easy to use as AutoCAD. I'm sure it would have worked but I didn't have the time to lean a whole new CAD program. ...so back in Win 7 I deleted the Linux partition from C and gave all this new space to Windows.
I still wasn't pleased with the somewhat sluggish performance of Win 7 on my pc so I tried out Win 8.1 in a dual boot setup. I poked around in there for awhile just checking things out and I ended up liking it better than Win 7....better performance and played nicer with AutoCAD (ie just plain ran faster). I bit the bullet and did a clean install of Win 8.1. I didn't worry about the data because it was still intact on the external drive.
Somewhere in the course of doing all this my external drive went into what I call "runaway mode" where the light is flickering really fast like its continuing to do something even after cancelling the command. When it did this my entire PC was at a near stand still. This resulted in my flipping of the power switch to get it to stop. After flipping the switch to off and back on my PC started behaving normal again. This happened twice. ...but even after this happened my now missing data was still visible.
Computer specs (not sure if it will be helpful in this situation)
MB: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
RAM: 1x2GB DDR2 @ 667MHz (all I could afford at the time of build)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core 4800+ @ 2.5GHz
HDD (C): Western Digital Blue 500GB SATA
GPU: Onboard Radeon HD3200
External HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA installed in an enclosure and hooked up via USB
Notes about the external drive: It is a new drive. Purchased some time ago with the intention of setting up an incremental backup but never got around to it. ...so until now it hasn't been used.
Very recent upgrades:
RAM: 2x2GB DDR2 @ 800MHz (upgraded 2 days ago)
GPU: MSI Radeon R7 250 (installed yesterday...had to take original back to store since it was an unmarked open box item and gpu was just sitting there naked on bubble wrap)
My Problem...(full course of events leading up to this is in Background Information below)
On my external drive I have a folder named "Pictures". Every picture in it is missing, including psd files. Only pictures that are not missing are bmp files. I had Windows search all those zip files from backup and restore...same thing. I have other work related jpg files and psd files stored in a different folder and all of these are still there and can open/edit them. My personal stuff tho...GONE. Funny thing is...before all the "disappearance" I checked the available space of the drive...nothing has changed. I am pretty sure they are still there...just can't see them.
Before all this happened my folder of "backup and restore" zip files was 299GB. After the data went missing it was still 299GB. All of the catalog files and MediaID.bin are still there in their same place. Considering this I really do not understand why the pictures seem to be missing from the zip files as well.
What I've done so far:
The computer was rebooted after completing steps that made changes to the external drive. ...each individual step of 4, 5, 6, and 7 below. (ie...complete step 4, reboot, step 5, reboot, etc)
1) Check to be sure "show hidden files" was enabled...yes it was.
2) Checked available freespace of drive...no change since disappearance of data
3) Searched the Pictures folder and zip files....nothing found
4) Chkdsk /f on the external drive ...no errors
5) Booted from Ubuntu LiveCD hoping I would see them and copy them over to C....didn't work. I did think this would work since Ubuntu is a totally different OS.
6) Followed instructions I found elsewhere in the forums on here for the attrib command...pictures still not visible
7) Tried copying (not cutting) a few of the pictures folders to C (hoped simply changing the location would help)....didn't work.
8) Checked Properties > Permissions (everything is as it should be...nothing denied)
Plan A is in process right now...Recuva deep scan on the entire drive since I didn't get the results I wanted when I just did the Pictures folder. I won't know anything for several hours.
Plan B....I don't know. I'm at my wits end and could use some help here. Professional data recovery is not an option....can't afford it. The only data that is missing is personal stuff...downloaded wallpapers, digital art projects, etc, nothing work related. I can always search Google for the wallpapers and start new digital art projects. It would just be really nice to have this data back.
Background Information:
I included this information because I thought it might be helpful to know the course of events leading up to the problem.
I recently did a clean reinstall of Win 7 Ultimate. My computer was running slow and felt starting over with a "clean slate" might be the best solution.
Before I did this I used Win 7 back up and restore to back the data up to my external HDD (specs above). After the resintall of Win 7 and my most important software was complete I proceeded to restore the data and just leave it on the external drive since I was going to setup a dual boot with Ubuntu. I was hoping to eventually move 100% to Ubuntu but the experiment ultimately failed since I couldn't run AutoCAD 2012 with WINE and the Linux CAD software didn't seem as easy to use as AutoCAD. I'm sure it would have worked but I didn't have the time to lean a whole new CAD program. ...so back in Win 7 I deleted the Linux partition from C and gave all this new space to Windows.
I still wasn't pleased with the somewhat sluggish performance of Win 7 on my pc so I tried out Win 8.1 in a dual boot setup. I poked around in there for awhile just checking things out and I ended up liking it better than Win 7....better performance and played nicer with AutoCAD (ie just plain ran faster). I bit the bullet and did a clean install of Win 8.1. I didn't worry about the data because it was still intact on the external drive.
Somewhere in the course of doing all this my external drive went into what I call "runaway mode" where the light is flickering really fast like its continuing to do something even after cancelling the command. When it did this my entire PC was at a near stand still. This resulted in my flipping of the power switch to get it to stop. After flipping the switch to off and back on my PC started behaving normal again. This happened twice. ...but even after this happened my now missing data was still visible.
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