Computer Reverted To Earlier Date - Uncommanded

[gabeha]

This is the second time this has happened - my computer has automatically reverted to a previous date. It happened a couple months ago and it reverted to about a month prior to that date. Today it did it and reverted everything back to June 2. It is not possible that it is reverting to previous back-ups because I keep my back-ups on an external hard drive (not connected).

When it reverts, EVERYTHING changes. I lose ALL files created and all files deleted re-appear. All new programs are gone and all previously deleted programs come back. Viewing the event log, I have things dated 12/7 and the last event is 6/2. Both times it happened while the computer was left unattended for a few hours. Neither situation coincides with adding or removing any programs. When it happens, the computer personalize settings all disappear. All system restore points are gone.

Please let me know if you can help and ask any additional questions that may help to troubleshoot. I searched the internet and have not been able to find anything like this ever happening.

 

[Combat Wombat]

Complete all windows updates, check that the Windows product is registered, and double check your BIOS battery.

 

[gabeha]

Complete all windows updates, check that the Windows product is registered, and double check your BIOS battery.

All windows updates were complete and product was registered prior to problems happening. After it happened, I actually had to reinstall all the windows updates (and every other update). BIOS Battery checks good.

 

[gabeha]

Another bit of information - I recently moved and this first happened about a month after the move. The computer was packed in its original box with styrofoam - but the box did have a pretty large dent in it when delivered. Is it possible this created a problem with the hard drive which is leading to these problems?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I had an OptiPlex 960 that i ordered from dell 2 years ago with the same issue and dell had me send it back for a new one.New one had no issues.

 

[DelroyMonjo]

Change the freakin' battery!

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

The battery didn't fix my Optiplex 960.

 

[Combat Wombat]

Change the freakin' battery!

Bad, you be Baaad

 

[gabeha]

I changed the battery about a week ago, even though it tested fine. The problem happened again today. This time, rather than a complete revert back to a previous date, it just removed a number of programs. I was able to undo the new changes using a system restore point (which was actually there because it didn't do the total revert). No unusual event was on the event log for the last 24 hours.

Something else I discovered as I was setting up a backup today was a harddrive.... swap???
I had been keeping an exact copy of my primary harddrive which I made many months ago (prior to sending the computer back to the manufacturer for a motherboard replacement) on a partition of a secondary internal harddrive just incase the original data never made it back. It wasn't a traditional backup created by a normal program - I copied and pasted the entire C: drive so I could access documents on it while the computer was gone. That happened back in May and I had totally forgotten about the copy. It was originally labeled B: (Backup HD). Today, as I was setting up a new backup on my external HD after the successful restore, I noticed that I now had a G: (Local Disk), and B: (Backup HD) is gone. I clicked on G: and explored what was on it, and it was all of the files that went missing earlier in the month. I explored further and found a lot of the files that went missing the first time I ever had the problem in new folders on the primary partition of my second HD (M:Media).

Is it possible that the computer somehow reverted to using my sondary internal HD Partition B:Backup HD as my primary HD and now my primary HD is just sitting there unused as G:Local Disk? If so, how would that happen? How would I get it back to using G: as the primary boot disk?