30 GB of files and subdirectories mysteriously gone!

[glentall]

I've been running Windows ME on a Compaq Presario for a few years now. I have an 80 GB hard disk (C) and a 30 GB hard disk (D). I use the PC daily for many tasks (mostly church A/V related). I had about 70+ GB of data on the Cdrive and about 15 GB on the Ddrive.

I began having problems with my computer about a week ago. Periodically, when something doesn't seem to be operating properly, I will boot the system into "Safe Mode" and clean things up. For a reason I couldn't figure out, when I tried booting to Safe Mode last week, an error occurred that immediately brought up the screen "You can now safely turn off the machine." It wouldn't boot into safe mode. First time that has happened. I eventually did a re-install of the Windows ME OS to clear up that problem. Things seemed OK.

Later, I uninstalled some fonts using some font utility programs (don't know if this is related to my main problem). I have been meaning to get rid of some of the fonts that I had that seemed to look like some of the more "standard" fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, etc. I kept the standard fonts but got rid of the ones that were very similar. Otherwise, my system had been stable and operational.

Thursday night, I began having a problem with Outlook Express 6. I have been using OE with no problems for years. Thursday, it quit working. When I tried to launch it, I started getting the error that included the line "application was unable to create the font cache object - your computer may be out of memory or your hard disk is full." I decided to "refresh" the OE program by trying to reinstall it using the IE6 CD that I have. During installation, the installer acted funny -- seeming to skip some of the installation (including the IE6 browser) and then it would quit prematurely giving an error "Setup was unable to install all the components -- please close all applications and try running setup again."

I went through many, many hours on the MS Knowledge database as well as searching for answers on the internet using "font cache object" and "unable to install all the components" as the main search strings. I tried many techniques to try and get things to install properly with no significant success. I couldn't get IE5.5, OE5, IE6 nor OE6 to ever install cleanly.

I finally got the Outlook Express that comes with Windows ME to install and work on Saturday and was able to catch up on my email. I didn't do much Sunday because I was away from home.

Today (Monday, Feb. 13) I have been trying to get back to some level of "normal" and continue some tasks on my computer. However, I found that ALL my MS Word DOC files were gone from one of my subdirectories in "My Documents." When I looked harder, I discovered that about half my data on my hard disk was gone! I have an 80 GB hard disk that had about 72 GB of data on it. When I check the properties on it now, it shows about 37 GB of "used" space and about 41 GB of "free" space!

I'm perplexed!! As I have been reviewing what I have done since last week, there is nothing I did that can account for this situation. It appears that some files in some directories are gone and some whole subdirectories are gone!

I'm desperately looking for someone who might have some kind of clue as to (1) what happened, and (2) is there any way to get my files back!

I ran scandisk on the disk and it came back with no errors and as if nothing is wrong. The Recycle folder doesn't have any of the files listed that I know are missing.

Please help me if you can. Thanks!

Glen Tallarek
glentall@msn.com

[rjfvillarosa]

Have you got access to another computer?

[glc]

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

[MakeYourslf2012]

Try a system restore - It might work

[glc]

I doubt that a ME system restore will do anything except make things worse.

[glentall]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa Have you got access to another computer?

Yes, I have a couple other computers available. I'm using the "broken" one right now -- it has limited operation.

[glc]

Slave the drive into another computer then - and see if you see the files. If you don't, then try the data recovery software I linked to.

The more you use it in its present condition, the less likely you will be able to recover the files.

[rjfvillarosa]

Please stop using the problem machine as soon as possible, as GLC says it is going to make matters worse.
Do you know how to slave the drives into another machine?

[glentall]

Thanks for all the input. After some significant analysis and thought, I'm leaning to a sequence of events that led to the mass deletion. The disk is old but not making any abnormal noises. I suspect a series of "file corruptions" with some system files might have led to other errors. I got a file "un-delete" utility that allowed me to recover many files. I will buy a replacement disk and transfer what I have while I still can -- my confidence in the disk is understandably shaken.

Again, thanks for the input -- it has all been helpful.

[Statica]

It isn't just the disk that is at fault, the filesystem (FATx) is severely faulty as well and these problems will generally rise as you work with these larger sizes. If you're taking the time to revamp your disk, I would also suggest that you move to an OS that has a better filesystem - NTFS 5.0 or higher on Win2k or WinXP. The fault tolerance, error correction on NTFS is much better, with FAT fault tolerance, is non-existent, not to mention the better efficiency in storage.