Help!!!!!

[alien250r]

Hi..new member here. I need some help because I lost some files off my computer and I dont know how or why they are suddenly gone. I had my laptop on the other day while it was downloading some torrents.

When the torrents were done I went to go move them to another folder. I had everything on my computer when I first turned it on and everything was fine. So when I go to move the files I downloaded, I notice My Pictures and My Videos folder is gone from the start menu. My Documents, My Music, and Download folders are still there but are now empty. I had tons of pictures and videos, along with lots of other stuff in the folders that are still there but I cant find any of it.

I looked online at a few places and seen there was a virus going around that made your stuff hidden...but I went into folder options to show hidden folders and that didn't work. Also did a virus scan and system restore and that did nothing. So does anyone have any ideas where these folders and files have gone???

[-pops-]

I think that you may have fallen victim to one of the big dangers of using torrents - possibly the most dangerous things out there in Cyberspace.

The problem is that although you may think you are downloading something perfectly innocent, there can be a hidden payload which, as I feel you are seeing now, can wreck your system.

I'm assuming you don't have a backup of your system. Are you able to carry out a System Restore to a time before this happened?

If neither of those are feasible, then a run of Recuva (http://www.piriform.com/recuva) may do the trick but, don't hold your aspirations too high. Recuva is quite safe.

When all of this is sorted out, I implore your to make a full backup of your system - and keep it up to date.

[alien250r]

thanks for the reply...I have deleted the program that I used to download torrents since it isn't safe to use. Sadly no I don't have a backup of my computer that has all the files that are gone. I can only return the computer to the factory settings when I got it. I have been meaning to back up everything on the computer in case of something like this...so I should have done that a lot sooner. I have done a few system restores, from a couple days before this happen, to a few weeks ago but that has not worked. I will try the Recuva prob tomorrow when I have some time, hopefully that will help. And I will def be backing up my computer after this to avoid something like this again.

[Irene]

Great reply from -pops-.

[alien250r]

Ok I ran Recuva and found some stuff. It actually found a lot of files..some stuff I can swear I have never even seen before. But I did find some of the recent stuff I lost...there is a lot of files like pictures where it shows the file but when I click it I cant see the pic. Also some pics the resolution is diff...like the pics which were normally big or good size, they are really small now. So all the files that are missing parts or not there are those basically gone since Recuva found them bout there is nothing there? Thanks 2 -pops- for the help!!

edit: also noticed when I recovered the files it said if I do it to the same drive it can reduce the chance of the files recovering properly...could that be a reason I cant see some of the pics it found?

[bludgard]

alien wrote:

“…also noticed when I recovered the files it said if I do it to the same drive it can reduce the chance of the files recovering properly...could that be a reason I cant see some of the pics it found?”

Although it is optimal to recover to an external drive, Recuva has never impressed me that much, alien.

TestDisk, on the other hand, has proven quite reliable and gives me data back that is exactly what I had to start with; even recovering a working image or clone of a hard drive. TestDisk is not that user friendly, but is free and open source. It is the only program I use for recovering data.

[alien250r]

Will try TestDisk too to see if any other files are found. If not and there is nothing else I can do I will have to take the loss of what I don't get back and use it as a lesson to start backing up. Thanks for all the help -pops- and bludgard, also whats the best way to back up a computer? flash drive?

[-pops-]

whats the best way to back up a computer? flash drive?

I always back up to an external hard drive. I've not found flash drives (an similar) very reliable in the past - they may be better now. However, if you have lots of pictures etc., space may be a problem with a flash drive. I would avoid optical disks for storing backups, especially re-writeable ones. They prone to amnesia and what you thought was your precious backup is just a drinks mat.

I addition, I use a "grandfather, father, son" system in which three consecutive backups are retained. On the fourth backup, backup one is deleted. On the fifth backup, backup 2 is deleted and so on such that there are always three consecutive backups available. This is to ensure as much as is reasonable that there is at least one recent "good" image in cases of infections.

Note also that the three backups are each full system backups and not incremental (amendments) to a previous one.

I, and many others here, use Acronis as backup software. There is a backup system included within Windows itself and many others are available.

Most important of all when you have a backup system in place is to keep it up to date. I normally backup once a week but with very important files/changes, more often than that. I also keep copies of important data as well.