Video files disappeared, space is free, recycle bin empty! now what?

[Fagetta Bouditt]

I have never had this problem before - and I have been downloading movies and music videos for 8 yrs - only have occasionally lost an entire external HD (and usually can recover using a recovery program). This is the most unusual thing I have seen happen- and never before on this little laptop (HP compaq presario, Vista Home Basic)......

 

After running all my anti-spyware/virus programs and just before a reboot - I ran Glary utilities, and then ccleaner... a daily routine.... I don't know exactly how/at what point this happened - but after rebooting and looking in my directory in the folder where I store music vids and movies - I noticed that all the movies I had Downloaded in the past week were totally GONE. Evverything else is still there as far as I can see - all the mp3s and misc other file types. It freed up about 10 gigs of space - and nothing was in the recycle bin.

 

I ran a search and found no trace of any of the abovementioned files.... not a trace.

I am trying to decide between doing a system REPAIR - or a RESTORE to an earlier date - -

or trying the RECUVA program to see if I can get those files back again.

 

Any suggestionis as to which to try first - or at least an explanation of how this happened?

Am hoping it is not drive-related - as far as I know, my drive is healthy but it has gotten a lot of use lately, been online for long stretches - while I am cleaning up my desktops - so could the drive be breaking down even though HP health check shows no errors or problems?

 

There is one other thing I have noticed becoming gradually more of a pain -

SHUT DOWN seems to take forever now - despite having used every type of tweak or cleaner I can think of -

Startup isn't bad at all - but Shut-Down was taking 3 mins about a week ago - and now is longer than 10 mins.

(I don't think these 2 things are related but wanted to mention it anyway, just in case).

 

Thanks for whatever input anyone has. (I just joined today, and did browse all the topics to see if this was addressed, before posting).

[Aethec]

...I think Glary Utilities is the problem.

The shutdown problem is maybe related to a stupid thing that every "windows optimizer" has : Clear Pagefile at Shutdown. This takes forever and is useless.

 

Windows key + R >> Type regedit >> Click on OK >> go into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\. Is there a ClearPageFileAtShutdown value in it (you can see it in the right panel) ? If so, delete it.

 

And Glary Utilities's last version is infected with Win32:Induc.

[ident]

I was also about to reply before i saw aethec reply to remove glarys. I have known it to seriously compramise a system.

 

also

 

"despite having used every type of tweak" do you even know what the tweak you are doing does? and can you do this task your self manually?

 

I wish people would not be sucked in with 'THIS TWEAK MAKES YOUR PC 1000 TIMES FASTER"

 

I have never in my life used one optimizer and my pc runs superb. I do manually config my OS and software.

[login123]

hi Fagetta Bouditt. Welcome, and sorry you are having trouble.

 

Aethec and ident are probably right about Glary. I just tried one of their programs and dumped it because it tried to hook up to the net without me asking.

 

If you are going to run Recuva, you can learn how to install it onto a usb drive here if you don't know already. Do that using another computer if possible, then save the recovered files to some other drive also.

 

Would suggest you do that soon if you are going to do it. Post back and say how it goes.

[Fagetta Bouditt]

Firstly - Thank you all for responding so quickly! I almost was going to wait 24 hs before checking !

I performed the removal of the page-file command from the registry .... and am about to plug in one of my external HDs

(I have a small flashdrive somewhere but not sure how long it will take to locate it - I just moved and things are in boxes everywhere).

 

I am hoping it will be adequate to Download that Recuva program onto a big external (500gig), following the instructions provided on the Recuva link for how to DL it to a usb drive.

I also am going to remove the Glary utilities program from all my computers, before doing anything else - it kinda makes me sad to give it up but I will take your word for it that it's not a great program (there were 2 of you who mentioned it isn't a safe program).. but it sure was fun to use. lol

 

I just want you to know that I DID do my homework and that I do always research reviews and comments after hearing of a program to try (usually via a known friend first), before I install them on my computers. Same goes for TWEAKING - I google for info about each kind of tweak before using them the first time. Sometimes I just have a tendancy to over-kill - and run these programs a bit more often than most people ordinarilly do.

 

(I did read numerous remarks, both pro and con, pertaining to whether to empty the page file periodically - and I honestly do NOT know if it ever made a difference either way - the slow shut-down seems to have been more of a GRADUAL thing thats been growing for the past few months ... since the last time I performed a Restore to Facory Settings and began working with a clean slate again.)

 

Ok so ... it's late where I am now - and I am not sure I will be able to get an external HD connected and begin performing a recovery attempt on my missing video files before I go to sleep - but for sure, sbefore the end of tomorrow (Sunday) I will be posting back here my results ...

 

Again - much thanks for your responses !!! see you soon.

"Fagetta"

[marmite]

Hi Fagetta

 

Firstly, I do hope you manage to recover your files. It sounds like you are usually manage your computer carefully; that always makes anything like this very frustrating.

 

File recovery programs rely upon the disc space where your files "were" located NOT to have been overwritten before you try to recover them. As login123 says, this means you should attempt any recovery as soon as possible. Anything that writes to your hard drive, even just browsing the internet, has the potential to start overwriting the space where your files were. So the sooner you do this the greater the chance of recovering some or all of your files.

 

I've used Glarysoft stuff too and I encountered the Win32/Induc problem. Apparently it wasn't a false positive and they have since released clean versions of affected software. I've explicitly scanned the new versions (of the products that I use) and I will now continue to use with caution. Others may think that's a bad call, but it's a personal choice. The fact that it made unauthorised calls out to the internet I would describe as bad form rather than malicious. Lots of software does it; very few gives you outright warning.

 

Whatever caused your problem, it sounds as though it may be related to the type of files (extensions); since everything else was left behind. Do you use anything that cleans that location and cleans based on specific file types - inclusively or exclusively?

 

As for cleaning the pagefile, as far as I know it has absolutely no performance benefit. Some users may want to securely wipe the pagefile if they are concerned that very sensitive data has been swapped out to their hard drive ... but then if they have that much cause for concern they're probably running whole drive encryption anyway! In other words, if you're not sure whether you need to do it ... then you almost certainly don't!

 

Good luck with Recuva

[DennisD]

I edited out the bold formatting of your post Fagetta.

 

It makes a post more difficult to read than is necessary, it's actually tiring on the eyes. Your first post is too much to mess around with.

[Andavari]

You wouldn't happen to be using the separate download installation of CCleaner's winapp2.ini now would you? It includes a DivX Movies Cache cleaner which is disabled by default, but once enabled kiss your DivX Web Player cached/streamed videos goodbye.

[Fagetta Bouditt]

You wouldn't happen to be using the separate download installation of CCleaner's winapp2.ini now would you? It includes a DivX Movies Cache cleaner which is disabled by default, but once enabled kiss your DivX Web Player cached/streamed videos goodbye.

AHHHHH.... I think you hit upon something Andavari -

I don't have a DivX web player however I do recall somewhere along the line that I did wipe free the cache of whatever player I was using a few wks ago- and had only used it for mpgs and avis.

(I think I did that with Glary and not CCleaner).

Anyway - updating my problem - I did manage to recover my important files and was mostly worried about having this problem again - since I have been in much WORSE predicaments in the past - having lost several large externals and having performed various recoveries on them all (successfully maybe 50% of the time). I do have sufficient spare empty HDs on which to back things up - but ask me if I keep up with it.... uh.... well you guessed it - it's "always tomorrow"..... Thanks,, peeps.

FAGETTA