Computer help!

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Synch
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Posts: 4767
Location: New Zealand

Computer help!

Post by Synch » Sun Oct 05, 2014 11:51 pm

So I have an external HDD formatted to Fat32 for all my *cough*pirated*cough* TV series and movies (hey I'm in NZ, we don't have access to SyFy stuff here!)

Anyways, it recently said I needed to scan and fix stuff, which I did, and it said it moved some corrupted files to a Found folder. All my 2014 movies and TV series are gone. But I can't find this folder anywhere. I've tried using Recuva, I can only find my 2014 movie folder, and no TV series at all. Where is the Found folder? I've been watching all these series on my X-Box, how are they suddenly corrupted and moved/deleted?

Is this the computer god's way of telling me not to download? Help!
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gamecreator
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Re: Computer help!

Post by gamecreator » Mon Oct 06, 2014 3:13 am

What exactly said you that you need to scan? My first thought is it was a virus of some sort that deleted your data.
In case it was a message from Windows, doing so means losing all information whatsoever, as Microsoft's way of dealing with file system errors is quite extreme. I have experienced this several times with my flash drives. You should have looked for other solutions.
First thing to do is check how full is your drive. If it's not empty (or better, as full as it was before) then some of your movies aren't gone. For additional confirmation open command line (usually Win+R, cmd) and go to the root folder of your drive. Look if there is a folder named .. in there (usual commands to see contents of a folder are dir and ls, you might have to use some parameters to display hidden and system folders). If this folder is there, you have confirmation: it's a virus. Turn off your computer, disconnect the drive and turn it on again. Download (it must be from official site, it's free) and run CureIT. Next you need to disable autorun. Run (Win+R) regedit (with admin rights if your Windows has this functionality) and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. There your will find the key NoDriveTypeAutoRun. Write down its value in case you would want to undo this later (but I don't recommend it). Create this key if it's not present, its type is DWORD. Set it to to FF(hexadecimal) or 255(decimal). Reboot. Check if this key is still there with the value you set. If it is, turn off your computer, connect your drive and turn it on again. Make explorer show all hidden and system files. Go to the root folder of your drive and delete there everything that is not yours (except .. folder if present), no matter how important it looks. If you can't access .. folder, then open command line again. Go to you drive's root folder again and output contents of the folder with short names (usually dir /X). Use the short name for .. folder to rename it to something comprehensible. There, you have done it. Your files are back.

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Krulle
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Re: Computer help!

Post by Krulle » Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:24 am

Have you tried a "find" (search) for any of the series names?
Open Windows Explorer (Win+E), select the drive (X:, P:, M:, whatever), Ctrl+F and search for a name you remember and which is likely part of the file name too.

Maybe it pops up.

But allowing Windoof to "scan and fix" anything usually means the data is gone afterwards.

Have you tested some "undelete" programs on the drive afterwards?

Edit: sorry, google tells me recuva is a kind of undelete program....
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Synch
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Re: Computer help!

Post by Synch » Mon Oct 06, 2014 1:40 pm

Thanks guys.

It wasn't a virus I don't think, I have a pretty stringent anti-virus program and I scan everything I download also to be safe, as well as the usual anti-spyware and malware.
I actually managed to resolve this before you guys responded. I opened up a command line and ran a chkdsk, then I used some other recovery software (EaseUS) that was recommended and found the missing contents had been deleted (?) so I restored these to a spare HDD for safekeeping, then copied back to my external HDD.
But thats very useful info gamecreator, I will follow your instructions tonight to make sure the HDD and contents are safe and check if there was in fact a virus there.
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