Total data loss

[r50cheapskate]

I turned on my computer this morning, and everything seemed normal, but after Outlook said my data file didn't exist, I looked in My Documents, My Pictures, etc. All the folder shells are there, even subfolders, but none of the files themselves.

The hard disk shows twice as much free space, I'm sure it's all gone forever. I do backups every other day, so I've only lost a day's work, but this is very annoying.

I'm going to do a total reload from the recovery discs. Any idea on what caused this and how to prevent it from happening again? Thanks.

[The Counterpart]

Virus? Run a full system scan just to be sure. Also, run chkdisk to make sure that your hard drive is still good.

[jdhurst]

I have to say I have never seen a hardware problem causing files but not their parent folders to corrupt or disappear, so I, too, would say virus.
... JD Hurst

[r50cheapskate]

I don't think it was a virus, but I had been moving around and renaming photo galleries with thousands of high-res photos. Maybe XP just deletes everything in self-defense when it gets bogged down. My experience has been to put no more than 500 photos in any folder.

I had just run scans the day before, and a post-mortem scan also turned up nothing. No worries, it's restored, and I oddly enjoy loading a computer all afresh.

[jdhurst]

I<snip> Maybe XP just deletes everything in self-defense when it gets bogged down.<snip>

Not a chance! ... JDH