Windows Vista Disappearing Files and Folders

Hi,

First, I know there are other posts about this, but I think mine is slightly different to what I've found so far. Also, thank you in advance for any help!! (Sorry it's long!)

Here is the background to the situation. You can skip this and read the actual situation if you like!:

My parent's laptop got infected with a virus, which I removed for them and everything worked absolutely fine. A few days later (and seemingly unrelated), the computer crashed and would not restart. It simply blue screened on normal start up or any of the safe modes. It wouldn't even scan the drive for errors. I know this sounds like a hardware fault, but I found a way to get to the dos prompt, which allowed me to copy their files to a memory stick. I could open files from dos, scan the directories, etc. There were no access issues with the documents. I backed up all their files and started a Toshiba recovery, which should have wiped the C drive and reinstalled Vista to the factory settings, using the recovery files from the D drive.
This seemed to work absolutely fine, but I started to notice a few files on the C drive that should have been wiped. For example, there were some Office installation files and shortcuts that prevented me from reinstalling Office. I manually removed all Office files, following instructions from the Microsoft site, and installed Office, AVG, Registry Mechanic, iTunes, CDex, Picassa, SopCast and Windows Live Messenger.
Everything went well and the laptop seemed to be getting healthy!
I moved their documents back to their laptop (very stupid of me. I should have copied the files. I don't know why I moved them). The files were things like Documents, Downloads, Favo(u)rites, Music, Pictures, etc.
I then set Windows updating.




The actual issue:

After updating, I clicked on the Documents Favourite Link in Explorer. No files came up, so I clicked on the user folder and I saw duplicates of every folder. I thought this might be because I copied the files and folders straight back into the user folder and for some reason, Vista didn't recognise them as the official documents, downloads, music, etc folders.
I copied (yes copied this time!) the documents from the new folders into the "official" folders (the ones that the favourite links link to) and sent the old Documents folder to the recycle bin. Everything looked OK, but when I went back to the documents a few minutes later, it was empty again.
Annoying as it was, I thought I'd restore the old folder and see what I could do. However, even though there were other files in the recycle bin, the old folder was nowhere to be found.

I used Restorer2000 Pro to scan the drive and see if it could find the files, but with no luck. They have simply disappeared.

I then noticed that my recycle bin is now completely empty, even though I had other files in there before. Where are these files going?!

Does anyone have any suggestions as to my next actions?!

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite Pro running Windows Vista Home Premium SP1. 2GHz processor, 2GB Ram.

Once again, sorry it's long.

 

Hi thebronsonite,

You may still be infected. Please create a new thread in the Malware and Virus Removal forum.

Usually strange faults are caused by this
That or faulty physical Hard drive or RAM

 

Hi,

It doesn't look like it's Malware or anything suspicious, so I've been advised to come back to this thread.

See here for details.

Thank you!

 

My guess is the Toshiba restore/recovery system doesn't actually wipe the C drive like it says it will and whatever's left over caused issues when I restored the files to the user folder.

I still don't see how any of the documents wouldn't be found by the recovery software though.
Luckily they weren't that important.

 

My issue is sort of similar, so I thought I could post it here?

My computer didn't have a virus, and it didn't crash. But one of my folders just disappeared...I was trying to add a folder of music to my iTunes, and it didn't transfer. When I went to check my files to transfer it again, it was gone. It was a sub-folder under an artist in the iTunes/iTunes Music section, and i've used it several times before. [my gf records "audiospam" and I save it to that folder and add it, so I use the folder semi-often] Some of the artists in my iTunes had been deleted somehow, and I was trying to add this particular folder first, and it just disappeared.... I've looked everywhere for the folder, or any of the files, and I can't find any of them. They aren't in the recycle bin either.... These files are pretty important to me, and I'd really like to find them, or at least 1, if that's all I get. Does anyone have any ideas of what could have happened? Any and all help is HIGHLY appreciated.... If it helps, I'm using windows Vista, and my computer is a Compaq Presario CQ60 .... I'm not very savvy with computers, or parts, or different programs or anything, but I know my way around mine well enough, and i've been able to figure some minor things out on my own. But this is different, I can't find any advice for a situation similar to mine, and these files are really important to me.... If you can help, PLEASE do. I'll answer any questions you have or need answers for to help solve this. Thanks in advance. P.S. I looked around and didn't find anywhere else I could post this... i'm new [obviously] and I apologize if this is in fact in the wrong place. :$