Problems with My Documents

Hi,

I am running Windows XP professional and have found that over the weekend most of the files and folders in My Documents have disappeared.

Unfortunately Norton Ghost does not want to help with restoring from my backups.

I am now in the situation that when I create a new file or folder I cannot see it in My Documents. However if I create a file or folder of the same name I am told that it already exists!!

I am very confused as to what is happening here. My virus protection is uptodate and, as far as I can tell, I dot't have any malware or spyware running - I use Windows Defender and WebRoot Spy Sweeper and check on a daily basis.

Any help will be most appreciated.

Best wishes

Frank Metcalf

 

frankm--I understand the problem is not that you have deleted the files and folders, but rather that you cannot see them.
Since you know the names of some of the missing files, run a Search for one or more of them to see where they now reside. Click on them. Will they open?
There are several My Documents folders in WinXP (who knows why). The default location is C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents. But that could have somehow changed. Perhaps you are looking in the wrong folder?
It really does not matter where you put My Documents, except that certain programs, like Word, need to be told where it is, since they assume a Default location. Maybe whatever program you are using to save new files in My Documents is putting them in an unexpected place.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310147
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_mydocs.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=221837&sd=RMVP

 

Welshjim - thank you for your reply but in this case it didn't help me as I found that my disk had a faulton it and some segments were unreadable.

I ran chkdsk withthe /r option and a good few hours later, not helped by a 3 hour power cut courtesy of nPower, the disk got rebuilt and the files are now accessible.

Now to save the data elsewhere and start to look for a replacement disk.

Thank you again for your advice.

Best wishes

Frank Metcalf

 

frankm--Thanks for posting back. Good solution. What led you to consider disk problems?

 

Welshjim - I wish I knew why I thought of disk problems but I have to confess that it was a case of straw grasping.

I looked at what you had sent and checked out - everything seemed OK in that the path names etc. were correct. However everytime I saved a document or created a folder I did not get an error but I could not see them in any folder. When I created a duplicate file or form I was told it already existed. Search did not find anything either so chkdsk was a last resort before going to the local computer support firm!!

Chksdsk reported lots of errors so I did the /r option and, this time, everything was restored. Currently backing up to zip files etc. before buying a new disk,

Thanks for your help.

Best wishes

Frank