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Accidently Deleted My Documents Folder

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  • Accidently Deleted My Documents Folder

    Hello, I don't know if I am posting in the right forum. But here goes. I was uploading files to my domain and deleting the files as I went. I thought I was deleting a file within My Documents but after I deleted it, it was My Documents folder and all its contents. I couldn't find it in the recycle bin, it is not on my hard drive under C: and the shortcut folder for My Documents won't open up. Is there anyway that I can get My Documents folder back or is it lost for good? Thank you for your help.

  • #2
    What OS are you using?
    TweakTown SETI@home Team

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    • #3
      Thank you for replying. I am using Windows 98 second edition.

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      • #4
        Please help Mama3chick, she is a good friend of my wife and I.

        I went thru the basics that I could with her, but I was not there, and deemed it better to just send her on to the pros...

        Please help!!!

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        • #5
          Well, There are programs out there that can let you browse your empty hard drive space for what you have deleted.... I have one that only works for W2K, and I think someone will be able to help you, BUT if you want the best chance of getting the stuff back, DO NOT USE THE COMPUTER. Browsing the internet will download images and whatnot and these images will be written to the places your DOCUMENTS WERE.

          Do not download anything, and if someone here has a program for 98SE, you will want to delete EVERYTHING you can before installing it, in hopes of NOT installing it over your precious documents....

          DO not defrag... If you have defragged or download 50 megs or more since, I'd say your documents are history.

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          • #6
            Thank you for replying. I haven't been doing anything except trying to figure out how to get the files back. I knew I didn't want to reboot my computer, but didn't know about downloading or defragmenting until I could see if I could get back this folder. I don't have the program that you were talking about but I will most definitely be getting it now.

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            • #7
              There use to be a few software programs that could search ya drive for deleted files but atm I can't find any. :smokin:
              :cheers:

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              • #8
                Ok, let me clarify a bit....

                W2K = windows 2000
                You can reboot the computer all you want. The hard drive does not require electricity to remember its contents.

                If someone here knows of a program to browse for your deleted files, then what I meant in my last post was... You will want to delete old files and uninstall programs you do not use. What this will do is free up physical space on the hard drive, and so when you get the program (that browses for deleted files) it WILL NOT install OVER the stuff you want to keep....

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                • #9
                  Sorry, but if you turn off the power chances are very high that Windows will write over the data that has been deleted, making recovery (almost) impossible..... when a file is deleted it doesn't get rid of the data - the "free space" flag on the sector is set to yes, so that anything can overwrite it :cry:
                  What came first - Insanity or Society?

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                  • #10
                    hmm... you would think that windows would put some safety non-delete able thing on the folder
                    TweakTown SETI@home Team

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                    • #11
                      Albinus, that is a pretty silly comment from what knowledge I have....

                      If you delete something, Windows doesn't protect it or something, it just updates the FAT tables with the deleted data no longer existing, allowing the space to be used on other things. Restarting has Nothing to do with that.....

                      And thast why I say go into add/remove programs and start uninstalling programs you don't need, this way if Windows does need some space to write to (which is not uncommon!) that it will write to a blank space that you just created by doing some un-installations...

                      And of course when she attempts to instal a program that will let her find her lost programs, I would hope that by uninstalling a bunch of programs, you would decrease the likelyhood of writing over open spaces that contain the stuff she wants...

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                      • #12
                        Hello,

                        Thank you everyone for the replies to my post. I have been unable to find the program that would let me recover My Documents folder. I don't know why it let me delete it in the first place because I thought I was deleting a file within it but it did and it is a lesson well learned from this mistake that I will now learn to back up and double check what I am deleting.

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                        • #13
                          Erm.......... did u just remove it from the desktop?

                          anyway here is how to get it back SHOULD work

                          1) Open My Computer
                          2) Open C drive
                          3) Their should be a folder called My Documents
                          4) Right Click it
                          5) Select Add item to desktop!

                          All done ;)

                          Sammy :afro:

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                          • #14
                            Oh .... didn't read properly

                            Well try what i said

                            If it isnt their then Create it... or get someone who else is on windows 98 to upload it through FTP or somthing to your desktop then create the folder in C:\

                            Well Good luck

                            Sammy :wave:

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by zeradul
                              Albinus, that is a pretty silly comment from what knowledge I have....

                              Well, from what knowledge I have it is a perfectly valid comment.

                              During system startup, Windows uses oodles more virtual memory than it normally does. This is to facilitate correct loading of the system drivers and the like. If a file is deleted, it sets the flag bit to "free". Guess what? Windows isn't picky on which area of the disk it writes to - it goes towards the beginining of the drive (because the transfer rate is faster).

                              This is how disk fragmentation occurs - when a file is deleted near the start of the disk, Windows puts something else in there when needed due to the extra speed gained by placing it there. When this occurs several times, it creates, you guessed it, file fragmentation.

                              I have been unsuccessful recovering lost data many a time because the machine was rebooted - when I have been able to recover deleted files it has always been when the user turned the machine OFF and left it off. Then start off a Windows 98SE boot disk and run the drive diagnostics/recovery utility.

                              Also remember that NTFS partitions index all files - you remove the index, NTFS doesn't have a clue where the recovered file goes

                              So every time you reboot - you're overwriting old deleted data more than likely - sorry ;)
                              What came first - Insanity or Society?

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