I deleted some folders from desktop and can not find

[cbk]

I deleted some folders from desktop and can not find.

I am sure a common question but really need some help.

I do not remember this happening but a few days ago I put 2 folders on my desk top and must have deleted them and then sent to recycle bin and deleted from there I am very good at not doing that and again do not remember doing that. I searched everywhere. I do not have any money so I downloaded a free file recovery software "Pandora recovery".

In the folders that where deleted one was about 100 saved website links, the other one was about 15 word docs.

I searched in the Pandora file recovery software for the names of the folders and can not find, I searched names of the word docs in the folder and can not find, I did find other stuff I deleted years ago. It doesnt look like my files are anywhwere in the deleted section.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where the folders might be? When you delete folders does the contents get spread out so I can search for the files in the folder by name?

Thanks Steve

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi,
When you delete files they are still where you left them, windows just changes information in the listing so that they disappear from any normal view. If you start saving other files, they can be written over the old deleted files making the old files un-recoverable.
If you have deleted the files from the desk top and from the recycle bin, they should be able to be found unless you have saved information over them (you do not control where windows writes info on your hard drive).
Try downloading another program to locate deleted files (there are heaps of free ones on the net) and see if they can find them, if not I would say they are gone forever, sorry, well at least, I have no idea how to recover them.

[Ancient Dragon]

The morale of the story -- always make backups of inportant files. Your computer has floppy and CD RW drives for a purpose -- use them.

[cbk]

No floppy does not work, No CD Rw disk on computer, older e-machine unit. You cant give better relative information then that Ancient Dragon?

[abu taher]

You cann't recover them. I know so far, there is no software to recover them. If you do not any work after delete as like bob said then you can recover it. now you cann't recover it.

[caperjack]

hi ,try this recover program ,worked for me
http://www.recuva.com/

[Bob_180_Bob]

Hi,
A thumb drive is the cheapest way around your backup problem, you could get all your word docs easily on a 1 gig stick.
Caperjack has recommended a recovery program that is very good but if that will not find them, try others free from the net. If after 3 attempts you are still unsuccessful, I would say you have lost them forever.

[cbk]

Thanks guys for the feedback. I tried Pandora and found nothing. I am using Recuva and found nothing yet but still searching.

But here is the odd thing, in the Recuva search I found almost every file I deleted in the past 5 years or so and most say 100% written and unrecoverable but it still shows the file names and last modified but I can not find one single file that I am looking for from the folders I supposedly deleted 5 days ago, almost like I never deleted it, but I still can not find on my computer, could it be hidden somewhere?

thanks

[gerbil]

If you think that the folders may still be on your desktop, but hidden, go start, run, and enter:
cmd
In the cmd window enter in sequence:
cd desktop
dir /a/s

A file finder which I can recommend is REST2514.EXE
-use another machine to dl it to a thumb or floppy, and then run it from that. That way you reduce the risk of overwriting deleted files. Finds files you did a Shift+del job on, also.

[caperjack]

I deleted some folders from desktop and can not find.

I do not remember this happening but a few days ago I put 2 folders on my desk top and must have deleted them and then sent to recycle bin and deleted from there I am very good at not doing that and again do not remember doing that.

Giving that ,is it possible you dreamed you actuall had the folders on the desktop !lol
just kidding ,but if you don't remember deleting how can you say you then emptied the recycle bin! if 2 programs don't find them in recycle bin but fine file reference to the last 5 years its possible you didn't actually delete these folders to the bin ! so where are they ,not sure ,do you have more that one user ,like 2 and the files were saved on the other users desktop !nut i know
check this path to have a look, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop

[cbk]

I wish I only dreamed it.

What happened was I had the 2 folders in a briefcase but every time I opened up those folders in the briefcase and tried to open a file I kept getting an error that I cant open because "another computer was using that briefcase or document?" or something like that, I do not know what that means so I copied and pasted the folders out of the briefcase onto the desktop and started using but forgot to put them back in the briefcase, a couple days later they were gone from the desktop.

I will try what you and gerbil just replied.

Thanks

[abu taher]

You can use "Tiramishu" software for recover this. It work with fat32. and you strart it with ms dos mode. You can recover what you deleted.

[steven woodman]

This might sound stupid, but i didnt see a mention of an actual general search of you pc. What i mean is start menu-search and just type a file name there. I dont mean to insult you if you have done this, but i dont think it has been mentioned.

[cbk]

Yes I have done a search on my computer for files first and a few more times since, the only thing I have found was on the dates around the time I brought folder to desk top I found my folder under a ".ink" under "Recent Documents" but when I open it goes to missing link.

I still have not found the files under file recoveries anywhere.

[Frank Wallis]

If you think that the folders may still be on your desktop, but hidden, go start, run, and enter:
cmd
In the cmd window enter in sequence:
cd desktop
dir /a/s

A file finder which I can recommend is REST2514.EXE
-use another machine to dl it to a thumb or floppy, and then run it from that. That way you reduce the risk of overwriting deleted files. Finds files you did a Shift+del job on, also.

I wanted to confirm about this command that you have just quoted,
is there a space between dir and /a/s?

When I type this command in the command prompt ,I get the messege:
"The system cannot find the path specified"

Does this messege means that there is no hidden folder on the desktop?

[johnny80]

Have you tried searching your computer, but with hidden folders? Maybe you moved it to a hidden folder or you made them hidden.

When you go to start > Search > type the name of the folder. Then go to the Advanced options, and select search hidden.

If you already did, then that's cool, but if you haven't then it's worth a try.

[gerbil]

The /a and /s are parameters, the / identifies them as such, and cmd.exe can distinguish them so you can use a space, or not. dir /a /s, dir/a/s or dir /a/s will all work. Your cmd prompt if you did as i said should be
C:\Documents & Settings\Frank\Desktop
If you then enter dir/a/s and get path not found error that is passingly strange.. cos you are already in the directory; that is the path being used by the dir command. Intresting.
Ah, I know what yyou are doing wrong... I think... use fwd slashes for parameters, not backslashes. If you use backslashes like dir \a\s you are specifying a desktop folder called "" ie"nothing", and if you do not have such a beast you will get a path not found error. If you entered dir a/s you might instead get a file not found error.

[rizzan]

hello i have a answer of your question and answers is that go to start menue and select a serch and then select all files and folders on the left side of the screen and then chose the destinatination is desktop and then click serch if he did not show ur file then click further serch on included hidden file after the first serch

[kingy55]

Hi you could always try pc inspector file recovery

www.snipurl.com/4cui3

[kingy55]

Hi you could always try pc inspector file recovery it does work

www.snipurl.com/4cui3