cannot see my files anywhere

[ferlach]

A few days ago my OS crashed.

I thought first it was the HD, but I have been able to continue using the pc.
What happend was this, suddenly my pc rebooted and when I got my desktop back, none of my files and folders where visible and when I went to My Documents and Favorite folder they appeared to be empty and also my internet connection was gone. I know they are there because the abount of used space of the HD has stayed the same.
In addition all the shorcuts on the taskbar disppeared.
I had google earth on my desktop, and for some reason that application disappeared and also cannot be found in the program folder.

I reinstalled the internet connection, put up new shortcuts, reinstalled google earth and worked on some files and saved them to the desktop. I then turned off the pc.

The next day when I wanted to continue working on the files, they and everything I had done the previous day was gone. I checked the command prompt and the only prompt that I got was c:\\documents and settings\desktop\TEMP.
I tried but could not get to the c prompt.

For the next few days I limited myself to email and some internet searches and saved the few things I did to a thumb drive and to avoided restoring things I hibernated the pc. I was also afraid to use any application as I do not know if this will cause me problems, and this is my only working pc - it is my desktop.

Last night I had to shut it down in order to clean out the ram and when I turned it on this morning I did not have to re-establish the internet connection and when I checked the prompt it gave me the c:\\documents and settings\administrator.Mxxx> folder.
I do not understand this.

I still cannot see any of my files on the c drive, but I can now save files to the desktop and they stay there. I continue to save to the thumb drive, but was just testing the desktop.
I would like for someone to tell me what happend to my computer.
Was I right in suspecting that it was the OS that is causing my inability to see my files and folders and what can I do in order to get all my files back.
It was suggested that I use chkdsk command with the /f switch to see if that will reconnect me with my files.

I did and it ran successfully but still no files.
Does anybody have any idea of other options to try?

AM DESPARATE

 

[vacunita]

It was probably the result of a corrupted Profile.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\

Thee should be a few folders there. Pick the one named the same as your user Probably Administrator. If there is more than one try them all, although my bet would be on the one without any extensions i.e not administrator.Mxxx just plain Administrator.

And then navigate in there into My Documents or My Desktop. Hopefully you should see your files and folders.

If you can then, yes it was a Corrupted Folder. And Windows Created a new Temporary one.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[ferlach]

I want to thank you very much for your advice, IT WAS PERFECT. NO ONE else seemed to know about this. You are a genius!
I was able to find it ALL under administrator.bak and have backed it up.

I would like you to help me understand what had happend.

A few weeks ago, I run avg, it inticated that the user32, kernel32 and ntoskrnl had changed, not infected but changed. No one could tell me why that had happend or told me that I should do something. Some time later my personal setting was gone so I used the default, which I think led to the os crashing, from what you seem to indicate, if I understand you correctly.
Now I know that I should not have continued on my merry way, but have done something about it.
BUT what would I have had to do?
Immediatly backup everything and reinstall the os?
Move those 3 files from the 2000cd onto the HD?
Can one really do that?
Or???

 

[vacunita]

Those files can change for a variety of reasons. Normally it would be because Windows Updates makes changes to them when needed. so they would be different to what the AVG scanner had picked up before.
That would probably have nothing to do with the profile corrupting.

The OS crashing was probably the result of the Profile getting Corrupt, and Windows no longer being able to read from it, this can also happen for a variety of reasons, the most common one seems to be when windows is trying to save a setting onto the profile, and for some reason can't do it, or is interrupted in the middle of it. The Profile is then corrupted. This means the little file that controls the settings for the profile cannot be read or accessed. However as you have discovered files and folders remain intact in their original locations.

The normal course of action, would have been to browse to the folder in question, get the data out, and then create a new profile.

Its not something that would require a re-install of the Os or anything major.







----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[ferlach]

..."The normal course of action, would have been to browse to the folder in question, get the data out, and then create a new profile."

I did notice that the os kernel changed after an MS update, so that I can understand.

About the above sentence could you please be more specific.
Which folder in question do mean? Also where would I go to get the personal settings? Is that not in one the registry keys HKEY/USER/..?

How do you create a new profile?

 

[vacunita]

The folder in question, would be: The Administrator folder where you found your files. In reality, it would be the folder that is named the same as the user you are currently logged in as.

Personal settings are stored in the registry, however:
The Registry is made up of data stored in a set of files that reside on your computer's hard drive. When Windows starts, the appropriate information is copied from these files and loaded into memory to serve as the Registry.

One of the files containing Registry data is NTUser.dat. NTUser.dat holds configuration (or personal settings data) data that is specific to the current user of the computer. When you log on to your computer, Windows loads the version of NTUser.dat that corresponds to the username you used to log on. In this way, your personal settings get loaded whenever you log onto the computer.

When that file corrupts, for whatever reason, Windows can no longer read from it to create the registry. so it creates a temporary user profile, to let you access the machine.

To create a new profile go to control Panel then click on Users or User Accounts, and create a new one (that is a user profile).



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.