Data has dissapeared from my PC, for no Reason, how do i restore it?

[Remyisme]

Hi. I'm soory, I was not sure where to post this.

I wanted to make a dvd with chapters using the womble mpeg video wizard DVD, and i had three tv programmes i wanted to make the dvd from, so i started working on this, and than i clicked the export button, to start the dvd making, but few seconds after i stopped it because i realised i forgot something. So than I was doing my changes. and all of a sudden, i see, that some of my files dissapeared! I had a derictory with this 3 tv materials, but i also had some other stuff there. like a folder with pictures, it was around 1 GB, and few other mp3s and things, Not everything has disappeared, some stuff stayed, but this is an enigma, how did it happen? I didn't delete this stuff or moved them. I herd there is a way to bring this things back somehow, I hope someone knows and can help me, please how to do this.

[zoobie]

I'm afraid you're going to have to delve into the dark world of data recovery....filled with scams and whatnot....however, there are a few good free aps that seems to work...they escape me at the mo...perhaps do a search here and there...in the meantime, try to not save much to your HDD to preserve it's current state

[guns1inger]

Data doesn't disappear for no reason.

If something deleted it (and poorly programmed software may do this, as may poorly programmed users) then most data recovery tools should be able to get it back. There are several good free tools, but they will only work if you haven't over-written the area where the files were, so don't start copying files etc until you get this sorted.

If the data has gone because of a damaged or failing HDD (and it is unlikely you would see that data just vanish if this was the case, you get errors etc before that point) then it becomes much trickier.

Start with recuva and see how you go : http://www.recuva.com/

[lordsmurf]

I've seen Windows "automatic cleanup" options (turned on by default!) remove user data.