can't find my files

[dalgin]

okay, I am using windows XP and I can not find my files in mydocuments folder,
I did not delete them and I used data recovery program to see if I deleted them by mistake, but recovery program found all the files I deleted up to a year ago, but still can not find my new files.
so here are the facts :
I did not delete them
I used data recovery program to see them, and it was no help.
it seems like my files just disappeared. I would appreciate any help towards solving this problem.
thanks.

 

[wjsulliv]

Hmm... Windows XP?

Have you installed SP1? If not have you visited any sites that you might not be totally conforatable that they are safe? You do know that there is a hole in windows XP (prior to SP1) that allows other people to delete files from your computer via a url.

Other than that try searching for the file name. Maybe you put it in a different folder by accident?

 

[earthman]

Even if they were deleted by a malicious website, why couldn't he recover them? They should still be there in deleted form.

 

[Nothinman]

Even if they were deleted by a malicious website, why couldn't he recover them? They should still be there in deleted form.

Because every filesystem write potentially overwrites the blocks that held the data he's looking for. The more he uses the disk the better chance the data is overwritten.

 

[earthman]

If he's finding files from a year ago then I doubt all his recent files and folders were overwritten this way... unless there's some new twist to this thing I haven't heard about yet....

 

[Nothinman]

If he's finding files from a year ago then I doubt all his recent files and folders were overwritten this way... unless there's some new twist to this thing I haven't heard about yet....

It's possible the files he deleted yesterday were overwritten while the ones from last year weren't, it all depends on which blocks the fs driver decides to put things in. And just because it can find the filename doesn't mean it can recover the data, it's possible only parts of it were overwritten.