I have been having bootup problems recently, and I have to press the restart button on my computer at least a couple times before it actually starts up. it usually just goes to a black screen. A couple weeks ago, I started up, walked away, and when I came back it was running Chkdsk. It booted back up fine, and I didn't notice anything. Today, I got this balloon message that said "The folder C:\My Documents is corrupt or unreadable." So I went to My documents and it seemed fine. I opened a few docs and everything was good. Then, I plugged in my usb flash drive and tried to copy everything in case something bad happened. It said "Cannot copy because the file [some name].doc is corrupted". So I went and tried to delete it but it said it couldn't delete. I have the files arranged in alphabetical order, and i scrolled down to find that there were no files past G left in the My Docs folder! OH NO!!! 3/4 of my files are gone!!! This folder contains 30 years worth of financial, personal, my kid's school work, my work, and other incredibly important timeless and priceless information! I am panicking now. I think Chkdsk may have deleted them. Why did it have to pick this folder??? At least I keep my pictures and music in separate folders, otherwise it would have really been bad...
Anyway, that's my story. I have looked into professional data recover, and it looks like it is going to cost over $700. I do not have that much money. I really don't want to make it worse by running some utility I know nothing about. What should I do?
I found THIS PAGE which is a review of the software. I am using Windows XP btw.
However, I was wondering just how this software could find my files? I have 1000s of doc files and I can't just search for each by name, and if I just search for *.doc files, how would I know which ones were originally in My Documents? Will any of these programs be able to restore the files back into My Documents?
Oh yeah, and do you think the files were only deleted when I go the balloon message, or when chkdsk a week ago? I hope I haven't been overwriting the disk with data and saving over my files!
As you can tell, I am deeply distressed, and I need help desperately.
I thank anyone who can offer my some advice!
Anyway, that's my story. I have looked into professional data recover, and it looks like it is going to cost over $700. I do not have that much money. I really don't want to make it worse by running some utility I know nothing about. What should I do?
I found THIS PAGE which is a review of the software. I am using Windows XP btw.
However, I was wondering just how this software could find my files? I have 1000s of doc files and I can't just search for each by name, and if I just search for *.doc files, how would I know which ones were originally in My Documents? Will any of these programs be able to restore the files back into My Documents?
Oh yeah, and do you think the files were only deleted when I go the balloon message, or when chkdsk a week ago? I hope I haven't been overwriting the disk with data and saving over my files!
As you can tell, I am deeply distressed, and I need help desperately.
I thank anyone who can offer my some advice!