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Thread ID: 15298	2002-02-03 13:10:00	Empty Windows	Guest (0)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
34188	2002-02-03 13:10:00	I went to my dad's today to watch the cricket, and he turned on his computer and Windows wouldn't load. I did a bit of snooping, and found, to my astonishment, that the Windows directory was empty, save three files (Explorer.exe plus two others I forget) and the system dir and the temp dir (temp was empty also) All other files and folders were gone. Any ideas how/why? Up-to-date virus checker running both in Windows (win95) and on boot up via DOS, and nothing found, either before he last turned it off, or when he turned it on (the DOS AV worked on boot up)... Nothing has been downloaded lately apart from a modem driver from the modem company's site - and I've redownloaded that and it hasnt caused the same problems, so I don't think its that. Any ideas?	Guest (0)
34189	2002-02-03 19:51:00	At a guess I'd say a finger on the delete at the wrong time.Are the 'hidden' files still there? Jack	Guest (0)
34190	2002-02-03 21:32:00	You might be right Jack! Why else would you turn on the computer when the cricket was on? Surprise surprise, no Windows. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Guest (0)
34191	2002-02-03 21:56:00	Many of the files in Windows, System, Command etc would be in use while Windows is running, so they would be impossible to delete from the shell. That would mean someone deleted them from a DOS prompt. Is your Dad savvy enough to do this? Missing files can occur as a result of damage to the FAT. Is the hard drive healthy? Maybe the FAT is corrupt? Have you done a scandisk from the boot floppy? I know these are the obvious things, but I can't imagine what else would cause those problems. Other than virus activity of course, but you've effectively ruled that out. Man, you sure come up with some doozies, Mike. :-)	Guest (0)
34192	2002-02-03 22:27:00	Andy, My dad is too savvy to go and delete files he knows he needs... takes a lot of typing to delete all but 5 files from the Windows directory, and although dad could have done it, he does know enough not to. The HDD is brand new (well, about 2 months old) and no problems have been found with/on it. We've run scandisk with no result. We haven't entirely ruled out a virus or similar, because the virus definitions were two weeks old, but that is VERY unlikely. Nothing with attachments has come through email (we know that for sure). We're just unsure about the file we downloaded. It did come from a company's website, but that doesn't rule much out. When double clicked the self-extracting file did absolutely nothing, so we deleted it. However the virus checker (AVG) didn't say there was anything wrong with the file - and after we temporarily reinstalled over the top (gonna do a fresh install today) we downloaded the file again and tried it again to see if that's what it was, and this time the computer booted fine, so we're guessing it wasn't that. I know I come up with some doozies... the stupid thing is, none of them ever happen on my own PC. (or perhaps that's a good thing)	Guest (0)
34193	2002-02-03 23:56:00	Maybe Bill got the lads to put in a self-destruct mechanism (added functionality) into the Y2K updates. Nothing like forced obsolescence. Got me too: 'deltree /y \windows' would have taken out the the subirectories as well. And talked a lot while it was doing it. Directory disasters are messy things, not merely files missing. Have you got Norton Utilities or anything else to 'undelete'? DOS 6.22 might work. You'll never get bored with computers to simplify your life, will you Mike?	Guest (0)
34194	2002-02-04 00:55:00	'Maybe Bill got the lads to put in a self-destruct mechanism (added functionality) into the Y2K updates. Nothing like forced obsolescence.' that sounds the most likely answer so far. No DOS commands were executed manually. The only major thing we lost was the emails and address book, so I might try FinalData Recovery on them, but it might not be worth the hassle. I have seriously considered ignoring computers for the rest of my life... but then I'd have nothing to do (if only I could get a job...)	Guest (0)
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