Files disappear from Hard Drive after restoring backup

[OutsiderZA]

Hi,

I'm new to Tom's Hardware and I really hope you can help with this because I can't figure it out. I have windows 8 Professional installed on my computer at work and I usually make backups of other user computers before reinstalling Windows, doing maintenance or whatnot. I've stumbled across a problem that I've never had until about two weeks back. I make backups of a user's harddrive before reinstalling Windows and after everything has been set up, I remove the hard drive and plug it back into the HDD Dock I use for backups. I proceed to copy the user files back to the hard drive before returning the HDD back to the user computer.

Here comes the problem. As soon as I boot up the user computer to make sure everything is working 100% before returning the computer to the user, the files I JUST copied are gone.

This has happened with three different laptops over the last two weeks. I've never had an issue like this before and I can't find anything via Google to help figure out what is going on.

I'm using a Welland Turbo Leopard USB3.0 HDD Dock for backup purposes just incase you need that info.

 

[baddad]

Are they still on the backup drive, and how are you backing up the files?

 

[OutsiderZA]

The backup is still on my computer. I have a few 2TB HDD's I use for backup purposes. The backups are done via the HDD dock (USB)

 

[baddad]

what software are you using to do the backup and restore or are you doing just a copy from drive to drive.

 

[OutsiderZA]

Just using Windows copy

 

[baddad]

Just using Windows copy

Are you able to get the files copied back when you try again?

 

[OutsiderZA]

The backup I made is still on my HDD, but the files on the laptop HDD is gone so I can't copy it back . This is assuming I understand your question

 

[baddad]

Sorry. So you copy the files back onto the hard drive from your computer and when you look at the machine you copied the files too, there gone. I assume you try the operation again. Are they there after you retry?

 

[OutsiderZA]

Nope, same problem. I got the same problem on two brand new Dell laptops I set. All I did was finish the Windows installation plus Office, AV etc and then I removed the HDD's to copy the user data onto them. I thought it might be because of some sort of encryption or something similar on the HDD's but I got the same problem when I put a new SSD into a laptop and set it up from scratch.

 

[OutsiderZA]

What I should also mention is that after the second failed attempt to copy the data to the HDD, I took my external, copied the data to it and copied it onto the laptop. Works 100%

 

[baddad]

All of these machines have the same hardware and software on them?

 

[OutsiderZA]

No, different hardware. They all have Windows 8 installed (different versions), same office and anti virus though

 

[baddad]

What I should also mention is that after the second failed attempt to copy the data to the HDD, I took my external, copied the data to it and copied it onto the laptop. Works 100%

So you've already fixed your problem and just want to know why it happened on those 3 machines?

 

[baddad]

No, different hardware. They all have Windows 8 installed (different versions), same office and anti virus though

Do the 3 machines different W8 version that the other machines have?

 

[OutsiderZA]

So you've already fixed your problem and just want to know why it happened on those 3 machines?

Yes

Do the 3 machines different W8 version that the other machines have?

No, two had Windows 8 single language and the other Windows 8 Pro. Most computers in the company has Professional installed, but there are the odd couple with single language

 

[wevertonwva]

Same problem here, does anyone has the solution for this?

 

[Terminal_X]

Same Problem HERE.... Attached the windows 8 (Home edition) HDD ( from Dell notebook) to my desktop to copy some movies (~120gb) and it copied "some of them" with no particular reason - small or large files - . After i copy them from an external drive all ok . I didn't try to copy the data on the 2nd partition . I experienced also a problem with chkdsk when i reinserted on notebook . i've read that it was caused by "Hybrid boot - enable - " . But there is nothing about copy files .. ( http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/5f477c3d-d914-4c9f-a477-541e7e74945e/windows-8-on-multiboot-system-chkdsk-problems )

 

[amansangral]

Hi I am facing a same like issue Please help,

I had Windows 8.1 working on my laptop and data of 200 GB that i backed up on my desktop and later i Installed Win10 on my laptop with complete formatting the HDD. Now when i copied the data in my HDD back in other drive after installation and installed that HDD in my laptop it is not showing any thing, even in properties i am getting the disk drive completely free, I removed the HDD and used it as an external Drive i can see all data on my Desktop. finally when i copied some files from my OLD data backed up Desktop using a pen-drive, gain pen-drive is showing completely empty on laptop but data is there and i can see that on any other laptop or desktop.

Note Data is not hidden or anything