Files mysteriously disappearing from drive ??

[dailymixdowndotcom]

Hi all

Hoping one of you uber smart people can help me figure out wtf is going on in my computer. Long story short: I have a Seagate external drive hooked up. I back all my data up to it. The other day I accessed it and to my shock ALL FILES were gone. Poof. We're talking thousands of files. Weird though, the folder structure/tree was still completely in tact!! Every folder is there, it's just the files that are gone. I used Recuva This and got about 60% of it back. The other 40% is gone forever I guess. Very sad as there were about 500 family images that we lost.

Anyway, I add more files to this drive about three days ago to test. Sure enough they TOO are gone now but their folders are still there! Ugh! Important to note these files are NOT going to the recycle bin for some reason. They are just being zapped from the drive somehow.

SOMETHING/SOMEONE is making my files disappear. This drive is NOT being shared on the network. I ran scan disk and no errors were found. I have run numerous anti virus and spyware removal software and only found some spam trojans. Nothing of the malicious variety (that I know of). I also ran SeaTools and the drive seems fine. I have another USB drive and it is also fine and files are NOT disappearing from it.

Here is my HJT log if it helps.

Has anyone ever heard of this before?

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.3 (BETA)
Scan saved at 2:56:07 PM, on 1/31/2010
Platform: Unknown Windows (WinNT 6.01.3504)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.7600.16385)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\Program Files (x86)\SUPERAntiSpyware\SUPERAntiSpyware.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\LivePerson\Expert\LPExpertMessenger.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\APC\APC PowerChute Personal Edition\apcsystray.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware\AAWTray.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\TrendMicro\HiJackThis\HiJackThis.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://ie.redirect.hp.com/svs/rdr?TY...vilion&pf=cndt
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page = C:\Windows\SysWOW64\blank.htm
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyOverride = *.local
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName =
O1 - Hosts: ::1 localhost
O2 - BHO: SnagIt Toolbar Loader - {00C6482D-C502-44C8-8409-FCE54AD9C208} - C:\Program Files (x86)\TechSmith\Snagit 9\SnagitBHO.dll
O2 - BHO: ContributeBHO Class - {074C1DC5-9320-4A9A-947D-C042949C6216} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\/Adobe Contribute CS4/contributeieplugin.dll
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHelperStub - {18DF081C-E8AD-4283-A596-FA578C2EBDC3} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll
O2 - BHO: Groove GFS Browser Helper - {72853161-30C5-4D22-B7F9-0BBC1D38A37E} - C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~2\Office12\GR469A~1.DLL
O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_07\bin\ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Conversion Toolbar Helper - {AE7CD045-E861-484f-8273-0445EE161910} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEFavClient.dll
O2 - BHO: IE Developer Toolbar BHO - {CC7E636D-39AA-49b6-B511-65413DA137A1} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar\IEDevToolbar.dll
O2 - BHO: SmartSelect - {F4971EE7-DAA0-4053-9964-665D8EE6A077} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEFavClient.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Adobe PDF - {47833539-D0C5-4125-9FA8-0819E2EAAC93} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEFavClient.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Contribute Toolbar - {517BDDE4-E3A7-4570-B21E-2B52B6139FC7} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\/Adobe Contribute CS4/contributeieplugin.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Snagit - {8FF5E183-ABDE-46EB-B09E-D2AAB95CABE3} - C:\Program Files (x86)\TechSmith\Snagit 9\SnagitIEAddin.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Intuit SyncManager] C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intuit\Sync\IntuitSyncManager.exe startup
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Sidebar] C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ehTray.exe] C:\Windows\ehome\ehTray.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Speech Recognition] "C:\Windows\Speech\Common\sapisvr.exe" -SpeechUX -Startup
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [SUPERAntiSpyware] C:\Program Files (x86)\SUPERAntiSpyware\SUPERAntiSpyware.exe
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /autoRun (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\RunOnce: [mctadmin] C:\Windows\System32\mctadmin.exe (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /autoRun (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\RunOnce: [mctadmin] C:\Windows\System32\mctadmin.exe (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O4 - Startup: LivePerson Expert Messenger.lnk = C:\Program Files (x86)\LivePerson\Expert\LPExpertMessenger.exe
O4 - Global Startup: APC UPS Status.lnk = ?
O8 - Extra context menu item: Append Link Target to Existing PDF - res://C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIEAppendSelLinks.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Append to Existing PDF - res://C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIEAppend.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert Link Target to Adobe PDF - res://C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIECaptureSelLinks.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert to Adobe PDF - res://C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIECapture.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~2\Office12\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\PROGRA~2\Java\JRE16~1.0_0\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\PROGRA~2\Java\JRE16~1.0_0\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra button: Send to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~2\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: S&end to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~2\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll
O9 - Extra button: IE Developer Toolbar - {48FFE35F-36D9-44bd-A6CC-1D34414EAC0D} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar\IEDevToolbar.dll
O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~2\Office12\REFIEBAR.DLL
O13 - Gopher Prefix:
O18 - Protocol: grooveLocalGWS - {88FED34C-F0CA-4636-A375-3CB6248B04CD} - C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~2\Office12\GRA32A~1.DLL
O18 - Protocol: intu-help-qb2 - {84D77A00-41B5-4B8B-8ADF-86486D72E749} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Intuit\QuickBooks 2009\HelpAsyncPluggableProtocol.dll
O18 - Protocol: qbwc - {FC598A64-626C-4447-85B8-53150405FD57} - mscoree.dll (file missing)
O20 - Winlogon Notify: !SASWinLogon - C:\Program Files (x86)\SUPERAntiSpyware\SASWINLO.dll
O23 - Service: Adobe Version Cue CS4 - Adobe Systems Incorporated - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe Version Cue CS4\Server\bin\VersionCueCS4.exe
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\Alg.exe,-112 (ALG) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\alg.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: AMD RAIDXpert (AMD_RAIDXpert) - AMD - C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD\RAIDXpert\bin\RAIDXpertService.exe
O23 - Service: APC UPS Service - American Power Conversion Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\APC\APC PowerChute Personal Edition\mainserv.exe
O23 - Service: Apple Mobile Device - Apple Inc. - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\AppleMobileDeviceService.exe
O23 - Service: ASP.NET State Service (aspnet_state) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_state.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: AVG WatchDog (avg9wd) - AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG9\avgwdsvc.exe
O23 - Service: AVG Firewall (avgfws9) - AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG9\avgfws9.exe
O23 - Service: AVG9IDSAgent (AVGIDSAgent) - AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. - C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG9\Identity Protection\Agent\Bin\AVGIDSAgent.exe
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\efssvc.dll,-100 (EFS) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\fxsresm.dll,-118 (Fax) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\fxssvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: FLEXnet Licensing Service - Acresso Software Inc. - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Macrovision Shared\FLEXnet Publisher\FNPLicensingService.exe
O23 - Service: FLEXnet Licensing Service 64 - Acresso Software Inc. - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Macrovision Shared\FLEXnet Publisher\FNPLicensingService64.exe
O23 - Service: HP Easy Backup Button Service (HPBtnSrv) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files (x86)\Hewlett-Packard\HP Easy Backup\HPBtnSrv.exe
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\1050\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe
O23 - Service: iPod Service - Apple Inc. - C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
O23 - Service: @keyiso.dll,-100 (KeyIso) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Lavasoft Ad-Aware Service - Lavasoft - C:\Program Files (x86)\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware\AAWService.exe
O23 - Service: @comres.dll,-2797 (MSDTC) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\msdtc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Nero BackItUp Scheduler 4.0 - Nero AG - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Nero\Nero BackItUp 4\NBService.exe
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\System32\netlogon.dll,-102 (Netlogon) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (nvsvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\nvvsvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\psbase.dll,-300 (ProtectedStorage) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: QBCFMonitorService - Intuit - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intuit\QuickBooks\QBCFMonitorService.exe
O23 - Service: Intuit QuickBooks FCS (QBFCService) - Intuit Inc. - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intuit\QuickBooks\FCS\Intuit.QuickBooks.FCS.exe
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\Locator.exe,-2 (RpcLocator) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\locator.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\samsrv.dll,-1 (SamSs) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\snmptrap.exe,-3 (SNMPTRAP) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\snmptrap.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\spoolsv.exe,-1 (Spooler) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\sppsvc.exe,-101 (sppsvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\sppsvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\ui0detect.exe,-101 (UI0Detect) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\UI0Detect.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\vaultsvc.dll,-1003 (VaultSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\lsass.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\vds.exe,-100 (vds) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\vds.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\vssvc.exe,-102 (VSS) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\vssvc.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\wbengine.exe,-104 (wbengine) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\wbengine.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%Systemroot%\system32\wbem\wmiapsrv.exe,-110 (wmiApSrv) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\wbem\WmiApSrv.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: @%PROGRAMFILES%\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe,-101 (WMPNetworkSvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe (file missing)

 

[Nick_C]

How is the drive connected?
Is the drive permanently attached?
Is the drive formatted NTFS?
How do you disconnect the drive?

 

[dailymixdowndotcom]

Hi Nick and thanks

How is the drive connected?
USB 2.0

Is the drive permanently attached?
Well, if you mean permanant as in "I never detach it" then yes. But it is an external drive of course.

Is the drive formatted NTFS?
Yes

How do you disconnect the drive?
I don't normally disconnect it

 

[kyosho]

I had the same thing happen to me a few months back. I coundn't figure it out so as a last ditch effort I reinstalled Windows. Then poof, all my files showed up. I reinstall Windows every few months anyways to help keep my Computer running quick. Hope this helps.

 

[Ijack]

I wonder if the files had actually disappeared or had just become invisible because of some permissions problem. Had the free space on the drive increased?

 

[mymustache]

I had a problem just like that. I tried all kind of things. What I found was a hacker had gotten into my system. Entered himself as a user (unknown user ). They went into the system as admin. They changed my permissions. Made my files as hidden and removed my permissions to access them. The cure was delete them, reset my permissions and check my files. When I found they were still there I reformated the C drive reloaded the system, checked permissions and access on all drives and reset visitor permissions to almost none. Now I have three (3) remote drives. #1 I use ever day, #2 I use several times a week, #3 I NEVER turn while on line. Good Luck

 

[Guest]

I have a fresh Win7 64 bit installation and experience that programs (ultraedit and ultracompare) suddenly needs reactivation a week after they were installed. In other programs the setting's go away. Lastly I find the exe-files disappear. The program is Calc98 which is a small RPN-calculator. Have no installation file and the files were copied from the old PC. It worked fine but then the exe-files went missing. I am pretty sure that the system's clean and wonder if Win7 is playing games with me.

Btw. This is my first experience with Win7 coming from good ol' XP (miss it dearly). Haven't even figured out how to gain administrator access to my local disks yet. Very troublesome OS indeed if you ask me. Glad I never saw Vista live.

 

[darkace]

My advice would be to check if someone accidentally pulled ur drive without safely removing it. and on the note about the files been invisible, if the files have been turned invisible they would still occupy space on the drive. Did u noticed a reduction in the free space? My other advice is try removing the drive when ur not using it for about a week and see if the same thing happens. If it doesn't than its most likely something to do with ur Windows if it does i would suspect hardware failure

 

[Guest]

Although probably not targeted me I add a follow-up on my situation. All disks were scanned for the missing files. My Altap Salamander (best Norton Commander look-alike around) always show hidden and system-files and there are no trace of 'em. So today I reinstalled my PC - and got it working within 4 hours, with all needed applications installed; a record not counting win 3.11 installations etc.
I had to because the system stopped working. My Delphi-IDE wouldn't start, programs had lost their settings and .. you name it! Because main hard-drive was one of the new hybrid disks from Seagate I suspected it to f... something up and decided to try a regular noisy disk to see it that will help.

 

[Guest]

I have had this happen to me as well. Twice. The first time was after upgrading to Windows 7 I restored a backup of my XP machine. The restore file disappeared after the job finish. I searched for a file that I knew was in that folder, Windows 7 found it and I could open the doc. I found that the file was marked as hidden. I unchecked the hidden box and the folder showed up. This time I am consolidating external hard drives of crap that I have collected, after copying the contents of the old drive to the new one, the folder disappeared. Same thing I can search for file and the folder name and the machine finds it. I am currently change the ownership of the folder to my user account. Basically just adding security perms. I haven't found the KB article that tell how to stop this from happening but when I do I will post it.

 

[Guest]

I have come a long way since the two Win7 reinstallations. The third one works like a charm but the security settings are really a pain. It turns out that if I run a program, add some settings (that are to be saved in a file) it appears to be all right - and if I restart the program the settings haven't disappeared. If I reboot my machine they are gone! Strange inconsequent behavior but it has all to do with the security permissions.

Now UAC is turned off and I really don't see what I should be missing.

 

[jreed_16]

The files are being stored in a separate hidden file system - part of the W7 system that tries to prevent viruses from overwriting system files etc.

Look here:

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\VirtualStore

you should see: ProgramData and Program Files and Program Files (x86)

This is where most of your missing files should be.

 

[jreed_16]

"AppData" is the hidden link

you can either directly type it into the address bar or you can go to the Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization, Folder Options, Show hidden files and folders, and then the AppData folder will show up.

 

[Guest]

The problem was overloaded USB bus.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey