Question Folder Disappear when moved

naviseyer

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Got a call this morning that a folder on the server was missing... The folder is over 100gigs and something that gets used everyday.
i remote into the server and its not visible but the size of the server is the same as yesterday , I check previous versions or shadow copies and the folder is there
as of yesterday at noon . I didnt just want to restore i want to get to the bottom of this we never had the issue before . So i hurry up into work.

I cant find this file any where i have done searches, checked event viewer ,checked audit log and it no where . For the purpose of testing i drag and dropped 1 folder into another which is a common user error and if the folder is large is disappears if the folder is small it is moved . So now i have lost 2 very large very important folders. I cant restore from shadow copies because the folders are both so large i dont have room on my server to accommodate them. I know there somewhere on here again the size of the server did not change from yesterday to this morning or when i moved and lost the second folder while testing.

Can anyone suggest anything. I may have to call mocrosoft and pay 500 for a support call but i would really prefer not to.

For those that dont know me ... I am in a small office environment . We have about 20 computers but we are down to about 8 users since covid ,
we are running a dell Rack server ... Running windows 2012 R2.. I have it set up as a host with 2 VHDs. One Vhd is our DNS server and it holds several shared drives , The second Vhd is just for QuickBooks and only runs the QuickBooks software and host a few QB files .

Can anyone give me any ideas? Is there a software i can use to scan these drives for these files besides the normal search.

Also i turned on and off the folder option of showing hidden files just in case but it didn't change anything . I searched by filters other then just the name of the folder . Im really at a lost here...

Thanks for any help.
 

naviseyer

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Nov 8, 2016
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how full is the disk?
check malware/virus scan log?

what the storage setup on this dell rack?
Its a total of 2 TB .. The Vhds are set up - host 300gigs / VHD 1 has 1 tb total but only 100 gigs available /VHD 2-is 300gigs with 179 gigs available

I could increase the alloted size for VHD 1 only because someone here helped me out last weekend but i want to figure this out not scar patch it.

the folders missing contain our bid folders for the last couple years .
 
Can you run chkdsk on a vhd? If so, I'd try that and see if there's any errors.

This kinda sounds just like a software issue, so the first thing I would do is reboot the server from a cold start.

Here's what I would do if in your shoes--go grab some external drives and restore from your backup and get the users back online using those (be sure they get backed up too). Then I would power down the server and see if you can use a linux live cd/usb to look at your vhds and actual HDs as well.
 
Got a call this morning that a folder on the server was missing... The folder is over 100gigs and something that gets used everyday.
i remote into the server and its not visible but the size of the server is the same as yesterday , I check previous versions or shadow copies and the folder is there
as of yesterday at noon . I didnt just want to restore i want to get to the bottom of this we never had the issue before . So i hurry up into work.

I cant find this file any where i have done searches, checked event viewer ,checked audit log and it no where . For the purpose of testing i drag and dropped 1 folder into another which is a common user error and if the folder is large is disappears if the folder is small it is moved . So now i have lost 2 very large very important folders. I cant restore from shadow copies because the folders are both so large i dont have room on my server to accommodate them. I know there somewhere on here again the size of the server did not change from yesterday to this morning or when i moved and lost the second folder while testing.

Can anyone suggest anything. I may have to call mocrosoft and pay 500 for a support call but i would really prefer not to.

For those that dont know me ... I am in a small office environment . We have about 20 computers but we are down to about 8 users since covid ,
we are running a dell Rack server ... Running windows 2012 R2.. I have it set up as a host with 2 VHDs. One Vhd is our DNS server and it holds several shared drives , The second Vhd is just for QuickBooks and only runs the QuickBooks software and host a few QB files .

Can anyone give me any ideas? Is there a software i can use to scan these drives for these files besides the normal search.

Also i turned on and off the folder option of showing hidden files just in case but it didn't change anything . I searched by filters other then just the name of the folder . Im really at a lost here...

Thanks for any help.

Shadow copies are not really for backups, there are no actual backups of the files done? What if the drive failed?

Issue may be with your free space which is right at that folder size. I have seen files and directories that were moved, when there was some odd system issue and they just disappeared, not in the original place but also not in the place they were moved to.
 

naviseyer

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Shadow copies are not really for backups, there are no actual backups of the files done? What if the drive failed?

Issue may be with your free space which is right at that folder size. I have seen files and directories that were moved, when there was some odd system issue and they just disappeared, not in the original place but also not in the place they were moved to.

Well first i wanted to assure you i have backups and offsite backups set up incase we get ransomware or a drive crashes.

I think you hit the nail on the head. I was able to find the 2 missing folders the were on the same drive but they were 2 or 3 folders deep. The first one im sure happened by accident . It a common user error that and creating shortcuts all over the place.
The 2nd one i moved myself because i know my users constantly make this error. So when i moved the 2nd folder i was 100 percent sure where i moved it to but it disappeared.

After a few more searches i was able to find the both of them . What has me perplexed is when i tried to move a smaller size folder it ended up where i put it and the larger ones did not . Granted i cant say that 100 percent about the first large folder that was missing but the one i moved i am 100 percent sure on.

For now the crisis was avoided . I was a few steps away from the 500 dollar call to commercial support . So thank you for the help.

Any other ideas please let me know i really want to get to the bottom of this . Its not an emergency
now but its still an issue that i like to rectify.

Best

Ivan
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Any other ideas please let me know i really want to get to the bottom of this .
User training:
Always Copy/Paste, never 'Move'.
After verification it all exists in the target location, THEN delete from the original.

A large folder is too large for the Recycle Bin. Hence, a 'Move' function will simply delete willynilly.
If there is not enough free space on the drive to Copy/Paste first, that needs to be addressed.
 

naviseyer

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Nov 8, 2016
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That is what i am thinking as well the 2 folders that were moved are both larger then the free or unused space. I am going to increase the size of the VHD over this weekend. Thanks to the support of this website i was finally able to figure it out. The issue i was encountering was because i create a check point on both VHDs every 2 weeks it would not allow me to resize it. I have to delete the check points and then resize.
So after i get it resized i will test again by moving one of the larger folders . Hopefully it will end up right where it is supposed to if it doesnt i gotta get back to the drawing board. User creating shortcuts all over the place and moving folders by mistake are pretty common and it took me about 2-3 hrs of searching before i was able to find them and move them back. Dont need that headache again.

thank you again for your help.
 
@SamirD

"One of the biggest problems with users is they will mess with anything you give them permission to do--lock it all down and they'll behave. "

Agree.

Works until the office primadonna complains and the boss caves in and the allows the person full rights.

@naviseyer

Keep those backups going.....
That's when their system just stops booting or loses all of their work 'all of a sudden'. :D

Never let the user ever forget who's really in charge of IT. And even remind the boss once in a while that IT people and general staff can easily get another job--can their boss when their company gets compromised and destroyed via an employee's wanton poor online hygiene?