Windows 7 External drive deletes files randomly

[Sp34k]

Dear everyone,

I've tried to explain my problem as good as I could, please do not be afraid of asking for more informations I hope you guys can somehow help me out.

TLDR

My external harddrive randomly removes files after installing new motherboard + processor. Some of the files can be found using the software easeus but not every file.

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When the problem occured:

I bought 3 new hardware + a monitor:
1. Asus Z97-E motherboard
2. Intel i7 4790
3. Geforce GTX 970
4. Samsung 4k monitor

I reinstalled windows and updated it including all hardware drivers from the manifactures website.
When I installed windows to Drive C, all my external harddrives was connected to the motherboard via. sata cables and not USB.

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What happend after Window was installed?

After windows was installed my external harddrives was renamed to Local Disk and the harddrive Type is Local Disk.

1. All the harddrives had new disk letters.
2. I opened a harddrive and noticed that many of my folders were gone.
3. Instead I had RECYCLER and $RECYCLE.BIN and a folder with a random name: "bb7d90d4437930a07e28a7bf"

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The files must be there, here's why

Harddrive G: has 931gb in total
Harddrive G: has 293gb free
If I access Harddrive G, mark everything and click Properties it tells me that everything fills 492gb

That doesn't make sense?

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Using easeUS

I downloaded trial version of easeUS and found some of my files in the scan. I can't restore then though but I found some of them, but not all. Most of my files were collected in a folder entitled Knoll Software which is a plugin I use for Photoshop. That doesn't make sense though.

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Troubleshooting

Show hidden folders:
I tried going to Folder Options -> View -> Show hidden files, folder and drive and unchecked hide protected operating system files

Check for hidden files:
I went to CMB and typed the location of my drive G:
I then typed dir /ah to see hidden folder
Nothing was hidden beside System Volume Information

Error-checking
I tried using Error-checking for bad sectors and system errors but nothing

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$RECYCLE.BIN
I have this folder on the harddrive. It contains 10 folders with random names like "S-1-5-21-3060310654-58876695-4056725470-1000" .
It also contains 2 Recycle Bins. One locked and one not locked. Both empty.

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Final words
I don't know if it helps but I have attached a Hijackthis log and a Dxdiag log

 

[Jimbo22]

When I installed windows to Drive C, all my external harddrives was connected to the motherboard via. sata cables and not USB

When installing new hardware, especially a new mobo/cpu....always keep peripherals unplugged until after the OS is installed all drivers are installed/updated. Once that is done, then plug in all peripherals and the OS should recognize the hardware and it should work correctly.

 

[Sp34k]

Hallo Bassfisher,

I just tried removing all my external HDD's and reinstalling Windows 7. Unfortunately my external hdd's still have the same folders/files.

I just noticed that I inside my System Volume Informations I have a file entitled {9782071f-bf41-11df-92ca-6cf04901bc5e}{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752} which fills 152gb.. Maybe that could be my lost data?

Inside the System Volume Informations I have a folder called Chkdsk, inside there is a log: (view spoiler below)

Spoiler: LOG FILE

Checking file system on G:
Volume dismounted. All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.
Volume label is TeraStore 3.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
249344 file records processed.

File verification completed.
116 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.

0 EA records processed.

0 reparse records processed.

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
254008 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.


CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
249344 file SDs/SIDs processed.

Cleaning up 4 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 4 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 4 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
2333 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
34529064 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

976759807 KB total disk space.
669062776 KB in 97799 files.
35724 KB in 2334 indexes.
378995 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
307282312 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
244189951 total allocation units on disk.
76820578 allocation units available on disk.

UPDATE:
I managed to locate the files using Recuva. All my missing files are located in G:\?\FolderName
Does that make any sense to you guys? A folder entitled "?"

Image related:
VIEW FULL IMAGE

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi,
I believe as Bass stated, you're trying to put the horse back in the barn after the barn door was open and then closed before the horse got back! All the NTFS file structure and hash tables are linked to the other Motherboard/CPU hardware; you really can't go backwards. Not sure if you had that external drive formatted as NTFS or FAT32 or something else, but it makes no difference. Your index and hash tables are all tied to that previous Mobo/CPU hardware. They are not supposed to be, but as Bass observed and probably witnessed first hand as I have, NEVER EVER DO A HARDWARE & WINDOWS UPGRADE WITH ANY INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES PLUGGED IN!!!

You are now in data recovery mode, and may or may not get back some of your data, but you will not get all of it back. Not sure why you did this upgrade this way, or whether someone actually advised you to do this way--but, I would certainly never listen to them again, they don't know what they're talking about and I would also never let them touch my computer again.

The System Volume registry key is indeed linked to the Volume Shadow Copy feature which stores System Restore points from your previous Windows Mobo/CPU setup onto that external drive. Typically, you need expert software skills to recover anything from that folder, and you cannot do it with Windows utilities. You can play around with data recovery, but I believe you would be better served to send it out to professional data recovery. This starts around $250 US. There are only 2 companies who do this reliably; post back if you want their contact information. Typical time is 3-11 weeks for a level1 or level 2 recovery; can be longer if it goes to level3 recovery or higher, and a whole lot more money. Hopefully, you have some or all of that data on the external on backup media in other locations or on other computers.

Sorry to tell you the bad news.
Good luck to you,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[Pauli]

All I can say is for the future, sorry I can't help you presently, but do have at least different partitions or preferably, different disks for anything personal. That way you can reinstall all of C without it having any effect on personal files. Goes for any OS, have your intimates in a different place than your necessities, don't mix colored with whites - not a racial statement, means comparison with laundry.

My apologies to have to share BigBear's bad news, but I agree with him.

Doing hardware and especially mobo change, one should start with a barebone setup = the least amount of components to get the OS working. No extra disks, nothing extra at all. Once you get the basics to function, you can add. I strongly endorse giving the build of a new computer to a pro. It's not a big cost, but they usually know what they do, and they have a legal obligation of warranty.

Right now, instead of trying anything, I would recommend to take the whole pack to someone you may trust, and ask their estimation of cost. It may cost a bit, but you yourself trying... to be quite honest, I probably wouldn't bring my computer to you for service.

I wish you all the very best.