Windows 7 How recover missing files

[4hal]

I have aDell Studio XPS with Windows 7 and 64 something. Most of my files disappeared. I tried search - no luck. I have an external backup drive but installed it after the files went missing. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[patcooke]

Are you talking about user data files or program/system files? How do you mean "disappeared"? Are they files which you previously had and which you can no longer find? Does your available disk space suggest they may have been deleted?

 

[4hal]

The missing files are files I typed myself and saved. Previously when I clicked on Word and brought up the menu, clicked on "Open" they were all there. Only the files that I've typed and saved in the past few weeks are there now. My XPS is fairly new with 8 GB of Memory and 640 GB of free space on OS(C). I don't think it would be a space problem. I did have a virus that so disabled McAfee and Windows Defender that I couldn't get rid of it until I restored to an earlier date and have been very careful since then to not let it get on again. McAfee and Windows Defender work perfectly now. Puzzled. 4hal

 

[patcooke]

Have you tried using wildcards in your search (such as searching for my* to search for any files beginning with the letters my) and are you searching the whole drive and not just a folder?

 

[4hal]

Yes. I tried the wildcard in my search, checked the whole drive and nothing.

 

[patcooke]

Sounds like the files have been deleted either in the recovery process or some other way. There are a few file recovery packages available - one here is free:

Free Data Recovery Software, Hard Drive Disk Data Recovery and File Recovery Freeware - EASEUS Data Recovery.

You can try that but success can be variable - especially when the system has bee used since the data loss - some of the data may be irrecoverable and it becomes increasingly so as the system is used more.

 

[4hal]

I tried but EASEUS could not locate or recover any of the files I asked for. I have hard copies. I can retype them. Thanks for your help. It was much appreciated. 4hal

 

[patcooke]

Thanks for the feedback - hope there's not too much keying to do!