Windows 7 Vanishing files after Vista to Windows 7 upgrade

renegadescotsman · Apr 18, 2009

If this problem has been identified in another thread, then please accept my apologies and redirect me. I did a search and was unable to find anything, and consequently am posting this.

My system has separate physical drives. One is for all system and program files. The other is for all documents and media files.

When upgrading from Vista Ultimate 32 to Windows 7 32 all appeared to go well. However, now, the "document drive" has a problem. According to the Properties tab, all of my files remain intact. That is to say, the same amount of disk space remains as did prior to the upgrade. The folders are all there, but they are empty. It is as though Windows 7 deleted the files during the upgrade.

I have removed the document drive and tried it on another machine with the same results, whether I examine it with Windows XP, or Vista, or Windows 7. The files appear to be missing, although the space that they would be occupying remains unavailable.

I have tried a few file recovery utilities, both freeware and trialware, but none find the files.

Fortunately, some of the files are backed up, but many are not.

I have Windows 7 64 and 32 bit versions, Windows XP (and various Linux variants) running smoothly on other machines. I have not experienced this problem when doing a clean install, and really do not understand why the upgrade would affect a separate drive, unless it has to do with links from the system drive that are a part of the upgrade process...

Windows 7 has performed flawlessly, with the exception of this one exasperating problem.

If anyone else has experienced this or something similar and has discovered the cause and has a solution, I would appreciate it.

reghakr · Apr 20, 2009

I have had the exact same problem.

I install all my 3rd-party software to the D: drive, which is the second partition on my first hard drive.

Unfortunately I did not have System Restore set to monitor the D: drive and lost a lot of information.

Then I downloaded a free TRUE forensic imaging software and it happened again and I was able to copy the files and directories back.

You can download it here:
AccessData Downloads

Scroll down to the Utility section and download FTK Imager. It takes a complete snapshot including unallocated space, file slack, deleted files (not always recoverable).

There's also a portable version for thumb drives.

whoosh · Apr 19, 2009

Just a thought

Maybe a police cd might help recover the files a bit extreme just a thought . There are some very good recover stuff on torrents.
There is software out there as used by the canadian police for one . Dont know about the legality using it .

renegadescotsman · Apr 19, 2009

Thanks to suchitkasim and whoosh. Suchitkasim, I was unware of this. I should have read the release notes. However, I had tried to recover the files using the "Previous version" option. It is not available.

Whoosh, if you have (or anyone else has) a specific recovery software solution to recommend, please let me know. Thanks.

whoosh · Apr 19, 2009

renegadescotsman said:
Thanks to suchitkasim and whoosh. Suchitkasim, I was unware of this. I should have read the release notes. However, I had tried to recover the files using the "Previous version" option. It is not available.

Whoosh, if you have (or anyone else has) a specific recovery software solution to recommend, please let me know. Thanks.

Just go to any torrent site and search for file recovery or forensic file recovery dont think i can mention specific torrents on here but good luck .
I threw a cd away only recently with recovery software on it

Here is the name of some software that may help : GetDataBack for NTFS & FAT v3.03

Recover your files when the data is no longer accessible due to formatting
fdisk, virus attack, power or software failure. Get everything back even
when the drive's partition table, boot record, Master File Table or root
directory is lost or corrupt
=====================================================================================

What's new

No matter what the disaster scenario is - GetDataBack will recover your data if the hard drive's partition table, boot record, MTF or root directory are lost or damaged, data was lost due to a virus attack, the drive was formatted, fdisk has been run, a power failure has caused a system crash, files were lost due to a software failure, files were accidentally deleted

Recover even when Windows doesn't recognize the drive - GetDataBack can even recover your data when the drive is no longer recognized by Windows

It can likewise be used even if all directory information - not just the root directory- is missing

Get everything back- Advanced algorithms will make sure that all and sub directories are put together as they were, and that long file names are reconstructed correctly

GetDataBack is safe - GetDataBack is read-only, meaning the program will never attempt to write to the drive you are about to recover. Please make sure to read the safety instructions

GetDataBack is easy to use - enables the regular user to conduct his own by guiding him through five easy to understand steps, thus gives the advanced user the possibility to interfere with the recovery and improve the results, by examining the scan log, the file system details, file and directory information, by selecting the sector range to be scanned, by choosing excessive search for file systems or search for lost files, by calling Runtime's DiskExplorer. Recover files over your local network or over a serial cable

This feature enables you to run GetDataBack on one computer ("remote" while accessing the drives of another computer ("host"

Recovering data over a network is useful, especially when you are not able to remove the drive you want to recover from and attach it to another computer

GetDataBack can also be run from a boot disk and now supports Unicode characters
GetDataBack recovers from

* Hard drives (IDE, SCSI, SATA)
* USB drives
* Firewire drives
* Partitions
* Dynamic Disks
* Floppy drives
* Drive images
* Zip/Jaz drive
* Compact Flash Cards
* Smart Media Cards
* Secure Digital Cards
* USB
* iPod Disks

reghakr · Apr 20, 2009

I have had the exact same problem.

I install all my 3rd-party software to the D: drive, which is the second partition on my first hard drive.

Unfortunately I did not have System Restore set to monitor the D: drive and lost a lot of information.

Then I downloaded a free TRUE forensic imaging software and it happened again and I was able to copy the files and directories back.

You can download it here:
AccessData Downloads

Scroll down to the Utility section and download FTK Imager. It takes a complete snapshot including unallocated space, file slack, deleted files (not always recoverable).

There's also a portable version for thumb drives.

Windows 7 Vanishing files after Vista to Windows 7 upgrade

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