Computer problems - Urgent technical assistance needed!!!

Visual Novel Community Off Topic
#1

I NEED HELP!!!

The problem started early morning yesterday when I opened my hardrive. The folders are showing weird names in symbols which indicate encoding errors. The data within those folders are disappearing 15 folders at a time (this morning the entire hardrive was compromised, and 4 years of my collection and data are lost). I tried to let the computer scan the problem but it made things worse. It reported that the files were missing and that the procedure has been truncated. I tried opening one of the affected files and it says:

I tried opening another folder and it says this message:

The data was not in a network, I checked it several times, no disk was required, and I was connected to the internet. I tried searching for the missing files/data but it didn’t work, and I fear if I continue checking this on my own it will continue to degrade itself: I even fear the problem may spread to another hardrive.

This never happened to me before and to think it could do this at a bad time - really stupid. Stupid enough for me to give up using a computer if there’s no solution to this problem. If any technical experts are reading this case, please help and help soon because I can never know what bull-s!*t my computer will do next.

#2

The Drive could be dying, or it could be a virus,
I’m not sure exactly what’s happening but make sure your cables connecting the HDD aren’t loose or something, but if opening stuff is causing more problems I would open as little as possible until you figure out what is wrong, I would love to be of more help but there’s only so much I can do from here without seeing the computer

#3

Is this a laptop or desktop? What model? I assume this is a Windows OS? If so:

Go to START and then Run. Type the following and hit ENTER: eventvwr

This will open a built-in log for Windows called Event Viewer. Go to the System folder. Are there a bunch of “red circles with a white x” in there? Do they claim the source is disk (see attachment image)? If so, you’ve probably got a bad hard drive. You’ll need to buy a new one.

Go into the Application folder. Are there a bunch of “red circles with a white x” in there? If so, then it might be program related (i.e. a virus or bad OS). Not all viruses are caught by normal virus scanners. You might also need to do a scan using Malwarebytes and Super Anti-Spyware. The trail versions for these programs are free to use and fully operational without paying.

If you have an external hard drive, now is the best time to copy what data you can as a backup… or better yet:

If you have another hard drive, take out the one you’re using now. Replace it with the other hard drive and load windows on it. Make sure the new install has a virus scanner (AVG has a free version, if you don’t wanna pay for one), a malware scanner, and both updated with the latest definitions. Take the old hard drive, and slave it to your computer – that is to say, make it a second hard drive. You should be able to pull off the data on the original hard drive. If a virus is actively deleting your files, it’s very rare for it to be advanced enough to delete stuff as an “inactive” hard drive (i.e. not running the operating system).

#4

Also, try a website specifically built around dealing with computer problems for those without expert knowledge.

My favorite, the last time I needed help, was geekstogo.com Anything similar should do and they will work through the problem with you. There is no cost.

#5

To baxaca, Nargrakhan, and OrcAttack,

Thanks for trying to help solve the problem of my situation, but I’m afraid it’s too late. The entire saved files, programs, and folders in the D drive of my PC were completely gone and could not be recovered.

I found out why this happened: I’ve stored too many files in my D drive and without defraging it as recommended it got physically weak and dying - meaning the reader in the hardrive was failing and as a result destroyed all of my collection of data which I have stored for 4 years.

I was pissed when this event happened, but at the same time I’ve learned my lesson and decided to start over. I’m currently ordering a new hardrive and I am trying to recover my lost files and programs. Although I fear some may never turn-up, I want to believe that I can get them back hopefully with help from people like you here in Otakuism.com

Thanks.

#6

It’s not too late… depending on how far you’re willing to go to recover your date. There are data recovery services that can salvage the data directly off the hard drive platters. They aren’t all that cheap however. If you type “hard drive data recovery” in Google (or a similar combination of words), you should run across several of them. There might be one in your area, if you live in or near a major city. Again: in my experience they aren’t cheap.

However before going that far, you might wanna hunt around for a free imaging program or partition copier.

#7