Can files just...disappear?

[ShinRa]

At this point, I think I'm single-handedly keeping this section of the forums alive.

Anyway, I was looking through some folders, when I couldn't shake the feeling that there was a file missing. My friend has the exact same folder with the exact same files in it. (These folders/files are about 5 years old) So I acted on my hunch and asked my friend if he had a specific file because I could've sworn it was there at one time. He had THREE files I didn't have! (These files are videos) So a bunch of things ran through my head...

Did I delete those 3 videos to clear space years ago and just don't remember deleting them? (But, I LOVE this videos so why would i do that?)

Did I never actually receive the videos in the first place?

and then finally, the scariest thought I've ever had:

did my harddrive just lose these files on its own, with no rhyme reason or warning? Is this type of cynical nightmarish type of event even capable of happening? I come to you, beings of higher technological intelligence than I, CAN THIS BE?!

 

[Omnomnick]

They probably got bored and wandered off.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

I've had files spontaneously disappear shortly before a hard drive started doing its death rattle and ultimately failing. Do a disk integrity check and see if any bad sectors are discovered (Windows: Properties/Tools/Error Checking from right-clicking the drive in My Computer). If it finds nothing, then ghosts. Definitely ghosts.

 

[Higlac]

Run Seatools or a similar error checking utility, if that passes, then run chkdsk.

 

[ShinRa]

All tests passed with flying colors. I have 3 other drives mirrored and they too are missing the same files. So when it happened, I must have made a copy of the original drive AFTER the files were gone. But that was years ago, and the drive is still working perfectly fine.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Whelp, nothing to do here.

 

[ShinRa]

Whelp, nothing to do here.

lol, I think I started this thread off wrong. I should've just asked "is it possible for a file to literally just disappear off a harddrive without the harddrive failing shortly after (having been the reason for the missing file)?"

instead of giving a stupid long boring back story.

 

[Krynn72]

lol, I think I started this thread off wrong. I should've just asked "is it possible for a file to literally just disappear off a harddrive without the harddrive failing shortly after (having been the reason for the missing file)?"

instead of giving a stupid long boring back story.

Nope, not possible. Something caused it. I feel like Occoms Razor applies here, and you simply accidentally deleted them somehow, maybe while migrating data or something. Some viruses could do stuff like that, but they're hard to get on your system. What tests have you run to tell if the hdd is healthy? Chkdsk, smart status checkers, etc can all report falsely that the drive is ok. Get a Hiren's disk and run mhdd on your drive. It will be significantly more detailed, as it tells you how fast clusters are reading, whether there are errors, and more importantly, what kind of errors they are. It does take a long time on big drives though, so run it overnight, or when you're out of the house for a few hours

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

are you sure they're not just set to hidden by windows? -_-

 

[Vegeta897]

At this point, I think I'm single-handedly keeping this section of the forums alive.

You have created 144 threads in this section. Seriously. I haven't even created half that many in any section in the decade I've been here.

 

[ShinRa]

Nope, not possible. Something caused it. I feel like Occoms Razor applies here, and you simply accidentally deleted them somehow, maybe while migrating data or something. Some viruses could do stuff like that, but they're hard to get on your system. What tests have you run to tell if the hdd is healthy? Chkdsk, smart status checkers, etc can all report falsely that the drive is ok. Get a Hiren's disk and run mhdd on your drive. It will be significantly more detailed, as it tells you how fast clusters are reading, whether there are errors, and more importantly, what kind of errors they are. It does take a long time on big drives though, so run it overnight, or when you're out of the house for a few hours

I'll definitely look into this. Thanks Krynn!
edit- And THANK YOU for telling me to run MHDD because when I went to hirens website there was over 100 programs to download and I was confused as all hell.

 

[ShinRa]

are you sure they're not just set to hidden by windows? -_-

I......dont know....? Why would windows hide 3 random videos?

You have created 144 threads in this section. Seriously. I haven't even created half that many in any section in the decade I've been here.

LOL well back in the day (2003-2004) I used to make a thread almost every day. I wanted help BUILDING THE GREATEST COMPUTER EVAR FOR TEH HL2 MAN. So I used to make a thread for EVERY question. I was....a special boy.

 

[Krynn72]

I'll definitely look into this. Thanks Krynn!
edit- And THANK YOU for telling me to run MHDD because when I went to hirens website there was over 100 programs to download and I was confused as all hell.

The Hiren's disk already contains all those programs, its simply a collection of tools put into a single bootable disk. You probably went to the info page instead of the download site. You can get the whole disk here (scroll down past the change log and there's a green box with the dl link): http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/