[emptystring]

this just happened right now in the office - some of the sub folders of a shared network folder mysteriously disappeared from the computer that shared them. the IT guy couldn't figure out why...

it was still there around 2pm, but sometime between 4 and 4:30 it just went POOF. did a system restore and went back to the state at 1pm, but no dice either.

there were only two computers accessing it (including the one that shared this directory) at all times. both computers are worm/virus-free. the company network is being a firewall that has all port forwarding disabled, and is not accessible unless Netvigator comes and configures it.

what could have caused this?

- bernard

[KnowItAll]

disappeared as in deleted or disappeared as in not visible?

[emptystring]

like deleted. basically, this shared folder contains maybe 45+ subfolders, and the ones that start from L and after are entirely gone.

"Show Hidden Folders and Files" is checked...

[freeier]

someone went to delete it ?
someone went to set some access rights and deprived even the administrator from reading the folder ?
someone etc etc

area 51 material ?

[discobay]

Check the event log on the file server.

[emptystring]

oh well. now we're over the cause...trying really hard to recover now.

what system recovery tool would you recommend?

- bernard

[KnowItAll]

How much is the data worth?

If it is worth more than a few thousand dollars .. unplug the drive and hand it over to a data-recovery expert.

We've used http://www.intellirecovery.com.hk/en_index.html

[Morlich]

We've had similar problems in our office as well, where folders and files disappear or are moved. Mostly it's the users clicking of dragging by mistake.

Then when someone looks for a file and it's not there, I get notified and we go a hunting for them.

Is it possible to set the file permissions that folders cannot be moved? Tough one here methinks as folders need change permission in order for the files to be accessed and updated. Any suggestions?

For accidental deletion of files we use Diskeeper Undelete.
http://www.undelete.com/

KIA >> Were IntelliRecovery expensive .. couple of grand I guess.

[KnowItAll]

Standard data recovery -- deleted files etc is not too bad ... few thousand HK$, gets more expensive if its a raid or physical damage.

[Morlich]

Could of had use for them a couple of years back when some of our HDs decided to die on us. The recover costs were through the roof so just decided to get new drives and install from scratch and restore data from tapes.

Cheers KIA.