Hello, Main Problem: While working (though not specifically while I was watching, ie: I was cycling through firefox, acrobat reader, outlook 2010, and microsoft word 2010 without viewing the desktop very often) all of the documents on my desktop disappeared. Meaning, they were all there (some have been there for months) this morning when I came to work and turned my computer on, and while working (without rebooting or doing anything abnormal) the files disappeared. None of the folders have disappeared nor have their positions on the desktop changed. The only thing out of the normal routine that I did today was update Adobe Acrobat Reader 9. I don't use X because it conflicts with my printer, though lately it's been acting up anyway so I thought it might be 9 and did the check for updates(I've had check for updates turned off until now). It updated from something like 9.2.5 to 9.5.1. Other than that it's been a usual day of typing in Word, opening PDFs and printing them out, with a little Outlook 2010, Mozilla Firefox, and some wordpad. Some specs: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (no pending windows updates) ESET Smart Security, active, up to date, and running the entire time. (Full scan returned no problems) 8gigs ram, C drive 500GB, D drive 80GB, E drive 1TB and other various goodies I'll be glad to divulge if anyone wants to know. Things that are -not- wrong: I've been using computers for over 20 years, I built this one from parts as I do with all my computers, yada yada, I'm the "computer guy" at my company I run the network, I setup all the boxes, and take care of all the repairs and problems. Then again I am not certified or licensed in anything, there is plenty about Windows, and especially Windows 7 that I do not understand. Also, and this is quite unfortunate, I live and work in Japan so my OS is in Japanese. I am fluent to an extent but I cannot navigate some of the control panel areas without a little trial and error because the chinese characters get a little tricky when you get into too specific of a subject; BUT, I love and have been using ACDSee Classic forever, with it's "show hidden" and "show system" files options, I have free reign over hidden files and programs from the rest of the people that use this computer who do not know what ACDSee is (safer for them). Nothing shows up in ACDSee or explorer with show hidden files active in my desktop folder or any other user's desktop (there's only one user but windows makes those "all users" folders anyway) or on the desktop itself. All the folders remain untouched. Files that were positioned between two folders are missing, meaning I didn't accidentally click and drag the whole desktop into my recycle bin and some how clean the bin without noticing. Only one file shows up in quick recovery scans of the recycle bin or the desktop, and I'm currently in the process of a deep scan of the entire C drive. (though I didn't delete the files, so why should they?) Solution? The only thing I can imagine is that somehow some sector of the desktop got "archived" or sectioned off in some manner. If I can assume the folders within the desktop folder have their own paths (their own separate sectors on the disk, albeit within the desktop sector) and that the files within the desktop folder all share a common sector (the desktop folder) perhaps that sector got somehow funked with? For example the shortcut to "My Computer" even went missing. All I had left was a recycle bin and 9-10 folders scattered across the desktop. So is there some way I can look into recovering that specific sector? Some sort of indexing/archiving that might cause this? I don't have recovery points, nor that recent of backups to recover files such as last nights work or last weeks work, but more important than getting my data back is, [u]What Happened[/u]!? So it doesn't happen again. It seems there are actually a fair share of people (on this site and MANY others) that have or have had this problem and now fear their desktop as an evil devourer of mid-term papers. In my case as well, weeks of work, in a business environment, definitely NOT acceptable. Help! If anyone has any insight or ideas of what could be causing this that would be great. We need an open discussion on this. Again it does not have to do with Human error (me), nor does it seem to be a virus (the hidden files deal); I have plenty experience with computers and after scouring the task manager and the hard disk with various tools I cannot find tens of files all from one single location, that were all there just hours ago!.............??? Trying a search or turning desktop icons on something simple like that has already been done XD no offense, but this is not that simple. Thanks for any input!

1.I would appreciate shorter yet comprehensive description of problem. 2. Change the visibility of file to see all and let the search engine find your files. 3. Personaly I would not save my documents on desktop, only working copies and for short time. 4. If you are working in Active Directory environment, where redirect is set, then you can have problem with Office documents on desktop. 5. Remember that Office documents work with temporary copy and if you are not careful enough you can loss a document. 6. Double check how your profile is saved on you computer or on server. 7. For third party applications look for help in their respective community forums (Namely Acrobat Reader have some issues) Regards Milos

Thank you for the reply Milos. 1. Sorry, you are right, there were a lot of threads on the internet with people suggesting to refresh the desktop, or giving very simple answers I was trying to avoid that by over describing everything. 2. Search does come up with some links to some of the files in the form of recently used shortcuts, but the files themselves are not on any of the three disks. I search for 3-4 different file names I use daily and should have still been on the desktop. 3. I don't understand why this should be an issue? I personally don't either, but everyone at my office is moderately computer illiterate and I've picked up their bad habit, at least on my work computer. But the files shouldn't actually be in any danger just because they're within a user folder =[ 4. Active directory and network folders are not being used. 5. Understood, but there were jpgs and psds and pdfs that all went missing with the office documents as well. 6. There is only one profile setup on the system though, Windows has the "All Users" "Default" "Default User" and "Public" users as well for reasons unclear. Nothing has changed as far as I can see within any of them, nor are my missing files present there. 7. Will do, thanks again.

A. I would expect this behaviour in the case, when profile could not be retrieved and new profile is created. B. When you suspect file deletition (without going into the mystery), I would recommend to use program Recuva to restore deleted files http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download This "save" my life several times C. My personal experience is based on relative vulnerability of files on desktop and the easy of system recovery, when minimum personal data are on drive c: (Unless on network system with file server I recommend to devide disk into operating and data parts, when one disk is used and redirect personal data on data disk. File access audit may help to dig into mystery of deleted "objects".) D. I have strange problems with older version of Adobe Acrobat when I opened pdf inside Internet Explorer. Since that time I have been using seeting in viewer (do not view pdf in browser) E. Chances are that there is trouble maker among the ad-ons (In spite of the fact, that this would affect one type of files.) F. Hope that you have updated AV.... G. If nothing helps (neither does Recuva), then there are possibilities to inspect file allocation table by Linux, but thsi is a bit different story here on MS Forum platform. H. Sometimes, when I feel like not to reach an object with administrative rights, I use the trick to start shell with SYSTEM rights. Regards Milos

Thanks again Milos. A. The desktop theme and start menu etc. remain unchanged. Would that stand as proof the profile was not reset? B. I was directed towards recuva on a different forum as well and gave it a shot. The deep scan (of the desktop and all sub folders) did recover about 4 of my files, but they are older over written versions of the files; some of the more recently created files don't even show up on the list... I can see stuff that was deleted last year, but not some of my missing files? That what leads me to think it's something to do with file restructuring, or maybe as you're suggesting a profile management problem. The files just plain aren't considered to be related to the desktop folder anymore. C. That makes sense. The desktop folder is handled differently than say a root folder on the D:\ drive... I don't save stuff on the desktop at home either... it's just something everyone seems to do for convenience at my office, though I've never seen this problem before. D. I sometimes have that too and usually am dealing with PDFs received via outlook 2010, thus am opening them directly with adobe's reader. E. ? F. Yes. G. I will look into that; thank you. H. Ya the administrative warnings in Windows 7 are quite a pain in my opinion... being told I don't have privilege on my own computer is a little silly... no doubt my fault for not spending the time to reassure my system that it's my fault though. I'm interested in opening system rights both personally and for work, I will look into that when I find the time. I also ran scan disk after a reboot (before I went home two hours later than normal the day before yesterday) but it only lasted like 3 seconds and said all is well?? Which I've never seen before, but maybe I forgot to check the "check for bad sectors" box. So I plan to try and run that again today in as deep a format as possible.... I still assume that is somehow the problem... for the files to not even show up from a program like recuva, it feels like the sector was written off as corrupt somehow or...?? why only one specific folder, exclusive of it's subfolders! XD

Hi, When this issue occurs, does this issue can recover by itself? Or a log off and re-login is necessary? I suspected maybe some 3th party add-in or other thing just held the Windows Explorer. You can perform some test when this issue occurs again. Restart the Explorer, to check if the file will show up. meanwhile, although my suggestion maybe seems a little simple, but i think it will be useful to narrowing down this issue --- try to boot the computer to save mode or clean boot to check if this issue occurs again, since there 3th party components appear rarely. Also, there is another tool you can use to check if any locked threads on Explorer -- Process Explorer tool: Please download the Process Explorer tool from the following link. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653 Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi, When this issue occurs, does this issue can recover by itself? Or a log off and re-login is necessary? I suspected maybe some 3th party add-in or other thing just held the Windows Explorer. You can perform some test when this issue occurs again. Restart the Explorer, to check if the file will show up. meanwhile, although my suggestion maybe seems a little simple, but i think it will be useful to narrowing down this issue --- try to boot the computer to save mode or clean boot to check if this issue occurs again, since there 3th party components appear rarely. Also, there is another tool you can use to check if any locked threads on Explorer -- Process Explorer tool: Please download the Process Explorer tool from the following link. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653 Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi, Just checking if you have any updates. Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.