Disappearing files?? Recycle Bin??

This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared. One was
vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of various
vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file fairly often.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB). I see five
entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.

On 08 Jan 2015, "W. eWatson" wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared. One
was vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of
various vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file
fairly often.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB). I see five
entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.

Are you really saying you don't know how to, and can't figure out how
to restore something from the Recycle Bin?!?!?

boggle

(hint: right click the entry)

W. eWatson wrote:
This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared. One was
vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of various
vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file fairly often.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB). I see five
entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.


Recover files from the Recycle Bin
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...es-recycle-bin

--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On Thu, 08 Jan 2015 10:32:13 -0800, "W. eWatson"
wrote:

This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared.

Disappeared from where? What is the full and exact path to where they were
stored before they disappeared?

For example:
C:\Users\Owner\Documents

One was
vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of various
vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file fairly often.

You may end up using one of your backups.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB).

Does that mean that the missing files were *IN* the Recycle Bin? That's not
a file storage area, as you may have discovered.

I see five entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.

You can restore anything from there by right clicking and selecting Restore.
The item will be restored to where it was before it was deleted.

--

Char Jackson

On 1/8/2015 10:47 AM, Nil wrote:
On 08 Jan 2015, "W. eWatson" wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared. One
was vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of
various vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file
fairly often.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB). I see five
entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.

Are you really saying you don't know how to, and can't figure out how
to restore something from the Recycle Bin?!?!?

boggle

(hint: right click the entry)

I can easily see what's in the RB. As I said above, there are five
(small files) in the RB.

W. eWatson wrote:
On 1/8/2015 10:47 AM, Nil wrote:
On 08 Jan 2015, "W. eWatson" wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared. One
was vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of
various vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file
fairly often.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB). I see five
entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.

Are you really saying you don't know how to, and can't figure out how
to restore something from the Recycle Bin?!?!?

boggle

(hint: right click the entry)

I can easily see what's in the RB. As I said above, there are five
(small files) in the RB.

Do *not* store working files in the Recycle Bin.
Use a regular folder like everybody else.

The Recycle Bin is not desktop storage. It's one
stop short of total deletion. Hosting files there
leaves them in a precarious position. How do I know ?
Yours got deleted. That's how I know.

Things you place in the Recycle Bin, consider that
they can disappear at any time. All it takes,
is any software that likes to empty the Recycle Bin,
to do that to you. For example, would CCleaner
automatically empty Recycle Bin ? I don't know.
And I also don't intend to find out. If a file
has value here, I have a ton of other places
that are not precarious.

(Wile E. Coyote, debugging an overhead rock pile...)

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/ldVEoF0EH7o/hqdefault.jpg

*******

There are various "undelete" utilities. When a
file achieves "final deletion", the pointer to
the file is removed, but the clusters used by
the file are not erased. You'd need something
like Heidi Eraser to do a more secure job of deletion.

The first step, is to "stop using that file system".
For the files you just lost, shut down the computer.
Pull the hard drive and connect it to a second
computer as if it was a data drive. Since the OS
is no longer running, it is no longer recycling
clusters and potentially overwriting the freshly-freed
up clusters.

PhotoRec is an example of a software that recovers
recently deleted files. It works best if the level
of fragmentation of the disk is low.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Another example is Recuva.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuva

I did a controlled test on the first one, and it
did work as advertised. But lots of things will
make this job difficult, to impossible. If those
files are frequently edited, there will be
many "versions" floating in your pool of
spare clusters. You may not find the most recent
one.

And when a recovery program asks you where you
want to save the "output" of the recovery
program, do *not* put the files on the same
partition that you're "mining". Any write
operations should go to storage areas you
don't care about. Like that scratch drive
you keep on your technician computer. If
you write the output of Photorec to the
partition you're running recovery on, it
will just use up recycled clusters and
delete any chance of file recovery. The
output should go to a separate partition
or disk.

Paul

On 1/8/2015 11:05 AM, "...winston‫" wrote:
W. eWatson wrote:
This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared. One was
vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of various
vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file fairly often.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB). I see five
entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.


Recover files from the Recycle Bin
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...es-recycle-bin

Didn't work.Tried to restore. Just showed RB as empty.

On 08 Jan 2015, Paul wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

Things you place in the Recycle Bin, consider that
they can disappear at any time. All it takes,
is any software that likes to empty the Recycle Bin,
to do that to you. For example, would CCleaner
automatically empty Recycle Bin ? I don't know.

Yes, it does, in CCleaner's default installed configuration. You can
turn that option off, of course, but that's what the program's for, so
you probably wouldn't except in a rare special situation.

On 08 Jan 2015, "W. eWatson" wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

I can easily see what's in the RB. As I said above, there are five
(small files) in the RB.

When you view the Recycle Bin with Windows Explorer you see the
original file names. If you think one of those files is the file you
seek, just restore them and check them out.

I really don't understand your problem. Data files don't just delete
themselves. Windows doesn't delete them without permission. Your AV
might delete them or move them to its protected area if it thinks the
file is infected. It will tell you it's going to do that, but if you
missed the notice you can check there.

I think you deleted the file yourself and then emptied the Recycle Bin.
In other words, Windows did what you told it to do.

Hi, W.

You understand, of course, that the Recycle Bin can't grow forever. Sooner
or later, just like the wastebasket beside your desk, it gets full. Then
you must remove some or all of its contents to make room for new discards.
When the Recycle Bin gets full and then you delete more files, Windows
deletes enough previously-deleted files to make room for the new deletions.
It doesn't bother to notify you at this time; files in the Recycle Bin are
fully expendable, by definition - that's why they are in that wastebasket.

Files are not removed from the Recycle Bin on some definite timetable. Some
may stay in the bin for years; others may be there for a very short time.
It depends on how soon you run out of room in the bin and how soon Windows
must make room for new deletions. I don't know the algorithm that Windows
uses to determine WHICH files are removed, but it probably considers both
the age and the size of each file - and how much space is needed right away
to handle the new deletions. If you need room for several GB of newly
deleted files, then several GB of old previously-deleted files must be
removed from the cache of files that are available for future "undeletes".
Windows may have to remove a few large files or many small files or some of
each - in any order of deletion date. After all, by deleting them, you have
already told Windows that the files are expendable.

As others have said, the Recycle Bin is not intended as a permanent - or
even a temporary - storage facility.

Search for "recycle bin limit" for more information on how to manage your
Recycle Bin and its contents.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) in Win8.1 Pro with Media
Center


"W. eWatson" wrote in message ...

This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared. One was
vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of various
vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file fairly often.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB). I see five
entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.

Hi, again, W.

Replying to myself to add: You can adjust the size of your Recycle Bin by
right-clicking on its icon on the Desktop and choosing Properties. You can
set a different size for each of your drives.

RC


"R. C. White" wrote in message
...

Hi, W.

You understand, of course, that the Recycle Bin can't grow forever. Sooner
or later, just like the wastebasket beside your desk, it gets full. Then
you must remove some or all of its contents to make room for new discards.
When the Recycle Bin gets full and then you delete more files, Windows
deletes enough previously-deleted files to make room for the new deletions.
It doesn't bother to notify you at this time; files in the Recycle Bin are
fully expendable, by definition - that's why they are in that wastebasket.

Files are not removed from the Recycle Bin on some definite timetable. Some
may stay in the bin for years; others may be there for a very short time.
It depends on how soon you run out of room in the bin and how soon Windows
must make room for new deletions. I don't know the algorithm that Windows
uses to determine WHICH files are removed, but it probably considers both
the age and the size of each file - and how much space is needed right away
to handle the new deletions. If you need room for several GB of newly
deleted files, then several GB of old previously-deleted files must be
removed from the cache of files that are available for future "undeletes".
Windows may have to remove a few large files or many small files or some of
each - in any order of deletion date. After all, by deleting them, you have
already told Windows that the files are expendable.

As others have said, the Recycle Bin is not intended as a permanent - or
even a temporary - storage facility.

Search for "recycle bin limit" for more information on how to manage your
Recycle Bin and its contents.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) in Win8.1 Pro with Media
Center


"W. eWatson" wrote in message ...

This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared. One was
vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of various
vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file fairly often.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB). I see five
entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.

On 1/8/2015 2:13 PM, Nil wrote:
On 08 Jan 2015, "W. eWatson" wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

I can easily see what's in the RB. As I said above, there are five
(small files) in the RB.

When you view the Recycle Bin with Windows Explorer you see the
original file names. If you think one of those files is the file you
seek, just restore them and check them out.

I really don't understand your problem. Data files don't just delete
themselves. Windows doesn't delete them without permission. Your AV
might delete them or move them to its protected area if it thinks the
file is infected. It will tell you it's going to do that, but if you
missed the notice you can check there.
AV?

I think you deleted the file yourself and then emptied the Recycle Bin.
In other words, Windows did what you told it to do.


Doubtful that I deleted myself. As I think I said somewhere, It's
usually a long time between emptying the RB.

W. eWatson wrote:
On 1/8/2015 11:47 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Thu, 08 Jan 2015 10:32:13 -0800, "W. eWatson"
wrote:

This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared.

Disappeared from where? What is the full and exact path to where they
were
stored before they disappeared?

For example:
C:\Users\Owner\Documents

One was
vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of various
vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file fairly often.

You may end up using one of your backups.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB).

Does that mean that the missing files were *IN* the Recycle Bin?
That's not
a file storage area, as you may have discovered.

I see five entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to
restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.

You can restore anything from there by right clicking and selecting
Restore.
The item will be restored to where it was before it was deleted.

"...where they were stored before they disappeared?"
If I knew the path, this dilemma would be solved.
My backups are a little lame.

BTW, I tried various searches with Search in the lower right corner.
file: vendors
file: *vendors*
file: vendors.txt
Haldane -------- something I put in the vendors folder very recently.

You can store files in the proper Documents folder,
and create a shortcut to a frequently used file, then
place the shortcut on the desktop. This allows easy access, with
even fewer clicks than would be needed to use a Recycle Bin
based method.

By storing files in the proper place, you get:

1) Proper treatment by System Restpre. Files don't
go missing by accident, due to the usage of System Restore.
2) Backup software works properly. Your data files get
backed up.
3) Even if the shortcut disappears off the desktop,
you can make another one. Because the actual data file
being edited, is still the one in the Documents folder.
The shortcut file is just the proxy to gain easy access
with as few clicks as possible.

Photorec or Recuva or many other utilities, can try to find
the file for you. If you've taken good care of the partition
in question since the loss, chances are good it can be
recovered.

HTH,
Paul

W. eWatson wrote:
On 1/8/2015 11:05 AM, "...winston‫" wrote:
W. eWatson wrote:
This is odd. Recently I discovered some files had disappeared. One was
vendors.txt, which has phone numbers and other information of various
vendors. Local and national vendors. I use that file fairly often.

Possibly they got knocked out of the Recycle Bin (RB). I see five
entries in my RB. I seldom empty it. Is it possible to restore it?
Perhaps at least vendor.txt is there.


Recover files from the Recycle Bin
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...es-recycle-bin

Didn't work.Tried to restore. Just showed RB as empty.

You also wrote " I can easily see what's in the RB. As I said above,
there are five (small files) in the RB"

What is it ? 5 files or Empty in the RB

--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On Thu, 08 Jan 2015 16:33:39 -0800, W. eWatson wrote:

On 1/8/2015 2:13 PM, Nil wrote:
On 08 Jan 2015, "W. eWatson" wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

I can easily see what's in the RB. As I said above, there are five
(small files) in the RB.

When you view the Recycle Bin with Windows Explorer you see the
original file names. If you think one of those files is the file you
seek, just restore them and check them out.

I really don't understand your problem. Data files don't just delete
themselves. Windows doesn't delete them without permission. Your AV
might delete them or move them to its protected area if it thinks the
file is infected. It will tell you it's going to do that, but if you
missed the notice you can check there.
AV?

I think you deleted the file yourself and then emptied the Recycle Bin.
In other words, Windows did what you told it to do.


Doubtful that I deleted myself. As I think I said somewhere, It's
usually a long time between emptying the RB.

All these people keep telling you that the Recycle Bin is for *deleting*
files, not as a temporary storage place.

They are *correct*, so listen to them.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)