[Strange Little Boy]

For some reason, over half of my music subfolders and their contents have disappeared. I've done a search for them on my computer but nothing comes up. I know they're still there because some of the missing songs still show up in Itunes and also the properties of the main music folder show that it's the same size and has the same amount of files as it did before the music files up and vanished. Has anybody heard of this before and know how I can fix this problem?

[Dwight]

Hi Strange Little Boy. Welcome to GTG.
Try system restore
Hit,Start, all programs, Accessories, system tools, system
Restore, click on restore my computer to an earlier time, then
pick a date before the problem. then click next.
if that don't work try this

[neora]

have you tried playing those files(ones supposed to be missing) in iTunes?

[silverbeard]

I once had a virus that would hide certain file extensions including mp3. Even after cleaning the machine the files were hidden. Set your folder options to view hidden folders and files. If the folders and files become visible right click and uncheck the hidden box. If its not checked move the files to a different media (burn them to CD/DVD) and see if they become visible in normal view.

If this still isn't working get and run Rootkit Revealer. If it finds them you will need something like Bart's PE or Slax 5.1x that has NTFS read/write support to change the attributes of the files and folder that are hidden or move them to other media.

[hamamo]

do check yuor pc for virus or spyware
try to copy it after you search it into another folder
or
back-up the folder it contains the musics
go to start-->run type ntbackup(xp and win2k) and follow the wizard
then delete the original folder
restart the pc
restore the back-up

[Strange Little Boy]

I appreciate everybody's help very much. You guys will have to bear with me here because I don’t know a lot about this, and I’ve tried to be as clear and descriptive as possible. Here’s my progress thus far:

4238dwight, on Oct 6 2006, 09:49 AM, said:

Hi Strange Little Boy. Welcome to GTG.
Try system restore
Hit,Start, all programs, Accessories, system tools, system
Restore, click on restore my computer to an earlier time, then
pick a date before the problem. then click next.
if that don't work try this

I’ve had the most success doing this, but it was only temporary. I did a system restore twice and a few more folders did show up after the first time but a lot of them remained hidden, so I went back even further the second time, but it had the same result as the first. The odd thing about this is that all the folders in alphabetical order after "M" are the ones that have been missing. Once I did the system restore, all the folders up until "Q" reappeared. Now there were a few previously deleted folders that were brought back after the system restore as well, so when I deleted them again, all the folders up until "S" reappeared, as if only so many folders can be visible at once. But then out of nowhere, the ones that had reappeared after all this disappeared again so now I'm back to "M", which is where I started. Does this make sense?

neora, on Oct 6 2006, 10:20 AM, said:

have you tried playing those files(ones supposed to be missing) in iTunes?

Yes, I've tried this. They do play and I can even open their location. But once I get out of that folder, it won't show up again unless I reopen the location with iTunes.

silverbeard, on Oct 6 2006, 11:07 AM, said:

I once had a virus that would hide certain file extensions including mp3. Even after cleaning the machine the files were hidden. Set your folder options to view hidden folders and files. If the folders and files become visible right click and uncheck the hidden box. If its not checked move the files to a different media (burn them to CD/DVD) and see if they become visible in normal view.

If this still isn't working get and run Rootkit Revealer. If it finds them you will need something like Bart's PE or Slax 5.1x that has NTFS read/write support to change the attributes of the files and folder that are hidden or move them to other media.

The files aren't set to hidden, I've already tried that. Rootkits might be the problem though. I don’t quite understand what they are, but I ran Rootkit Revealer and the result showed a bunch of files including some of the music files that are missing. Unfortunately, an error occurred when I tried to save the report and it closed. I don’t quite understand Bart’s PE and Slax 5.1x either, what they do, how I would use them for this situation, etc.

hamamo, on Oct 6 2006, 03:34 PM, said:

do check yuor pc for virus or spyware
try to copy it after you search it into another folder
or
back-up the folder it contains the musics
go to start-->run type ntbackup(xp and win2k) and follow the wizard
then delete the original folder
restart the pc
restore the back-up

I’ve run multiple virus, spyware, and malware scans. I’ve taken all of the required steps given in the “You Must Read This Before Posting A Hijackthis Log” post. Of course a few things did come up, but removing them hasn’t solved the problem. I also can’t back up and restore the music folder as you suggested because it’s way too large to back up the entire thing on anything I have.

I don't know if this could be related, but I've been having other issues with my computer in addition to this. Any time I input a command, even something as simple as opening a folder, it will freeze for a few seconds and make the regular sounds a computer makes when it’s “thinking”, only in intervals of four, then stop, and repeat this a few more times before it will actually carry out the command. It didn’t used to do this and I’m wondering if it’s a problem with the hardware, aging hard drive maybe? Also, it will completely freeze up out of nowhere, so I wind up having to reboot. Once I do that, a message will come up saying it needs to boot from the system disc and when I try to do that, another message comes up saying it failed to boot and to try again, to no avail. So I end up having to shut it off completely for a good 30 minutes or so before I can boot it again. I would just reformat the bloody thing completely, but I want back up my music files before I do that.

[ultimateslacker2]

The only reason Itunes still shows them in their library because the library doesnt update itself ( I had this happen to me as I deleted all my music and iTunes still showed them.

[Strange Little Boy]

NickX, on Oct 12 2006, 10:13 AM, said:

The only reason Itunes still shows them in their library because the library doesnt update itself ( I had this happen to me as I deleted all my music and iTunes still showed them.

Yes, I know, but the files haven't been deleted in this case. The point I was making was that the files are actually still there because I can play the songs that don't show up otherwise and open up their locations.

[bmcconah]

I just dealt with this same problem about 5 min. ago. For the time being I've taken care of it by right clicking on my music folder, clicking properties, putting a check mark beside hidden and applying the change to all folders and sub folders, then repeating the process only this time removing the check mark next to hidden. I don't know what caused the problem or if my repair will last, but for now it's been taken care of. Hope this helps in your case.