Vanishing Trick

[JohnFeg]

Yesterday I lost a folder containing six sub-folders, total 3.8Gb from one of my hard drives.

Fortunately, everything had been backed up to DVD, so, I have only lost time and my temper.

I am raising the incident simply to see if anyone has any idea what could has happened.

This is what I did:

(a) Loaded some JPG images from one camera into a folder on my E drive, did some minor cropping, levels changes etc.

( Loaded some images, from another camera into a different folder on the E drive.

© Transferred all the images to a new folder and renamed them using the batch rename facility in Photoshop CS2 Bridge.

(d) I noticed that after renaming some of the images appeared in Bridge out of the correct sequence. The names I had used were in the format “ Carnival (123)”

(e) Using the “Sort” command in PS Bridge did not correct the situation.

(f) Manually put the images in the correct order.

(g) Opened a new Sub-Folder within an existing Folder on my F drive and copied, via Bridge, the images from drive E

(h) On opening the Sub-folder on F, all the images again were out of numerical sequence, so again, I manually resorted them.

(i) Some time later I tried to access the folder and it’s sub-folders on Drive F. The entire folder was missing!

(j) I’ve checked the recycle bin, done a search on the name of the Folder and also on the names of the Sub-folders and defragmented drive F…- ZILCH !

(k) Other than performing amazing conjuring tricks, my machine is working sweetly.

Any observations eagerly awaited.

John

[LumenLux]

Any observations eagerly awaited.

John

John I have no idea what has happened. My only observation is that I currently have a "similar" problem. I share it here briefly only in hopes that maybe "someone" might see some possible common cause or factor, or better yet solution to your problem or mine.

I have an external drive that I have cleared all but one visable folder and subfolder. If I look at "properties of the folder, it says there are 455kb. I can not "see" any files at all in the two folders. If I look at "properties" of the drive itself, it says there are 24 gigabytes still in use! If I try to delete the visable folder(s) I get "can't access" message and see no change. As you, I have done disk scan etc. I then used a backup program to backup the drive. The backup file indeed backs up 24 gig. I thought perhaps then I could restore and see what is really there. The restoration however seems to be perfect - even to the point of revealing nothing but the same two folders!

I guess I wonder if your missing files might also still be "there" with no way to see them or access them. Hopefully, maybe Brian (conflow) or someone can explain what we need to know.

[Conflow]

Hi John,

At least you had them backed up on DVD. That 'esorteric' problem is not unusual with PCs and can happen for a number of reasons,viz:-

1)

Renaming Folders within Folders with a similar title such as 'Images 123' and again 'Images 345' etc;...

Note the blank space between...Images[blank]123 ~ this is looking for trouble. The correct title should be Images_123 or alternatively Images-123, there are no blank spaces.

2)

When a Title is more than 8 Characters (Non-Iso titles) other strange things can happen particularily with Burner Software. (Too long to describe here).

3)

Another is the 'False-Duplicate Title' within another Folder one such is 'Accessories' or another is 'Network' and another is 'New' or 'My Pictures' ~ Creating Folders with these names conflict with those embedded in the Operating System are are extremely difficult to remove, sometimes impossible, sometimes destructive.

4)

Computers just love Numbers or Numerics, although we humans tend to favour Alpha-Numerics such as Image-123 whereas the PC would much prefer if you named things in Numeric-Alphas such as 01-Image, 02-Image, 03-Image and so on. Never use 1, 2, 3, 4 the proper count is 01, 02, 03, 04 which is 'decadic' and the PC understands that.

John I won't go on because it would bore the socks of most ~ just try to put Count first, Title second and you will never loose a File ~ Unfortunately that goes against the grain with most people, but if you are into Data Recording like we are, thats the 'de-facto' unambigious method of naming Files.

Brian.Conflow.

[JohnFeg]

Hi John,

At least you had them backed up on DVD. That 'esorteric' problem is not unusual with PCs and can happen for a number of reasons,viz:-

Brian,

many thanks for that. I had not appreciated the potential problem with renaming within the same folder, or indeed, the desirability of avoiding spaces. those formulae I shall certainly apply in future.

Regarding the desirability of having the numeric component of the title preceeding the alphabetic part. Personally I would prefer that, but, since Photoshop CS 2, if you choose a title with letters, the system automatically applies a number so that the finished title is in the form "Carnival (123)" etc. This is, for me, a step back from the far more flexible batch renaming facilities of PS 7 and of the 1st version of CS.

I intend now to try to find a separate application for batch renaming. If you know of one, I'd be grateful to hear of it.

John

[Ken Cox]

John

http://www.1-4a.com/rename/

ken

[Conflow]

John & Lumenlux,

Firstly, Kens Link to the 'Batch Renamer 1-4a' is worth a trial, its a nice little Program. Secondly I'm under pressure here, so my Post will be terse and to the point:-

Do as follows:- Open Windows Explorer, select-->Tools Tab-->Folder Options-->View Tab-->and in the 'Advanced Settings Window', select-->Show Hidden Files & Folders. Now activate your 'Remote Drive' double click its Icon and all should be revealed. DO NOT TOUCH FILES THAT ARE GREYED-OUT. Have a look around, now take a 'Snap-Shot' and get the hell out of there.

Now do me a favour ~ download this particular Program 'Disc-Cleaner' ~ I did say particular. Guide it to the 'Remote Drive' and let it scan the Drive. You are going to be surprised with the amount of 'rubbish' it will find. Clean the 'Remote Drive' (its only after debris) now do a second Scan and take a 'Snap-Shot'. I'm looking to see if there are any 'Temporary.System Files' in there, these can amount to many Megabytes and are supposed to be cleaned out on 'Drive Boot-Up' mostly they are not. The 'Cleaner' will not remove Temp.System Files because Windows won't allow it.

Temp.System Files are the PCs "get-out clause" where it creates these Files from remnants of 'Installation Routines' and Exes together with Zip and Pdf remnants and 'Misplaced Files' and generally anything it doesn't understand. Your lost Files might be there shown with a $xxxx suffix, I doubt it thought.

The only way of getting rid of Temp.System Files is...(1) Use a really good Reg.Cleaner,then...(2) Defrag the Drive,then...(3) A few PC Cold Re-Boots (Mains On/Mains Off at least twice). What's left is misplaced Operating System Files, and your're stuck with those.

Bye the way,most people don't realise that you need to 'Defrag' Remote Drives particularily those that are used to Store...Exe's, Zips, Pdfs, Web-Links, EMails, Word-Documents' and any Files that are dynamically Active.

Cleaner Link:- http://www.diskcleaner.nl

Best of Luck,

Brian.Conflow.

P.S When you see the 'Disc Cleaner Preview Window' Click on it for a larger Picture ~ It explains all.

[JohnFeg]

John & Lumenlux,

Firstly, Kens Link to the 'Batch Renamer 1-4a' is worth a trial, its a nice little Program. Secondly I'm under pressure here, so my Post will be terse and to the point:-

.

Brian & Ken,

many thanks for those useful leads ton 2 excellent, and free, applications.

I guess the knowledge gained was worth suffering the mini disaster!

I did not recover the missing folders and files but the folders (empty of course) names mysteriously reappeared in Bridge this morning.

Needles to say, my file naming / renaming protocols have been radically revised.

After "slagging off" Photshop CS2 Bridge, I now discover that I had been using the Batch Rename function totally incorrectly - Grrr!

Again, thank you both for you generous assistance.

John

[Conflow]

Brian & Ken,

many thanks for those useful leads ton 2 excellent, and free, applications.

I guess the knowledge gained was worth suffering the mini disaster!

I did not recover the missing folders and files but the folders (empty of course) names mysteriously reappeared in Bridge this morning.

Needles to say, my file naming / renaming protocols have been radically revised.

After "slagging off" Photshop CS2 Bridge, I now discover that I had been using the Batch Rename function totally incorrectly - Grrr!

Again, thank you both for you generous assistance.

John

John,

This is important to me, may I ask ~ did you run the Disc Cleaner ? ~ The reason I ask the question is that Disc Cleaner sometimes kicks the PC in the ass and gives it a good "enema" which literally unblocks things that are "hung-up" ~ indeed we have recovered many a lost Data File after using the Program. You will also find that the PC runs much smoother after a good scrub.

We use the Program daily particularily after a Web Session.....the junk it throws out is unbelievable !

Tip:- Always use Disc Cleaner before you Burn a CD you will rarely if ever get a Burn failure.

Brian.Conflow.

[LumenLux]

Brian, I too thank you. Your "direction" led me to the solution.

I did DL and use your recommended Disk Cleaner. I don't think I learned to use it completely but intend to go back and become better acquainted with it. When I used it, I did not find how to "direct" it to my specific external problem drive. I assume when I ran it that it worked on all connected drives. But I also did not notice a list of garbage removed nor a log of what it had done. Likely my excitement to move on as I was being able to see what was taking up 24 gig of space.

Also your instructions to "show hidden files" led to my success. I had previously set folder options to do that but when I went in as you suggested, I realized there is an additional option to show hidden "system" files. Muc of the 24 gig of "junk" appeared to have been part of an earlier backup or backup attempt. The files included a very large "chk" file found type - like from old dos scandisk style. Also, many files seemed to relate to Uninstall aspects of Service Pack 2 foul-ups.

I know you were busy, so a speciall thanks for the concise instructions.

[Conflow]

Brian, I too thank you. Your "direction" led me to the solution.

I did DL and use your recommended Disk Cleaner. I don't think I learned to use it completely but intend to go back and become better acquainted with it. When I used it, I did not find how to "direct" it to my specific external problem drive. I assume when I ran it that it worked on all connected drives. But I also did not notice a list of garbage removed nor a log of what it had done. Likely my excitement to move on as I was being able to see what was taking up 24 gig of space.

Also your instructions to "show hidden files" led to my success. I had previously set folder options to do that but when I went in as you suggested, I realized there is an additional option to show hidden "system" files. Muc of the 24 gig of "junk" appeared to have been part of an earlier backup or backup attempt. The files included a very large "chk" file found type - like from old dos scandisk style. Also, many files seemed to relate to Uninstall aspects of Service Pack 2 foul-ups.

I know you were busy, so a speciall thanks for the concise instructions.

LumenLux,

Glad to be of help ~ On the Disk Cleaner you will notice a tiny square button on the Lower.Rh corner under the 'Remove Button' ~ that brings you into a sub-menu. By unclicking 'Hide Enteries when Empty' will bring up the entire scan Menu Files on next re-boot of the Program. Examine the Main Window very carefully before you press 'Clean' ~ it will show you the amount of garbage it has found under each File Listed.

You can also save a "copy of things removed" by using the 'Save Button' in the Main Window, thats your Log.

You can install the Program into your 'Remote Drive' and make access to the copy Program within the Drive.

Also by going into "Advanced Folder Settings" via Win.Explorer shows 'Hidden System Files' of which, 90% of the time these are pure garbage left over from Windows Installs and 'dodgy' Zip Temps all of this is lumped under the title "Temp.System Files" which I had advised about.

Hope this helps...

Brian.

[LumenLux]

Yes, I will take a more thorough approach. Thanks again.

[JohnFeg]

John,

This is important to me, may I ask ~ did you run the Disc Cleaner ? ~

Brian,

yes indeed, I did run the cleaner program. It certainly got rid of quite a bit of rubbish, but, I didn't notice any difference in the performance of my machine. That, however, may be because I'm pretty scrupulous in clearing rubbish out. I run an application called System Mechanic and defrag regularly.

Over the next couple of weeks I intend to run the cleaner on a weekly basis. I'll let you know of any observations.

Again, many thanks for your help.

John