Computers!! Help Please!

[Gollywobbler]

Hi All

 

I've made a cock-up with my computer this morning and I can't work out how to retrieve the missing files.

 

I had a folder full of photos on a memory stick, which was in the machine. I wanted to transfer the folder to "my documents" and then onto a different memory stick so as to post the second stick to my mother in Oz.

 

I deleted the folder by accident but I couldn't find it in the Recycle Bin. Why not?

 

I've had the little microsoft dog running around for about an hour but the dog can't find the missing folder either. I told it to look in the hidden files and folders as well as everywhere else but there doesn't seem to be any sign of it.

 

They are family photos of my mother's house and my father's grave, both in the UK. They are of huge sentimental value to all of us but to Mum in particular. She'll be 91 in a couple of weeks so I wanted to send her the photos in time for her birthday.

 

Surely a folder full of photos can't just vanish in a Windows computer?

 

I'm stuck because I don't know how to find this folder again and I didn't take the photos. A friend took them for me and he downloaded them straight onto the first memory stick. I stupidly didn't copy them onto the C-Drive as well.

 

I'd be enormously grateful for some idiot-proof instructions, please!!!! (Must be idiot-proof because I'm now on the outer limit of what I understand about these ruddy contraptions.)

 

Many thanks indeed.

 

Gill

[xzibit]

If you deleted the files from the memory stick, the files don't go into the recycle bin. You can run some software on the computer to search the memory stick and retrieve files as they don't actually get deleted. If they are important it may be worth going to a computer shop and see if they'll do it for you.

[IrishStew]

Hi All

 

I've made a cock-up with my computer this morning and I can't work out how to retrieve the missing files.

 

I had a folder full of photos on a memory stick, which was in the machine. I wanted to transfer the folder to "my documents" and then onto a different memory stick so as to post the second stick to my mother in Oz.

 

I deleted the folder by accident but I couldn't find it in the Recycle Bin. Why not?

 

I've had the little microsoft dog running around for about an hour but the dog can't find the missing folder either. I told it to look in the hidden files and folders as well as everywhere else but there doesn't seem to be any sign of it.

 

They are family photos of my mother's house and my father's grave, both in the UK. They are of huge sentimental value to all of us but to Mum in particular. She'll be 91 in a couple of weeks so I wanted to send her the photos in time for her birthday.

 

Surely a folder full of photos can't just vanish in a Windows computer?

 

I'm stuck because I don't know how to find this folder again and I didn't take the photos. A friend took them for me and he downloaded them straight onto the first memory stick. I stupidly didn't copy them onto the C-Drive as well.

 

I'd be enormously grateful for some idiot-proof instructions, please!!!! (Must be idiot-proof because I'm now on the outer limit of what I understand about these ruddy contraptions.)

 

Many thanks indeed.

 

Gill

 

 

Hi Gill

 

I use Easeus Data recovery software. There is a free edition available on CNET.

Hope you can get it sorted.

http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Data-Recovery-Wizard-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-75184619.html

 

Any probs let me know.

 

IrishStew

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Leigh and Irish Stew

 

Thank you so, so much for your help with this.

 

Until Leigh said it, I had no idea that stuff deleted from a memory stick doesn't go into the Recycle Bin but the fact that it doesn't explains why I couldn't find the folder! This piece of information has taught me a sharp lesson. I've been saving everything onto a memory stick lately because I've been too lazy to tidy up the "my documents" folder on the C-Drive. I now plan to get cracking on that this weekend and to sort the whole thing out properly!

 

 

Irish Stew - many thanks for your link. I've had a quick look at it and have decided to download the software and see whether I can use it to find the missing folder. I'm not in the mood to be patient with computers tonight so I plan to do the download tomoz.

 

Meanwhile, I've just come off the phone to the friend who took the photos. He had one of those little notebook computers with him when he came to stay with me. Apparently he downloaded the photos from the camera into this little notebook and then transferred them onto the memory stick because he knew that my pc doesn't have the software to download the photos but his notebook machine has.

 

He says he's still got the original photos on his notebook machine so I've agreed to send him my new, spare, unused memory stick. He says he'll download the folder of photos onto the new memory stick and then he'll send the new memory stick direct to my mother in Oz, so that I don't get a second chance to muck anything up!

 

With that bit sorted, I can then search for the missing folder in my machine/memory stick at my leisure.

 

The only remaining issue is whether Aussie Customs might imagine that a memory stick is a Weapon of Mass Destruction and prevent it from reaching my mother in Perth, WA, but with a bit of luck, that will not happen!

 

I am hugely grateful to both of you for explaining what went wrong and how to get out of the mess.

 

The only good thing about it is that lessons learned the hard way are never forgotten. I now understand very clearly that a memory stick, on its own, is not an adequate substitute for using this machine of mine properly. I'll not forget that now that I realise!

 

Many thanks indeed.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Chris_J]

Did you search the recycle bin whilst the memory stick was in? If not, try with the mem stick in the computer.

[IrishStew]

Don't worry we are all slow learners!!!! ;-)

 

If you have any probs with the software let me know and I will send you some simple instructions

 

IrishStew (OH)

[adelaidenow]

Use dropbox, no need to send the photos via memory stick.

[Gollywobbler]

Did you search the recycle bin whilst the memory stick was in? If not, try with the mem stick in the computer.

 

Hi Chris

 

Unfortunately the memory stick was plugged into my machine throughout. I had no idea that if I deleted a file from the memory stick by accident, it wouldn't just find its way into the recycle bin. Then when the microsoft dog couldn't find the folder of photos either, I thought, "This is ridiculoous. Apparently the police can find files on computers even though the user thinks they have been well & truly deleted so I must be doing something wrong, here."

 

Then Leigh explained that I had already done something wrong by deleting a file from the memory stick in the first place without first making a back-up copy of the file in My Documents. I plan to have a go with Irish Stew's finder program later today but I feel a bit faint at the thought because I'll probably get it wrong with that as well. I hate gadgets like computers because it is so difficult to work them when something goes wrong. GRRRR!!!

 

Cheers

 

Gill