My music library vanished

[fpb]

I was trying to transfer my memories from my computer to an external hard drive when my whole music folder just vanished. And I mean vanished - hundreds of music folders and probably a thousand music files at least, nowhere to be found, I tried the computer's search facility with no result whatever

Comments

[semisilence]

STOP and do not create any new files on the original computer until you've tried this, as it may overwrite any data fragments on your drive. Download, extract, and run a copy of Recuva Portable onto a USB and search for music files. If you've accidentally deleted them, then Recuva will show you that yes indeed they were accidentally deleted (and bypassed the recycling bin) as well as any files or fragments you may be able to recover them. Any files you choose to recover should be copied over to the NEW drive, lest you overwrite any deleted files you were hoping to recover.

[dave_iii]

If you do not do what Semisilence suggests (specifically the DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE ON THAT DRIVE part), you may as well stand on the rail platform and wave a clean white hanky, 'cause your files will go bye-bye.

There DO exists professional locations that *MIGHT* recover files even after the physical space they were on is overwritten, but these places are what the police use in forensics cases, and will cost a civilian more money than it would probably take to just replace the music anyway.

Recuva works well-- I've used it myself. It's not 100% perfect, but it does the job. When you get everything back they way it's supposed to be, I'd strongly suggest figuring out what cause the files to vanish in the first place.

[fpb]

"figuring out what cause[d] the files to vanish in the first place" is like asking me to take a day trip to Mars. How do I even start?

[dave_iii]

Oh, Mars is simply *divine* this time of year! ^_