I understand and I agree with all the follow-ups that
this seems impossible. Believe me, the people here
looked in the recycle bin and searched the entire
computer and even hidden files.

I come in here to help with computer problems and usually
have no problem. But when I came in this time what I
typed to you guys was literally what they were telling
me. They swore up and down it just HAD to be the
installation of Office 2003 to make some of the important
(I mean very important files, like invoices and records)
disappear. I talked to everyone in the office and no one
claims to have touched the computer. Non-office members
have no idea where these important files are hidden.

In this folder, most of the files are still there. It
just so happens the IMPORTANT ones are selectively gone.
I humored them and said I would ask around to see if this
is a possibility. I am not positive this is a legit copy
of Office, which is why there is the possibility if it
was burned (they haven't shown me the copy they used) it
was burned with a virus. But for a virus to select only
invoice files is strange to me.

They are asking/begging for the files to come back. They
are like, can system restore do it? I told them no. But
I know if a file is deleted it can be recovered still,
unless the area on the hard disk has already been
rewritten over.

So I already reconfirmed that it wasn't the installation
that got rid of these selective important word files.
But since this is a nonprofit organization with little
computer help (I rarely come in since I moved out of
state), they don't back anything up. I stressed over and
over to burn backups of important files to no avail.

So does anyone think that there is a way to recover a
lost deleted file off the hard drive (if it isn't too
late)?

Also, today when I came in to help again, looking at the
startup menu, all the program files are gone from the
list, or the folders lead to empty menus. Even all the
accessories are the same, all empty. I am manually
trying to rebuild these things for them.

They asked if there was a virus that could do this, but
they swear they have the latest in antivirus (AVG) and
also use the online virus sweaper from Household
something or other (which is a good one) and also run Ad-
Aware to block spyware. All are up to date. I find it
hard to believe a virus would selectively only delete the
word files that contain invoices and member lists and
other very important files and then leaving all the rest
okay with no signs otherwise.

I am puzzled about this system and where all the program
shortcuts went and the word files. Can this be
recovered? I am going to start these people on a backup
program for all important files immediately. I can't
believe they never backed anything up, and I am afraid to
say they lost these things for good, but they still are
demanding an explanation.


-----Original Message-----
I'm no guru by any means, but ... I seriously doubt that
the
installation of 2003 caused the deletion of any files.
IFF those files were kept in the Program Files folder,
under the
Office installation, I could see someone possibly having
deleted
them by trying to purge the system of old files and
folders, but
no details were included in your descrip.
You don't mention checking the Recycle Bin for them, or
what the
status of your antivirus/macro protection is/was, and
several
other things like SP status, hot fixes, and updates to
firewalls,
adware finders, trojan protection, etc. Are you
positive you
didn't pick up a Word macro virus? Do you have any
recently
departed people with a grudge?
Are you certain the disk searches were done
competently? What
happens if you search for say *.doc? How about the
*.bak and
*.wbk and Backup Of*.* files? Are any of them still
there? Any
chance what you're looking for are .DOT files and
not .DOC? I've
heard of stranger things happening.

Since these sound like "old' files, they were backed up,
even
archived, right? How about those for sources of
recovery? You
DO back up important files, right? If not, good luck,
I've
little else to say because they really
weren't "important" or you
would have backed them up or at least had them exist in
more than
one place.

Pop



Friendship Center wrote:
We are a nonprofit organization that had been running
MS
Office 2000. We recently got Office 2003. We ran and
installed it and everything went well.

Then we went to open some of our documents that we use
within the office that contains a lot of important
data.
Suddenly, random documents were completely missing off
the hard drive. We did searches for the documents by
name and partial name. Nothing came up.

The only issue we can think of is that the installation
asked for the older Office 2000 CD, which has been in
storage for some time and the installer rather than go
get it clicked cancel and the installation resumed.
The
programs all worked, but the documents that are needed
are missing.

Now, most of the documents are still on the drive and
work fine in the new program. However, the ones that
are
missing are important and were there prior to
installation.

Can anyone determine if the installation process caused
the documents to disappear, or if the way it was
installed caused this, or if it must be some other
reason? The computer is in good shape, a HP Pavillion
XE749 with stock components. No other problems have
arrived.

If these documents are gone, what can be done to
recover
them? Any ideas? The only clue here was the
installation of Office 2003.

Thanks

.