How I can recover files when the folder shows empty but the files are not deleted?
- by Borror0
Yesterday, my laptop caught a virus which caused massive damage. Since them, I have been trying to recover important files before reformatting my computer, a task the virus has not made easy.
Restoration points predating the attack have been deleted.
Most of my folders show empty.
My Start menu is essentially empty, with the exception of Trillian and Mirror's Edge. The same goes for my Desktop, which only has programs which were installed after the attack.
Searching for files though my computer is pretty much useless, as it only rarely brings up anything.
I suspect most of my files have not been deleted. While my folders show empty, uTorrent still does display them and I can open them from here. Unfortunately, when I select Open Containing Folder, the folder still shows as completely empty even if I'm currently watching a video from that very folder.
Further adding evidence to the not-deleted, just-missing theory, the data recovery software I'm using (Restoration) cannot find only find an handful of the missing files.
If they were deleted, I could do a forensic recovery to get them back but since they're probably still somewhere on my computer, just out out of my reach, I can't find them.
Under those circumstances, is there a way I can recover those files?
