Alan_B

Windows 7 has Reparse Points which are "smoke and mirrors magic". One file exists in one path, but Reparse points appear to duplicate it. Delete the genuine file and the duplicates vanish.

Did you use the File Finder which is a new feature that I fear ?

Have you used any registry cleaning Tool, either the CCleaner registry section or some other third party or Microsoft "PC performance Booster" ? It occurs to me that iTunes may still have some DRM protection in force on your system, and perhaps it only needs the removal of one registry key for drastic penalties to be imposed. Actually the ONLY result is less than 1 day old - it points to your posting here. If I remove the enclosing quotes then Google gives About 117,000 results (0.34 seconds) and life is too short to scan through results that match only 2 or 3 of the words If I remove the enclosing quotes and use special search terms that require all 4 words to appear I get "about 4,630 results" such as which obviously is NOT referring to the deletion of iTunes library. Please give a link to "this very site". I am surprised that others have suffered this problem and sought answers without coming here. You have done well to come here.

I can absolutely guarantee the possibility that when "recuva states unrecoverable, overwrite." it could be referring to remnants of ANCIENT files that you do not want because you relocated/moved/re-organised/deleted/replaced/edited in the past. Recuva could have been telling you the same thing WHILST you had access to your CURRENT photos BEFORE your disaster. You possibly have no need to use Recuva or any other recovery tools if you act on advice in posts #12 and #11. Otherwise there are alternative recovery tools, some of which are better than others, That depends upon your definitions of :- overwritten; anything. If a large file has been considered to be part of "free space", and some sectors in part of that "free space" have been written to as part of a new file, ultra-pro $5,000 tools may be unable to retrieve the data previously held in those sectors, but may still be able to retrieve other parts of the original file, and those parts may be useful in securing a conviction

This morning I thought of you and your group as I read this :- http://www.techrepub...er-malware/9332 DropSmack: Using Dropbox to steal files and deliver malware

if that happens there is no increase in free space. Have you actually tested where File Finder sends the duplicates ? Normal CCleaner junk removal is NOT sent to the Recycle Bin

This indicates your security is not the cause - ASSUMING that you have not updated your security and your A.V. signatures. But then of course all sorts of nasties can climb on-board if security is not up to date. Sometimes an A.V. signature update can go horribly wrong a kill performance or even delete system files.

There are many historical energy-report-'datestamp'.xml files which may deserve eradication. The energy-report-latest.xml may be worth preserving - if not then why not kill the report producer (I think it has an Automatic Start service)

DropBox did this to me years ago - it might be better behaved now. Whatever AutoRuns finds is auto-starting it gives you the options to disable or to remove. I first disabled all Dropbox entries and that cured the problems but crippled the use of DropBox. I could have fine-tuned which entries to re-enable for adequate operation, and I could have deleted the really bad entries - but decided it was not worth the effort so I uninstalled the Dropbox application.

Launch Defraggler - BUT DO NOT DEFRAG Select the drive you wish to test Click the "Search" TAB Tick the boxes "Filename Contains" and "Include non-fragmented files" Type the name "Autorun.inf" in the filename box Click search and you will be shown. That will show you with needing to alter any hidden and system file restrictions that affect Windows Explorer.

Perhaps it is just a coincidence that slow downs happened after running CCleaner Try Autoruns from Systernals. This finds all sorts of things that might be launched on startup. It found that DropBox had hooked into my operating system, and when I looked at Windows Event Viewer I found the very first event every morning after booting up - long before I could logg on, was a DropBox executable phoning home.

What is a computer ? A complete specification of make and model could be useful. (A link to a supplier/manufacturer product specification would be even nicer). Is it something like a Laptop/Netbook with a rechargeable battery that will suck power whenever it is plugged into the mains ? Is it new enough to consider replacing under warrantee?

Are we allowed to assist those who are violating restrictions imposed on free accounts ? When I saw this topic last night I fully expected a Moderator slap down.

Why did you change the target ? Did the CCleaner installer misfire and activate the 64 bit CCleaner on a 32 bit system ? Are you trying to run the 32 bit CCleaner on a 64 bit system ?

Recuva is intended to recover FILES, it does not try to fix Registry KEYS. If you delete a typical program that also uses the registry then even if Recuva OR ANY OTHER Recovery tool can rescue ALL of the files that constitute that program, there may be access restrictions that prevent the files being copied back into locations such as C:\Windows\System32\ and perhaps the registry keys will not cooperate - especially if purged by using anything that cleans the registry. Whoops - I just noticed in post #12 "I deleted a program with uninstall." That indicates to me the registry keys were deleted by RevoUninstall (or similar) as part of the deletion.

SOLVED Cleaning browser cache and cookies did nothing Starting in Safe Mode with Networking also failed to find Google. Google's NameBench did not help at all. The DNS BENCHMARK from GRC.COM gave the answer. My Primary DNS was 62.24.128.18 and this is no longer a DNS server. This is now owned by TalkTalk - it was NOT owned by TalkTalk when I first selected it. Consequently my secondary DNS was the only working DNS at 213.253.136.17 and this has forgotten where Google is. By replacing TWO bad / broken DNS with a solitary GOOD DNS at 199.2.252.10 I now have full access to Google Search and Gmail and via PING. Tomorrow I choose a secondary DNS Regards Alan

Thanks. Building up a Todo list for later this afternoon :- Clear Browser cache and cookies ; Start in Safe mode with Networking and try for Google Regards Alan

Until yesterday my Android Tablet was still receiving my Gmail, and I doubt that malware would strike both Windows and Android at the same time. I think Malware would be more interested in blocking A.V. sites than in blocking Google I would expect a hardware fault to block more than Gmail and Google My P.C. software has not been updated this week My Android has not been "Rooted" and has antivirus etc that is on automatic update, but I am not aware of any capability for it to modify the password protected settings of the Router and block my PC from Google. Fun Fact Used StartPage to search for MalwareBytes Clicked on the Top result to download from www.malwarebytes.org/ This was a Google sponsored ADD which my DNS failed to resolve. Clicked on the first result below sponsored Adds www.malwarebytes.org - View by Ixquick Proxy - Highlight That took me to the intended Download. I love lxquick Proxy Regards Alan

1. NO TalkTalk online chat told me that IE and FIrefox can reach Google, my ISP has not blocked it I cannot reach Google in any way 2. YES Palemoon installed (default) cannot get there Palemoon Portable cannot get there CMD.EXE PING cannot get there Samsung TAB2 Android Tablet with a Dolphin Browser has also lost contact with Google and Gmail before I switched on Yesterday morning, and this is dependant upon WiFi to the same Router and ISP and DNS 3. No, I can try that when I close Palemoon, though I would be surprised if that helped PING or Dolphin 4. I actually flushed the DNS cache yesterday without success. I Rebooted my Modem/Router this morning and got a new dynamic IP address - but this did not fix the problem It occurs to me that I could have received cache corruption between yesterday's flush and this mornings reboot, so I have just repeated the flush and I still cannot PING to Google. Right now I am experimenting with NameBench, I just wish I could make it focus upon resolution of Google.com, it takes so long waiting for it to test hundreds of resolutions on thousands of DNS Regards Alan

Not at all. This is an entity and its path E:\Downloads\NewFiles\ccsetup400 ccsetup400 could be a normal FILE or a normal FOLDER. It is actually a file and the full name includes the extension ZIP, i.e. ccsetup400.zip By default Windows 7 will Hide extensions for known file types I am quite certain that Windows 8 is similarly crippled and that you actually have two different entities which have the same name but a different extension. Your Backup was either a Folder named "Eileen" or an archive file with an extension such as "Eileen.zip". Your Windows 8 backup may have an extension. I think there is a very good chance that :- Your original EILEEN container of photos, videos etc is still present but Windows 8 is hiding it from you, and Recuva has merely rescued REDUNDANT temporary backups that were created as you edited / added / organised your "EILEEN" container. A simple search of your computer for "Eileen" might find what you need. A search tool that might help you is UltraFileSearch Lite Portable V.2.9.0.12349 32 January 2013 ZIP 1.30 MB Free Download from http://www.ultrafile...m/download.html Those who use Windows 8 can advise you upon how to make Windows Explorer show you file extensions.

No, that fails also. I also tried pinging them C:\Users\Alan>ping google.co.uk Ping request could not find host google.co.uk. Please check the name and try again. C:\Users\Alan>ping www.google.co.uk Ping request could not find host www.google.co.uk. Please check the name and try again. C:\Users\Alan>ping https://www.google.co.uk Ping request could not find host https://www.google.co.uk. Please check the name and try again. C:\Users\Alan>ping http://www.google.co.uk Ping request could not find host http://www.google.co.uk. Please check the name and try again. Although the end results are the same, the time taken is repeatedly but drastically different :- 3 Seconds for ping google.co.uk 1.5 Seconds for ping www.google.co.uk 0 Seconds for ping https://www.google.co.uk and ping http://www.google.co.uk

I contacted them yesterday and they confirmed that Firefox and I.E. were accessing Google.com and not being blocked. I may well start shouting tomorrow - but at the moment I suspect the DNS I am using. I have just downloaded (not from Google) Google's Namebench tool. For my existing DNS this reports that Google and Twitter are hijacked or wrong on 11 test DNS, e.g. Does this seem to be business as usual, or is there some serious hacking in progress ?

There are different types of Windows Backup What is your operating system - Windows 7 or Windows 8 or what ? ALSO What was the exact filename and extension of :- The Windows Backup that did the damage and Your "file contains picture, document, music and songs" N.B. FOLDERS are able to "contains picture, document, music and songs" FILES are generally not capable unless they are specialised compressed archive files such as ZIP/RAR/ etc.

Thanks - I will try that. Normally my dynamic IP address is only revised after several hundred hours, I notice that the Router stats show it has been up for 32 hours 18 minutes, i.e. I was allocated a new IP address at about 3:00 a.m. on the morning that Google vanished SUPPLEMENTARY :- I powered down the Netgear DG834G Modem Router for 2 minutes, and after I powered up I saw a new IP address and my download speed increased by 30% (with Noise margin reduced from 8.6 dB to 5.6 dB) Unfortunately Gmail and Google are NOT coming back to me, and PING GOOGLE.COM still gives :- Ping request could not find host google.com. Please check the name and try again. I can choose alternative DNS addresses, but it is so tedious typing in the numbers and then waiting for a shut-down-reboot to see if I am lucky, especially if the fault is not in the DNS but in my router or in the OpenReach/Telecom broadband link between my router and my ISP I really would like to have an instant test of whether a specific DNS is able to resolve Google.com for me. Is there any tool that will help me. Regards Alan

Is it appropriate to consider restoring the Registry backups that were suggested when cleaning the registry.