Queenie1946

The OSs we use are all Windows Ultimate (x64). The system consists of a network of 6 computers: 2 Towers who serve as main data storage and backup system respectively with 4 notebooks tied into the network. Although all systems can access the data HDDs (2 TB Caviar Black 64MB Cache each), altering the data must be done from the main tower; read-only restrictions apply to prevent data loss. The backup system in the secondary tower consists of clones of the HDDs from the main tower. The two towers have an almost identical configuration (differences being specific software installed for specific hardware): one 2 TB HDD for the OS and four 2 TB HDDs for the data. The entire network is protected by UPS systems and power surge protectors. We believe virusses and malware can be ruled out; Avast Internet Security, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware take care of that. All six systems use these four programmes and nothing was detected. These four programmes monitor all activity on a real-time basis. One of the data HDDs is used for active projects (and this HDD has its own clone on the secondary tower), while the other three data HDDs are used for archived projects (again with a clone on the second tower). The data was erased from the second data archieve HDD (although we don't use the archive attribute on the files or directories) on the main tower, the backup clone was intact. Since nobody accessed this data anymore, we could determine the moment of wipe from the last time the folders in question were altered; that was 14 September 2011 at 16.45 and 16.46 CET. There were no errors reported and no crashes occured. CCleaner is not set to operate on these HDDs either as this would be pointless due to their nataure of serving as data archive. The systems are set to take action in case the temperature reaches certain levels; no such action had been undertaken. We don't use any kind of scheduled task, not even for cloning purposes. CCleaner was not running on any of the six computers at the moment. No event was recorded in any log. The entire network remains operations 24/7, nothing special happened that afternoon. The only thing that did happen was a router reset early that morning which became necessary after some routine windows updates. Of course, we don't know whether the problem is actually caused by CCleaner, this is just Microsoft's best guess (and ours). Thanks.

Howdy, We do not know if CCleaner is responsible, but from what we can find out, this is the most likely culprit. What happened is this: on 14 September 2011 at 16.45 & 16.46 CET, the contents of two folders on a data drive was wiped due to an unknown event. The contents consisted of various video files (.avi format). We checked with Recuva, and could determine that the files were wiped and subsequently overwritten as we only detected the problem on 22 September. None of the files could be recovered. Antivirus software logs registered no activity on their part. The initial theory that the files were somehow classified as "hidden" was thus proven wrong. According to the Tech Guys at Microsoft, a rogue action by the cleaning software (CCleaner is the only one we have) is the most likely candidate. Has anyone had similar experiences, and if so, what can be done to prevent this from happening again? Finally, I'd like to point out that CCleaner is only run manually, their are no scheduled tasks, and at has been a while since we ran it (usually once every two months). Thanks.

Alas no. I have no backup from the Registry in any form. Can't restore to a previous Restore Point either. I guess System Restore doesn't work too good either after upgrading from one OS to another.

Really Bad Bug. Tested it twice (fresh reinstall of the entire system). This is what happened ... Notebook (ACER Aspire 7520G) with Vista x64 Ultimate gets upgraded to Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. As the system needed cleaning up, I decided to install CCleaner V2.30.1130 as I had really good experiences with this software under Windows XP Professional (both x86 and x64) as well as Vista Ultimate (again both versions). Now, once I installed CCleaner (making sure it was in the right directory of course), the trouble began. While opening folders on HDs on the Network, I got the error "Windows Exploerer has stopped Working". Then Windows Explorer closes and restarts. This problem is persistant. I identified CCleaner as the culprit by eventually doing a clean install of Vista x64 Ultimate, upgrading that again to Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and again installing CCleaner, this time the latest version (V2.32.1165). Again the some problem. I don't think there is much to do about it but reinstall Windows 7, clean this time, and stop using CCleaner. A simple removal of Ccleaner, either through the Control Panel or manually doesn't solve the problem. Hoping to have been of service.