I ran the ccleaner and opted for the registry cleaning option. After the cleaner was done and i rebooted, all my files in my docs, pictures etc wre gone. This included the back up of the registry which was placed in the myndocs folder.
HELP!
System restore?
What operating system, and more details please of drives etc and your set up of how you run your system/user area etc.
I do not see how cleaning the registry will remove any files.
Where did you get CCleaner from, and are you a first time user ?
Please explain exactly :-
What is your version of Windows ;
What is your version of CCleaner ;
What you did, including every box that you checked and every button you clicked.
Sorry for the lack of details. Did not expect that action to remove files either. I would say i am prett computer savvy and was helping a friend clean up their system. He had CCleaner installed
Win vista sp2
CCleaner v2.16.830
- Register (Registry) (it is a dutch version) tab
- Left all checkboxes as default (all checked)
- ran the scan
- ran the fix all problems
- rebooted
All files were there before i rebooted
After reboot, stuff was gone, links in start menu didn't work anymore.
Ran system restore but that did not bring then files back, it did fix the start menu links though.
That is a very old version of ccleaner, the current version is 3.26.1888
Did you use the 'ordinary' clean with ccleaner before doing the registry clean?
When you say you were helping a friend clean up his computer, was there any possibility of malware/viruses? Why did it need cleaning? Was it running slow etc?
If there was any malware, and it was the type that hide user docs and start menu items into temp files, and then you used ccleaner, then I am afraid the files will be gone.
CCleaner is just not programmed to delete user files.
.
There could have been malware. Not sure. He ran the cleaner fairly often. Which type of malware does this?
There was a bunch of old Symantec stuff hangng around in the reg (as well as HP) so figured i get that out of there. Rightly assuming that this wouldn't mess with the files (and there wasmthe automatic reg backup anyways). Could removing a reg key make a file dissapear from the file system while it ismin fact still on the drive somewhere?
probably not... Pretty much "up $hit creek" here
Hi Booji, and welcome to the forum.
Like the guys above, I can't understand where your files have gone, but as already suggested it could be malware related.
But you've nothing to lose by having a look for your files with Recuva ...
http://www.filehippo.com/download_recuva (Official download site)
It's another Piriform product free for home use, and I've no idea if you'll find anything, but nothing to lose really.
Hope that might help.
I'd imagine it was probably caused by using that old version of CCleaner because more recent versions have fixed bugs regarding to folders like My Documents, etc., from being touched, and something else to do with a fix for Environment Variables.
the System Restore would not have recovered personal files, it's just not what it does.
from your statement that some Start, All Programs links were missing, it reminds me of a malware i've seen recently, a few times.
check MSCONFIG (since you are pc savvy, i'll skip the nitty-gritty) and see what is getting started.
i'd be doing this in Safe Mode.
Your Docs may still there, just hidden, so check the My Doc Read-Only and Hidden attributes aren't set. this malware i've seen hides your files and doesn't delete them.
same for all your folders, check those attributes.
do yourself a big favour and run Anti-MalwareBytes. i've used this before for this situation with great sucess.
please report back any news.
@mta please do not give any malware related advice, it is against forum rules.
@Booij please if you say you are unsure about there being any malware you should go to one of the forums listed in this link below for advice
@hazel, what, not even mention the software they can use?
the System Restore would not have recovered personal files, it's just not what it does.
from your statement that some Start, All Programs links were missing, it reminds me of a malware i've seen recently, a few times.
check MSCONFIG (since you are pc savvy, i'll skip the nitty-gritty) and see what is getting started.
i'd be doing this in Safe Mode.
Your Docs may still there, just hidden, so check the My Doc Read-Only and Hidden attributes aren't set. this malware i've seen hides your files and doesn't delete them.
same for all your folders, check those attributes.
do yourself a big favour and run Anti-MalwareBytes. i've used this before for this situation with great sucess.
please report back any news.
mta your post talks about malware that hides things and how and where to look for signs, and then you suggest a software to run .
We had a policy that only authorised Spyware Moderators can give specific help. We no longer have a Spyware removal section now hence the sticky post pointing to where people should go for help.
Once people start suggesting software to help with malware everyone will start doing it and 99.99% of them will not be authorised Spyware Removal experts.
Hope you understand.
fair enough, my lips are sealed.
TreeSize Free will show what is occupying space on your system, even if it is hidden from Windows Explorer.
It might be worth a shot. I personally use the Portable version
Thanks for all the help. Even though it seems that this isn't a CCleaner issue, i wanted to share my progress with you to close out this thread.
Going to do a more thorough check for malware but after going to msinfo, the only thing that seemed like a bad citizen was ezgamexn.dll, which apparently has a worm. Running unhide.exe to see if that fixes things.
Also found that is might be caused bij the vista sp2 update i ran right before CCleaner. Didn't think that this update could have such an effect but google told me that a lot of people have had similar issues.
Als running Recuva at this moment to see if that turns up anything.
Lastly: should have done a backup. Even with such seemingly trivial things like running a win update, things can go horribly wrong...
TreeSize Free will show what is occupying space on your system, even if it is hidden from Windows Explorer.
It might be worth a shot. I personally use the Portable version
Have you seen windirstat?
Have you seen windirstat?
Yes, I tried it, but then moved onto TreeSize which I much prefer.