Help - all my downloaded files have disappeared

bignred05

after some advice please folks, not sure how its happened, but all my files I have ever downloaded on my laptop appeared to have totally disappeared.
now I know I have not deleted any of these files, I had various types of files (winzip, winrar, avi video, word doc's no doubt other files as well)

at present I have about 10 folders, but there's nothing inside the folders

I know I have not deleted any of the files etc

anyone shed any light on where or whats happened to all my downloaded files

Thanks

closed

could be disk corruption, virus, hidden attribute, somewhere else, deleted accidentally.

scan with malwarebytes and recuva

backup.

bignred05

closed wrote: »

could be disk corruption, virus, hidden attribute, somewhere else, deleted accidentally.

scan with malwarebytes and recuva

backup.

Thanks,

currently running a malwarebytes scan, have defiantly not deleted anything, was far to many and different types of files, this only appeared to happened in the last few days

closed

http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe

http://www.filehippo.com/download_recuva/

bignred05

closed wrote: »

http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe

http://www.filehippo.com/download_recuva/

Thanks again ,currently running the malware scan, will take a few hours to do a full scan, however I've just noticed a O/S is showing about 30 gb of extra space
god know how I have deleted all these files, because I would never deleted so much stuff in one hit, looks like I'll be doing a recuva job

I'll keep you updated

Thanks again

Guardsman

Don't shout at me but have you looked in your Recycle Bin.

bignred05

Guardsman wrote: »

Don't shout at me but have you looked in your Recycle Bin.

I'll shout alright, LOL (its empty)

that's what I can't understand, I regularly empty my recycle bin, and I would of noticed so many files/folders, especially all my downloaded files going back several years

Guardsman

I've just noticed a O/S is showing about 30 gb of extra space

More than likely they will be in there,,, If you are on Win 7 just type in start the name of one of your documents it may bring it up.

bignred05

Guardsman wrote: »

I've just noticed a O/S is showing about 30 gb of extra space

More than likely they will be in there,,, If you are on Win 7 just type in start the name of one of your documents it may bring it up.

Think you've missed the point previously I had about 35gb of space on my O/S, now all my downloaded files have mysteriously disappeared I've got 63gb of available space on my O/S

but like I've said I have not deleted any of these files/folders, and the folders (14) that I have left in my downloads main folder are all empty

gruntled

If you can remember the name(s) of any of those files, try doing a search for it. Just type the name, followed by a full stop, and then an asterisk - like this -
myfile.*

If you get a hit, you may well find the rest of them in the same place.

bignred05

right time for an update, there's good news and bad news

last night I did a full malwarebyte's scan, nothing showed up (not sure if that's good or bad now)

I have just done a system restore from about 10 days ago,pretty certain I had all my files then, anyway now for the little bit of good news

its look like all my downloaded files/folders etc have reappeared, however now for the bad news, there's no files in any folders
the only file inside each folder is a file ending .nfo

any suggestions for,

a) what's happened
b) restoring all the contents of the folders within my downloads file