Hi folks.
is it me or is it me? I seem to get most bizarre problems.
I have been traveling and decided to take my documents copied on an external drive. ( I don't have a laptop and am planning to work on all my hosts' PCs. ) I copied and checked them at home - all correct and working.
Now I have arrived in Kanpur ( in northern India) , in my daughter's place and when I inserted the drive initially i could access them all. But now after about a week many of my documents are EMPTY!
the document is not deleted, it does not show any gibberish, it shows in the folder, and opens - and there is nothing in it! It shows 0 bites. This has not happened with all the documents, only with about 50%.
Both at my place and here the OS is XP pro, and Office 2007.
I tried repairing, converting, and other help features from the net. but no go.
I have now asked my son to copy and send the documents again and they are working. But I am really flummoxed. Why it happened, and how can I prevent it ? My husband and I are on an extended holiday and will be traveling for next 3-4 months, visiting family and using different computers. can it happen again? Any ideas anyone?
shobha
Um. wow.
My first thought would be malware on whatever host you're using. That feels very mal-wareish.
A couple questions -- in Windows Exploder, do the files show as 0kb?
Does the last modified date show a more recent date then the last time you knowingly changed the document?
All of this information can be accessed by right clicking on the file and selecting properties.
--Zig
hi ziggie
sorry for late reply, as I said i am on vacation and do not have access to the net all the time.
unfortunately I have deleted all the files and replaced them with new ones sent by my son. so cant confirm about the dates, but yes, they all showed 0 bytes in window explorer.
This is a brand new computer, commissioned after my arrival about 2 weeks back. it has avast 5.
In Kanpur ( the place i am in) power supply is erratic and unstable. My son in law feels that it might be due to that. he is getting a UPS now. maybe it affected the external drive?
Then again, my external drive came with WD smartware ( backup system) installed. I was having trouble with it before . So instead of backing up the files I did copy/ paste, could that affect it?
This is a persistent program and though It claims that I can by pass it, it has a nasty habit of surfacing . I have been trying to get rid of it, but have not been able to do so. I rather suspect it might be the culprit. any idea how to get rid of it? it stays in a boot type partition on the drive and I cant seem to access it.
i would be glad to know how to get rid of it.
Thanks.
shobha
I doubt the problem is due to the power flux. Unless you opened and re-saved all your Word documents, just viewing the documents would not cause them to disappear (0 bytes). Have you noticed any other losses?
Yes, a UPS for your computer is an excellent idea, as it adds superior surge protection too. Been using them for over a decade now, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
The only problem was with the word documents. XLS, PPs and PDF docs were ok.
Some complete FOLDERS with word files showed corrupted and could not open.
Even the word docs only about 50% were affected. Now that I have all of them reloaded, they are fine.
This is really a weird problem. I am more and more inclined to think it might be the WD Smartware. Now I have all the documents on the main computer and they are fine.
Thanks for the brainstorming.
shobha
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