Disappearing Files

Pete the wood

Newbie Location: S.W. France Joined: Mar 01, 2015 12:07 Messages: 40 Offline

Solved by

Sep 13, 2015 14:13

Having been very busy all summer I have not opened Power Director since June. On doing so I find I have no PDS files on my computer. Now, I never, I repeat NEVER simply do a save. My proceedure at all times is to open the project and before doing any editing I do a Sava As to a new file name. I have the system set to save every five minutes but, I never close without doing a Save As and a new file name. All my PDS files are saved to a named temorary folder. I do have the settings set to delete 'Temporary' files every 30 days, but, I assume this only deletes 'Temporary' files, not those saved as a named file. I have searched every folder on the system without success.

Fortunately almost the entire project I am working on is saved as a video, as each time I arrive at an important point I create a disc. But, this whole project has taken me countless hours since February and still has many months to go yet. Is it possible that somehow PD13 considers all my PDS files as temporary and simply deletes them.

Does anyone out there have an answer please.

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Sep 13, 2015 16:05

It sounds like you are using Save As in the same temporary folder that PD creates.

You should create a working folder on your hard drive for your project.

These tutorials will give you a good work flow method.

Project Management I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAOnn8g0C_o

Project Management II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2CYLYIynB0

. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Sep 13, 2015 16:25

Please STOP using your computer now and download Recuva from Piriform.com to a flash drive on another computer. If you don't have another one available, save the program to a different drive than where your files were saved.

If you just opened PD, it would have just deleted all the contents of the temp folder and you should be able to recover most or all of your content. The MOST IMPORTANT thing to do now is to keep your computer from saving anything to that drive because it will likely overwrite the areas where your projects were stored and make them unrecoverable.

When you use Recuva, it will ask you where to save the recovered files, and YOU MUST choose a different drive so you won't overwrite anything before Recova can salvage it.

Good luck, and definitely follow the advice in the videos that Carl referenced going forward

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at Sep 13. 2015 16:32

Pete the wood

Newbie Location: S.W. France Joined: Mar 01, 2015 12:07 Messages: 40 Offline

Sep 14, 2015 12:04

Hi Carl
I have a separate working folder with a different name, which is why I was so amazed to find it empty.

Pete the wood

Newbie Location: S.W. France Joined: Mar 01, 2015 12:07 Messages: 40 Offline

Sep 14, 2015 12:06

Thanks so much Optodata. I'll give that one a try but, as I've already saved other files on the system I'm not too hopeful.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Sep 14, 2015 12:07

Pete the wood

Newbie Location: S.W. France Joined: Mar 01, 2015 12:07 Messages: 40 Offline

Sep 29, 2015 14:10

Hi Optodata
Thanks for your help. I have recovered 11 of the fourteen missing files. As 'Sods Law' would have it of course the one really needed had been overwritten and unrecoverable. But, no worries I have enough data to re-creat it. Once again thanks to all at PD forum

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Sep 29, 2015 14:29

Well, I'm glad you were able to recover enough to recreate your main project.

As long as this and future projects are saved to folders away from the temp folder (and it's even better to save them to a separate drive), you should be OK.

Good luck with the rest of your project