I recently had a computer repair shop get most of the data off it, reinstall the operating system, and put it back on.
Now, I know that the data’s on my machine. The properties section of my C: drive says it has 9 gigs of stuff.
But I can’t find the data ANYWHERE. I’ve used the search function for a half dozen files I know I have, I’ve unhidden every file I know how, and even searched through the protected system files.
Anyone have any clue where the data could have gone?
Was this an XP system, by chance? Sounds like it’s hidden from you as it’s on a different user account (quite possibly one set up by the repair shop). If you log in as administrator, you ought to be able to find it and change its ownership back to you.
Of course, if it’s not too inconvenient, you should just head back to that shop and say “Where’s my data?”
Perhaps it is compressed into a gigantic ZIP file, or other compressed data format. Go to “Find Files & Folders”, search for . with the option to check subfolders enabled (checkbox). The order them by size by clicking on the column header for File size. If it is a single compressed file, it should pop to the top; I doubt you have very many other files that size.
It could even be in a ghost file and you may need ghost walker to explore it. Try doing a file search for *.gho.
If that doesn’t work, try doing a hard drive search for anything over 50 meg (50000 kb).
I think what gotpasswords suggests is likely the answer though.