When I open the folder, it says it is empty.
I wish the upstairs condo hadn’t had that ceiling leak.
I wish I hadn’t had to rush around at 1AM saving stuff.
That’s how this confused situation started.
Little sleep a midnight wakeup, & a scramble to move computers & furniture, & save stuff.
If you don’t see the files in a normal computer file view (i.e., what Microsoft calls “Explorer”) but the files are there when you look at them another way (like with file search), I bet you haven’t lost the files at all. Just the thumbnails Explorer depends on to create an icon for each file in Explorer (which is the thumbnail).
If you switch Explorer view, to something like “Details” or “List”, the files would show up. No thumbnail images, just a list of filenames (and, in “Detail” mode, stuff like file size and a datestamp).
Is the flash drive you’re using to hold the images write-protected? If so, Explorer can’t create or store thumbnail images on that device, so it probably can’t show you the files in a thumbnail-icon view mode.
(Speculating a bit; I don’t have a write-protectable flash drive handy to experiment and prove it to myself.)
Sounds to me like your File Explorer has been told to display only certain items.
Usually this happens when you want to see files with a certain extension (e.g. if you want to see only Microsoft Word files you would tell it to view *.doc). When that is done nothing will show but the files specified. If there are no files of that type in that folder then it will appear empty even though there are files in it.
Unfortunately I do not have a Windows 8.1 system handy to remember how to check that in your File Explorer.
Explorer?
What do you mean?
No good.
Details & list show nothing
BTW–I can’t access them from my computer library.
And I moved the files, instead of copying them, from the thumb drive!
One thing you might try is opening a command prompt and navigating to that directory using old-style DOS commands.
Once in that directory you can call up a file list to see what is there.
More, you could copy everything in there to somewhere else (like a thumb drive).
Time to break out a file recovery program. (I’ve had good results with Restoration.)
How on Earth would I do that?
Looks hopeful.
And I meant–How would I know how to open a command prompt, in 8.1, much less navigate?
If this was XP, I might be able to open it, but…
I got to go do stuff around the house.
Please forgive me.
I should be able to look in on the Thread later tonight, before bed.
I am grateful.
But I been awake since before 3AM, & working since 6.
And I gotta do stuff, like shower.
And eat.
It’s ok. Take care of yourself and see ya laterz. 
Thank you.
And I am grateful.
I am not flaking off, I promise.
I’m just bushed.
Would you be willing to walk me through this, over the phone?
We could arrange a day/time…
When you search for the image, try right clicking on it in the search results. If there is an option like, “Show in containing folder,” select that.
While I don’t suggest you do it (probably won’t hurt anything, just another rabbit whole you don’t need to waste your time with right now), it’s Start>Run (or Windows Key + R) and then “cmd” pulls up a command prompt. That’s how to do it in pretty much every remotely recent version of Windows that I can think of that’s used the Start>Run format.
I don’t recall if you tried it, but if you haven’t, someone mentioned it above and it is important; you said that you could search for your lost files and windows would find them, what happens when you right click (or whatever you need to do) and go to Open File Location. That will take you directly to the folder where it’s located.
Also, what happens if you just hit “Open File”. Does your picture open? If not, you might be barking up the wrong tree.
Does anyone know what Windows does with the source file after moving it? Does it end up in the recycle bin?
Have you put the jump drive in a different computer and tried opening it there? If they’re just images, even a newer tv with a USB slot may be able to ‘play’ them. You really should verify on a second computer that they’re not on the jump drive. Or at least, for now, check how full the jump drive is. Is it 100% empty or does it look like there’s something on it?
And while I’m tossing stuff out there, have you looked in your recycling bin? Things are gone, they might just be there, since that’s what it’s there for.
I’d be happy to help.
What I would recommend is you download TeamViewer (free). With that installed I can see your computer screen and control your PC.
I know that sounds scary from an internet stranger (and it is) but we’ve both been here a long time so hopefully that elicits some trust. Further, you can see everything that is happening so if I get up to no good you can sever the connection easily.
It makes this sort of support light years simpler. If not though I understand and we can try to work it out over the phone.
As an aside I had a though on my ride home:
It may be that you copied your files to some other place than you think you did. When you run a search it scans the whole drive and finds them.
So, search for a file again. Once found right-click on it and select Open File Location (or something like that). If that does not exist try properties or scanning the window the result came up in for that file’s location. Check to see it is where you think it should be.
Something, maybe along those lines, that caught my attention is that he said it took hours to make the transfer. My question was going to be to ask how big the jump drive is since that’s really long time to transfer some pictures, unless it’s a lot…like thousands or 10’s of thousands.
I would guess that if accidentally transferred them locally, it wouldn’t have taken that long. OTOH, if he moved them somewhere cloud based, hours might make sense.
Bosda, is it possible you put them somewhere online by accident? Could you have sent them up to photobucket or flicr? Do you have a online cloud based backup or dropbox folder sitting on your desktop that you could have dropped them into? I’m guessing no NAS, but it’s worth asking…No NAS (networked attached storage) right?
I think it would be very helpful if you could describe how exactly you did this. Did you open Explorer and drag a folder from your hard drive to the thumb drive? Did a “copying…” status box stay active for several hours?
Again, how did you do this?