If you were using a file-sharing program, is is possible that you un-installed it?
Uninstalling such programs often leads to removal of the music files. (Speaking from experience :o)
But seriously, could those files have been on a separate hard drive (i.e., D:\music or something like that) and maybe the IDE and/or power cable(s) jiggled loose in transit? Or worse yet, maybe the drive shot craps. Sometimes those non-laptop drives don’t travel well.
Ha! Very nice. niblet_head, is there only one hard drive on the machine? Is the directory the files were in still there, or is the directory itself also gone? And did you check the recycle bin?
You say it’s XP… Did you change user names along the way? XP’s permissions controls would keep you from seeing the files if your name changed. Try logging in as administrator and look for the files. If they appear, change their permissions to the new name or “all users”
Well, that happened to me once. But, I think that was my own fault. My whole music folder disappeared. It wasn’t where it should have been and wasn’t in the trash. As far as can tell, I must have hit the ‘delete’ key when my cursor was over the folder. However, I’m not quite 100% convinced that it wasn’t some outside influence. I didn’t lose much, though, since I periodically burn the music to CD.
Is the folder where you kept the files still intact? Have you looked in your trash folder?
Getting back to something serious. If you accidently deleted it and it doesn’t appear in the recycling bin, etc.
Do a scandisk (or the XP equivalent). That might show you what’s going on with the HD.
Run an “undelete” utility. Check the usual free software sites like CNET, etc. Even in demo mode, it should tell you if something went somewhere and might be recoverable. Note, under these circumstances, the less file changes you make the better. Run stuff from a CD if you can.
Also note that some MS multimedia progs. like to change extensions and such. Your mp3 files might have wmv tacked onto the end.
