Missing Files from User's Documents

[LeonieCol]

One of my users (in fact the headmistress) told me today that all of her documents have disappeared from her ‘My Documents’ folder.

Sure enough, they are not there on her machine, or on the server.

Each user (on an XP machine) has their own ‘H:’ drive, which maps to their private area on the server (Windows 2003). By opening up the ‘My Documents’ folder, the private H: drive files can also be found.


Is there any way that these files could have been misplaced somewhere else through some mappings or something?


We have been having major issues with our backups recently so I have a bad feeling that I will not be able to restore all her files through a backup if it comes to that.


Thanks for any advice.

[Domino]

not if you haven't changed anything.....

Someone will ahve to have done something - if not the head then I'd worry about who else may have had access

I'm guessing this is a PICNIC error

[FN-GM]

can you not restore form the latest backup? Might be more easier than trying to find them.

z

[Michael]

It sounds like drive mapping/redirecting isn't working as it should. If you right click "My Documents" on the desktop and choose Properties, chances are the Target will be C:\Documents and Settings\etc etc... This needs to be changed to H:\

Drive mapping usually fails due to permission related problems or profile related problems.

[LeonieCol]

The location is definitely correct - it states that it is pointng to H:

I cannot restore today as the backups are kept offsite, but I will look into it tomorrow. I was just hoping that there may be an explanation as to how they could disappear. The fact that it is ONLY the My Documents foler concerns me slightly. There must be some other explanation.

[matt40k]

Could be a sync problem, it happens with Microsoft stuff. They really need that new file system.

I would look on the laptop(?) in C:\Doc etc and see if there is a temp folder or duplicate user profiles for that user.

There is a tool to recover Sync'd drive letter from the laptop. I'm not sure how to do it, I know some who does, PM if you want me to ask.

[Gibbo]

Get her to create a file with a funny name (easier to find) when she's logged on, then look at the folder on the server to see if it's appeared.

Likewise create a file in her area on the server and see if she can see it.

[LeonieCol]

Yes she can see the file that I created and when she amends the file name, I can see the change on the server. Therefore the current state of her documents on both the server and her documents folder is the same.

Not sure what this sync tool is that you are referring to? What does it do?

[matt40k]

Sorry, Sync = Offline files.

Where to use map drives\network shares and windows sync's it. You normally see a blue computer when your not on the network and an annoying box appears when you logon\off which can't deal with Access databases