COMPUTER HELP! How Do I Find Lost Files?!

oh, and I also forgot what I renamed the movie file,

Go to "Start" then "search" and use the advanced search options such as type of file or size. This pull up the file pretty quick

As "BIZZO" already said, it's fairly easy to find the type of files that you have described.

Go to Start... Search... All files and folders. Once you're there, click the little chevrons button next to "More advanced options," and then ensure that you check the box next to "Search hidden files and folders."

Back up in the "Look in" box, use the "Local Hard Drives" option.

Finally, in the "All or part of a file name" box, choose a wild-card search string. In other words, in your first search try *.mov, then try *.mpg, and perhaps even *.mpeg or *.avi.

Once the results appear, use the "View" pull-down menu to switch over to a "Details" list. Once you have that, you can sort the results according to any column that you prefer, including "Date Modified."

Hope that helps out a bit! If you need any additional Q&A, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Computer Guru wrote:

Finally, in the "All or part of a file name" box, choose a wild-card search string. In other words, in your first search try *.mov, then try *.mpg, and perhaps even *.mpeg or *.avi.

Try *.m??

This will make it so that .mov and .mpg will come up instead of having to seach each file extension individually.

(Old school DOS)

Pamela Anderson's Left Nipple wrote:

Try *.m??

This will make it so that .mov and .mpg will come up instead of having to seach each file extension individually.

(Old school DOS)

While that is certainly not a bad suggestion, I am fairly "old school" myself and the thought had already crossed my mind.

The reason that I dismissed that idea is because if there is any significant amount of MP3 music on that computer (like there is on most of them these days), the search results will include all of those files too.

Since you don't know anything about the movie, including it's probable file extension.

Search > *.*

It will yield every file on your computer. Then sort the list by size. Movie files are likely to be one of the largest files on your harddrive. If that doesn't work, sort by date. Scroll until you find a file name you recognize.

If, it really is a video. Click Start > search > pictures, music, or video > (check box) > use advanced search options > click on any of the filters that you think might get you there (including "search hidden files and folders").

Use Windows Search, with Advanced using Hidden and *m* as wildcard and a date filter. Also, turn on your hidden files (including System Files) in case you buried them where no one would naturally look unless they were lost or trying to unearth dirt. If that doesn't work, e-mail me. I do electronic discovery and might have some advanced techniques and software suggestions if you're really interested in getting them out.

Sorry *.m* Forgot the dot.

What if it was an .avi file? *.m* wouldn't work would it?

Change it to *.a* The asterisk is just a wildcard character. It tells the explorer.exe to search for all strings with any character|.a|any character. Substitute whatever first character you think it may be. If you want to get more specific change the * to ?. This limits the search from any character in the string to a specific alphabetical character...in case you want to eliminate numbers and non-alphanumerics. Presuming you're on Windows and further presuming XP, you can read about it in Windows Help and Support by searching for Using wildcard characters.

If you do find what you wish to eliminate, remove them via DOS, otherwise you still have cleanup to deal with via the history and recycle bin presuming you open the files to ensure they are your confidential materials. If that doesn't help try this site or let me know and I can suggest some recovery tools.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/

To delete permanently: select files and use shift+delete key. That'll bypass the Recycle Bin. It's permanent... you should be fine unless there's someone with a real axe to grind. Fine for making sure the wife and kids won't ever know, even if they're fairly computer literate. Not fine if they're FBI and already know they're looking for something.