Does anybody have any idea what can cause the loss of boot.ini and loss of folders during a session of Win XP Pro (NTFS) ?
A few weeks ago I lost all folders (about 10 containing 100’s of files) c:\a.. to c:\Documents & Settings. When I restarted the computer to let Windows ‘sort itself out’ it said hal.dll was missing or corrupt and I had to bootcfg /rebuild from the Recovery Consol.
AVG 8.5, Spybot, Malware Bytes & Webroot Antivirus all say the system is clean (except a handfull of tracking cookies)
I tried a number data recovery packages and found loads of items known to be deleted but no sign of those that had gone ‘missing’.
I initially attributed my woes to the automatic installation of ‘IE8’, because that was the only abnormal event that day. When I did a System Restore my folders and sub-folders reappeared but were empty. Also, my IE(7?) would not work, so I’m back on IE8.
My work was backed-up (save 2 files) so I have felt free to do a Defrag and a system file check.
I also installed RegCure and RegisteryBooster which both reported many (different) ‘problems’ that they claim to have fixed, but still if I create a folder c:\abc it is liable to disappear during a session; in which case boot.ini will also have disappeared.
My main work is in Access but I have done little of that in the last few weeks trying to fix this problem.
Does anybody have any ideas ?
Jim
