Problem

[Czas na Zywiec]

I'm having another problem again. This time none spyware related.

I used to download a lot, but since May, I've stopped. I wanted to clear out a few files from my computer to get a little more space, so I decided to delete Ares, the program I used to download music. But now I'm having a problem with my Windows Media Player. I tried playing some songs, but I keep getting errors all the time. Nothing in there will play...and I have no idea why. I have the files in THERE....but it should be able to play without it....since it's been playing and I haven't even opened Ares for months. Help????

[theanswerman]

uninstall, then reinstall. if that doesn't work. get winamp.

[robyrob]

couple of questions:

what error messages are you getting?

what version of WMP and windows?

have you tried to reinstall or upgrade WMP?

can you play the files in any other programs? (try Winamp, etc, or try irfanview with the media plug-ins installed)

[Czas na Zywiec]

Originally posted by robyrob
couple of questions:

what error messages are you getting?

what version of WMP and windows?

have you tried to reinstall or upgrade WMP?

can you play the files in any other programs? (try Winamp, etc, or try irfanview with the media plug-ins installed)

I click on the file and I click on play, and it just gives me a red exclamation point next to it (as well as highlights totally in red) and it goes to the next song...and does it over and over again. No song will play.

I'm using Windows XP with the latest version of WMP.

I only have WMP because I don't want to download a lot of players so it could crowd out my memory.

Simple question though. Once you empty something from the recycling bin, can you get it back? I mean, how do all your deleted files actually leave the computer? I would think they're STILL in there somewhere...

[robyrob]

where do/did you actually have these files SAVED?

the playlists in WMP just point to where the files are saved, like a shortcut, if the original file is deleted, the shortcut points to nothing.

if the Ares program downloaded all your music into a "Shared folder" do you know where it is?

try use the "Search" feature on the Start menu to find the files, but if they were deleted and the Recycle Bin was emptied, they may be gone.

When you delete files, what normally happens is the file stays right where it is on the hard disk, but the information in the file table that points to where the file is located is removed. What this means is that if you have software like Norton Utilities that has an undelete utility, it can search for recently deleted files that are still intact and restore them. This becomes more difficult over time as the likelyhood that the information will get wriiten over increases...

[robyrob]

i have not used any of these programs, but you could give them a try (free trials):

http://www.bitmart.net/download.shtml

http://www.executive.com/undelete/undelete.asp

http://www.grandutils.com/Back2Life/

you could google for some other ones if you want, i didn't look into them too deeply...

[Czas na Zywiec]

Originally posted by robyrob
where do/did you actually have these files SAVED?

the playlists in WMP just point to where the files are saved, like a shortcut, if the original file is deleted, the shortcut points to nothing.

if the Ares program downloaded all your music into a "Shared folder" do you know where it is?

try use the "Search" feature on the Start menu to find the files, but if they were deleted and the Recycle Bin was emptied, they may be gone.

When you delete files, what normally happens is the file stays right where it is on the hard disk, but the information in the file table that points to where the file is located is removed. What this means is that if you have software like Norton Utilities that has an undelete utility, it can search for recently deleted files that are still intact and restore them. This becomes more difficult over time as the likelyhood that the information will get wriiten over increases...

That's what I figured happened. I deleted everything in the Ares folder, and the Shared Folder must have been in there. God, I am a moron.

I just deleted this tonight....so if I get this Norton Utilities, is there a chance I can recover all those songs? How much does this software cost? This may be my only hope...

[robyrob]

Originally posted by Czas na Zywiec
That's what I figured happened. I deleted everything in the Ares folder, and the Shared Folder must have been in there. God, I am a moron.

I just deleted this tonight....so if I get this Norton Utilities, is there a chance I can recover all those songs? How much does this software cost? This may be my only hope...

apparently Norton doesnt sell it separately anymore, they make you buy Systemworks ($70) , i would try one of the free trials, or look for an older, standalone version which is XP-compatible

[Czas na Zywiec]

Originally posted by robyrob
apparently Norton doesnt sell it separately anymore, they make you buy Systemworks ($70) , i would try one of the free trials, or look for an older, standalone version which is XP-compatible

I found one and tried the free trial, but it told me that "The unregistered version has full scan features but will recover only those files that are less than 64Kb in size." And I know that Ares was a lot bigger than that. So, if I actually go ahead and pay for the full version, would it catch it? It said that it can't be overwritten, though. What exactly does that mean? That it had to have been the last file deleted or else it won't restore it? I mean, it was just deleted tonight...it can't possibly be overwritten already, can it? I just want to pay $35 for something that's not going to do me any good...

[robyrob]

Originally posted by Czas na Zywiec
I found one and tried the free trial, but it told me that "The unregistered version has full scan features but will recover only those files that are less than 64Kb in size." And I know that Ares was a lot bigger than that. So, if I actually go ahead and pay for the full version, would it catch it? It said that it can't be overwritten, though. What exactly does that mean? That it had to have been the last file deleted or else it won't restore it? I mean, it was just deleted tonight...it can't possibly be overwritten already, can it? I just want to pay $35 for something that's not going to do me any good...

it depends on how much has been written to the disk and how much free space you have.... if this was just deleted tonight, and you have a resonable amount (say 500mb or twice your physical ram) of free space on your hard drive you will probably be able to retrieve most of the files

there is no way to guarantee you'll get all of it back, but if its worth +/- $30 to try, i'd say that it is a good bet.

[Czas na Zywiec]

Out of the 37.2GB of space that I have, 26.9GB is free. I'm not sure which letteris higher or lower than which, so this being my last question, do I have enough space? I don't have that much installed on here, being as I've only had this thing since late February of this year....

And thank you SO much. I know I can be impatient at times, but everything just irritates me these days and computer problems don't make it any better.

[robyrob]

Originally posted by Czas na Zywiec
Out of the 37.2GB of space that I have, 26.9GB is free. I'm not sure which letteris higher or lower than which, so this being my last question, do I have enough space? I don't have that much installed on here, being as I've only had this thing since late February of this year....

And thank you SO much. I know I can be impatient at times, but everything just irritates me these days and computer problems don't make it any better.

i would say you've got plenty of space, it all depends on how much you intend to download/save/install in the future, although i would suggest that you invest in a cdwriter (or make use of the one you have already) to backup EVERYTHING regularily - hardly anyone backs up as often as they should (including me) to prevent them from losing important files.

I had a hard drive go bad on Friday, the last time I had backed up THAT machine was 9/15/04 - i didnt lose much, but....

[Czas na Zywiec]

Originally posted by robyrob
i would say you've got plenty of space, it all depends on how much you intend to download/save/install in the future, although i would suggest that you invest in a cdwriter (or make use of the one you have already) to backup EVERYTHING regularily - hardly anyone backs up as often as they should (including me) to prevent them from losing important files.

I had a hard drive go bad on Friday, the last time I had backed up THAT machine was 9/15/04 - i didnt lose much, but....

You see, I don't really download that much anymore these days...that's why I really want to recover this. I had a really fast connection in the dorms last year, so downloaded everything I wanted in about 2 months. Now I have a slower, wireless connection, and I really don't want to be downloading much anymore. I was prefectly content with everything I had, so last night I was just really mad at myself.

And as soon as I get my check (which will be this week) I'm going right out and buying one. I really don't want anything like this happening again...

And I know I'm really dragging this topic into the ground, but I have one last question....well, more of a suggestion I'd say. When I was reading through the FAQ on that website, I was a bit on confused on what to do once I get the program.

"Recovery to the same disk may overwrite the very files you're trying to recover. That will not leave you another recovery chance.
Remember that Back2Life should not be installed to this disk. Install it to a floppy disk if no other disk is available."

How should I go about getting this on my computer? I don't have a floppy drive on my laptop...only a CD/DVD drive. But I have to install it on the computer anyway, so I was wondering what "disc" they're talking about. Is the disc the whole computer..or just like the C: drive? Thanks again.

[robyrob]

Originally posted by Czas na Zywiec
...I was a bit on confused on what to do once I get the program.

"Recovery to the same disk may overwrite the very files you're trying to recover. That will not leave you another recovery chance.
Remember that Back2Life should not be installed to this disk. Install it to a floppy disk if no other disk is available."

How should I go about getting this on my computer? I don't have a floppy drive on my laptop...only a CD/DVD drive. But I have to install it on the computer anyway, so I was wondering what "disc" they're talking about. Is the disc the whole computer..or just like the C: drive? Thanks again.

the "disk" is the physical drive (C:), laptop computers only have one hard drive, and if you dont have a floppy, you are sorta stuck with installing the program on your C: drive

- UNLESS you can beg, borrow, or buy from someone any one of the following: USB "thumb" drive, external hard drive, external zip or floppy drive. I dont know if that program will work over a network, so i dont know if you could install it on another pc, and run it over the network.

what they are trying to explain is that the FILES are still on the hard drive, but they are seen by Windows as "unallocated space", meaning space that is available for programs and data to be written onto, which means that just by installing the program, you could be writing over your files and losing them forever.

If you have no other option, I would just install it to your C: drive - it is a small program and even if it DOES write over one of your files, you still wont lose them ALL. just DONT install any other programs or move/copy/edit any other files unless absolutely necessary. Dont defrag or run chkdsk until you have run the recovery utility - the LESS changes you make to the disk, the MORE files you will get back.