couple of problems..

1) i downloaded couple of photos of picasa using opera(my default browser) to My Pictures. The problem is i can't view them in that folder..
this is happening to exe files also.. like i just downloaded digit live webminar software and when i visit the download folder.. it ain't there.. the search option is also not able to locate the files.
but if i go to downloads of opera and run the file or open the image i can view it..
can anyone suggest what the problem is?

2) some folders that were hidden in my portable hdd have vanished. if i search there contents i get the search results and i can browse the contents and play the video files too but i can't see them in windows explorer. there are four folders and i can see only one and rest are vanished. is it a worm or a virus because i scanned them via avast Internet security 2012 and i didn't get any threat!!

please help me sort out these....

looks like a virus only.... try using it on linux... if it work normally on it then its a virus for sure....

Uninstal present AV. download a free AV like avira or avast and do scan.

also try online AV
*housecal.trendmicro.com

Its virus for sure.

As for now, for gaining access to your ext HDD files (or any folder),

1)cmd

2)z: (ext drive letter) (or path for any directory where files have become hidden)

3)attrib *.* -s -h -r /s /d

4) exit

done

i had to format my computer two days ago.. clean format.. i installed avast which i own. things look bad now.. tried the hdd on linux but still can't see the files

Something's fishy

yup! three days ago i woke up and as soon as i powered on my lappie it showed.. OPERATING SYSTEM NOT FOUND.. i was like WHAT??? my hard drive became a single partition again..

Had you did some kind of partitioning prior to it?

ritvij said:
i installed avast which i own.

avast internet security? maybe opera is sandboxed. so when you download files, it is saved in the cache memory so opera can access it, you can't.

ritvij said:
yup! three days ago i woke up and as soon as i powered on my lappie it showed.. OPERATING SYSTEM NOT FOUND.. i was like WHAT??? my hard drive became a single partition again..

strange

Sam said:
strange

One reason can be a problem I faced in 7 while partitioning, but let him confirm this first.

dashing.sujay said:
Had you did some kind of partitioning prior to it?

yes i had 5 partitions on it.. my system was running fine and one fine fine morning it all happened.

I meant say did you do any partition related task prior to this corruption?

nope..

Sam said:
avast internet security? maybe opera is sandboxed. so when you download files, it is saved in the cache memory so opera can access it, you can't.

thanks.. turned off the sandbox thing and now i ~~can~~ still can't.. download files easily. it shows downloaded.. but i can't find the file anywhere on my system.

really weird stuff. One reason I strictly prefer using Linux for everything except games.