Why Files Disappear or Become Corrupted

Unfortunately, so many different issues can factor into the disappearance or corruption of files (and applications), it makes you wonder how 99.9 percent of your files are always there and intact. Yet a well-running system rarely experiences file problems, telling you a great deal about the importance of stability and overcoming small problems before they grow into much larger ones.

Let’s look at the major causes of the disappearance and corruption of files.

Computer Viruses

Your primary concern with computer viruses is that some of them may corrupt the core files that run a particular application, which may affect how the application behaves (or if it opens at all) and may damage files you create using that application.

Sadly, today’s virus-ware now includes programs that attack other types of file formats besides those that actually execute your programs (*.exe and *.com files). For example, Word macro viruses are special viruses written to exploit the Visual Basic programming that can be added to Word and other applications to perform specific functions. Word macro viruses are abundant in corporate settings where users indiscriminately pass the infection back and forth between each other unchecked. Some of these viruses automatically send copies of themselves to contacts stored in an e-mail program’s address book, which is even worse than those bad fruitcakes that re-circulate at holiday time.

But you can prevent this damage from viruses. Your risk should be pretty low if you follow the recommendations described in Chapter 3, “Prevention: Limiting Your Risk.”

Note 

Here’s a bit of irony. My virus scanner has notified me 11 times that someone has sent me a Word document containing a macro virus (which pales in comparison to the hundreds of documents I create or receive in any given year). Ten of those files were sent by people working at Microsoft Corporation, the folks who produce Word and work to keep it safe and secure. Granted, these viruses occurred a few years back and stopped as soon as I brought it to someone’s attention, but…

Improper Shutdown

Chapter 2, “How Your Hardware, Operating System, and Applications Work Together,” described the role of proper startup and shutdown, along with some of the problems caused by an improper shutdown. The effects of such a shutdown can be devastating on some types of files that may be open on your desktop, including documents you’re working on at the time. These files may not be written properly to disk, may not reflect changes you made since the last time you saved the file, and could become corrupted. Always be sure you shut down your system properly whenever possible.

Even if you never shut down your system improperly, power outages can turn your PC off prematurely. If you have files open at the time of an outage, they might be corrupted when you reopen them after the system reboots.

If your system simply won’t shut down as it should, resolve the problem as quickly as possible (information about this can be found starting in Chapter 3, “Prevention: Limiting Your Risks”). In the intervening time, make sure to close all your open files before you shut down to reduce the chance that open, working files may be damaged.

Operating System Instability

An unstable operating system creates a ripe environment for file corruption because it can cause you to crash out of an application in which you’re working or it can freeze the system in mid-session, requiring you to reboot your PC without saving your open work.

The first step is to stabilize Windows using the recommendations described in Chapter 9, “Stabilizing Your Operating System.” Until then, take extra precautions to protect the files you’re working on by saving your files frequently during a session, by saving extra copies of your files, or by performing more frequent backups. Avoid installing any new applications or upgrading existing applications until the operating system is stable.

Problem Applications and Utilities

Another potential cause of file damage can be linked to unstable programs you run on your system. These can be applications that seem to generate corrupted files, applications that conflict with the operation of other programs, or applications that affect your system and the way it stores files or maintains file integrity.

You may see file damage when

• installing older software

• installing or using utilities written for an earlier version of Windows (more likely if the utility was written to work with systems running FAT16 file systems, such as pre-Windows 98 systems)

• programs with existing problems are installed onto your PC

With outdated software, the solution is usually as simple as upgrading to a program that’s compatible with your version of Windows. Doing so becomes more important if you begin to see nasty side effects of the incompatibilities such as file corruption. This is a situation you can’t tolerate for long.

For unstable software, check with the publisher of the package to see if they have recommendations to help you overcome your current problems. You’ll need to fully document the symptoms when you see them and record any error messages you see. Until then, consider uninstalling the unstable software or keeping that program closed when you’re working on open files in other programs.

Unfortunately, there are times when corruption won’t be limited to one or a handful of files. In extreme cases, all files created using an application may be damaged.

If all files are corrupt in an application as soon as they are created, the first thing to suspect is the application itself has become corrupted and cannot write legitimate data to disk that can be read again. You’ll see the same effects when the application isn’t compatible with your version of Windows.

Your chances of recovering files corrupted in this way is low, so always make sure to test the files you create with a new application before you get too far in your work. At the very least, this limits the amount of work you could lose.

In such situations, uninstall the unstable application using the Add and Remove Programs feature in Control Panel. Once properly uninstalled, restart your system and then attempt to reinstall the application. Be sure to create some test files, save these files to disk, shut down and restart again, and then try to open them. If they open now, you may be OK.

Warning 

After the reinstallation, back up the files you create at least once a day until you feel comfortable that the original problem has been fixed. Then you can move to a less rigid backup schedule, if you desire.

But if reinstalling doesn’t produce better results, uninstall the program (or at the very least, stop using it) until you contact the program’s publisher to see if they can determine the source of the incompatibility. It could be that the unstable application conflicts with something else installed on your system, or with your version of Windows. In either case, you don’t want to risk your work by committing it to software that trashes files.

Tip 

Always check for Windows version compatibility before you buy and/or install software, just as you do with hardware. There are just enough differences between some versions of Windows and the file systems they use to cause serious data issues in some applications.

Formatting and Recovery Tools

For all intents and purposes, formatting your disk wipes it clean of data. But this isn’t entirely true. Expensive professional software packages and data recovery specialists can often look beneath a reformatted disk to extract files and information that you can no longer see. Often, however, these services get priced out of the realm of mere mortals, even if you can claim the cost as a legitimate, tax-deductible business expense.

The same is often true with the recovery disks that many manufacturers distribute with a new PC. Many of those disks work by replacing the current contents of your hard drive with a drive image of what your system looked like when it was configured at the factory, in terms of the operating system and installed applications. When you’re desperate and you use the recovery disk, you may not notice the fine print on the screen warning that you’re about to lose everything you’ve installed since you first turned on the system. And, sadly, a few recovery disks I’ve seen did not even warn you at all; those users didn’t know the implications of using the recovery disk and got a nasty surprise.

Along with recovery disks, you can lose all your current files if you don’t save them off your hard drive before you run a “go back to a previous PC time” program. Such programs allow you to revert your system to the way it was before harmful changes may have been made. System Restore does not typically replace the files you create in your programs; it focuses instead on critical system files. However, some utilities that work similar to System Restore may, so check their documentation. Utilities such as GoBack allow you to preserve the files you’ve created or stored since the last time you made a system snapshot.

Likewise, you can have the same problem restoring a drive image. Always back up your good files before you use any of these techniques so that you don’t lose valuable data.

Other Contributing Factors

Several other problems can contribute to lost or damaged files, such as

• Power-related problems (see Chapter 11, “Avoiding Power and Overheating Problems”)

• Dirt and debris in the system (see Chapter 3)

• Programs running in the background at the time a file is being written to disk, such as virus scanners or anti-crash software (the latter is software which says it protects your system from unwanted crashes)

• Having your disk (usually removable) in close proximity to serious magnetic exposure, as you might see when putting floppy drives on a stereo unit

• Using disk utilities while also trying to save open files