Hello, I'm here begging for help/advice because (you guessed it) I have a problem. I hope I'm posting this in the right forum because I don't think it really is purely a software problem. The explanation is a bit long, please bear with me.

Here's everything from the beginning, today I turned on my Computer and it told me that the Windows setup file was damaged or missing, I tried repairing it, it didn't work. I ended up reinstalling Windows XP on the same drive basically overwriting the old installation, now that works fine again and no data was lost.

However, many of my musicfiles are suddenly not working anymore, some don't play anything at all and some have been replaced by garbled sounds, like people talking very fast. At first I thougt the files are just playing very fast but that isn't it, it doesn't sound like fast music but like talking. One mp3 file has even been replaced by two seconds of a movie with Tom Hanks I have NEVER seen before and certainly don't have on my Computer, so I have no idea where that came from. I used a programm to show me what codecs are needed to play a file on those mp3 files that had the garbled sound and that program told me that the file needs a mpeg2 video codec, so I assume that those files have been replaced by some sort of viedo as well.

What else you need to know: my music files are on a different physical harddrive than Windows so I don't think reinstalling Windows could have damaged those files, Windows did however index that harddrive during setup, could something have happened then?

Yesterday my virus protection warned me that it had quarantiened a virus and deleted it. Where there is one virus there could have been two so could this have been caused by a virus ? I don't really think so because my virus programm updates an average of thrice a day so I don't think it's an insufficient program, but I guess everything is possible?

Sorry for the long rant, does anyone here have an idea on what's the matter with my Computer? Thank you very much!

Hi snark,

Welcome to PCHF!

Thank you for the detailed description.

The windows installation normally installs Windows and doesn't interfear with any of the files in other folders on other drives, even with indexing.

Corruptions in files can be caused by many things, normally hardware, but could also be caused by a virus. Even though you have virus software installed on your PC, doesn't mean that you are completely protected from virus's. When you get an update for your anti-virus, these are fix's for known virus's, so it's possible to have a virus on your PC, before the fix has been released, or even the anti-virus program knowing about it.

Soooo, it may be a good idea to follow PCHF Prework on my signature, and submit your HJT and AVG log back here, to have a member of security check it out for you, just to double check. You didn't by chance note the name of the virus's that were detected by your current anti-virus did you?

And have you had any more curruptions since?

As for hardware, the most common cause of file corruptions is memory. I'm assuming that all your files are being corrupted, since it's not just mp3's listed here, due to the original Windows error you received. You can test memory by using: Memtest86 - Memory Diagnostic Page

Also, check you HDD for any errors. Go to My Computer, and right click on Local Disk (c) and go to Properties, Tools tab, and click Check Now under "Error-Checking". Tick both check box's and click Start.

Now for the real bad news! Unless you have been using a method of backing up your data onto CD, or other storage device, you won't be able to recover your corrupted files.

Just one more question though, what mp3 codec did you install? Some codec can also have some nasty effects too?

Thank you very much for the fast response madmonkey!

Sadly you were right, I looked around some more and it isn't just the mp3 that don't work anymore, it's basically all files on partition F: except for a few files every now and then that work fine. I'm tentatively ruling out an hardware error because partition G:, which is on the same physical harddrive as F: hasn't been affected at all.

It's a really weird error though, especially in the video and mp3 files, because most of them were replaced by bits and pieces of of a DVD movie I thought I had deleted from my Computer months ago (one corrupted video file showed me enough to identify the movie so now I know at least what it is).

I checked the HDD for errors like you told me to, it came out fine for C: (where windows is) and G:, Windows claims to have done some repairs on F: though what I don't know.

Sadly I can't remember what kind of virus my virus programm caught expect that it was a Trojan. I reinstalled my virus programm, updated it again and did a full system check, everything came up clean, I know that's not a sure bet but I'm hoping for the best.

There hasn't been any more file corruption beyond what was there right after reinstalling Windows and nothing to indicate that there is anything wrong so I guess the crisis is over, the lost data however really stings. It wasn't anything overly important but I would still have liked to keep it, I don't guess there is any way to get back corrupted files, is there?

Oh well, I will get over it, still, I think this Computer hates me. I bought it six months ago, after using it for about two months I thought about backuping and bought some CD's, before I could save anything the harddrive died. I replaced it and mourned my lost data. Now I bought myself a external harddrive for Christmas and was planning on saving my data this week, now the same data I wanted to save is corrupted, I will probably be saver if I never think about making a backup ever again.

Thanks again for the help!
snarkmork

Yep, it's virtually impossible once the data is corrupt. You would have more chance if the files were deleted, and there are utilities that can retrieve deleted files, as long as the same space hasn't been overwritten.

Let us know if you start having problems again.

Will mark this on as fixed.. for now!