Oh, sweet baby jesus, no. Not again...

[Shooty*]

Someone in my household (and I'm not pointing fingers or, to be realistic, I would probably point at myself) has apparently gone "c drive" "right click" "delete" by accident

Most of the folders from Program Files and Windows have vanished. remarkably, it's still running, but clearly games et al on other drives are a bit screwed now.

So here we go: SIXTH vista re-install.

*sigh*

Amusingly, this is what happened on the first time I ever used a PC. I had a temp job scanning CVs. One day (and bear in mind that this was 1993 - 1994 or something) the message came up "C drive is full". "What shall I do?" I asked the two secretaries in the room. "Delete something that looks full" they said. Oh. OK. Let's see... C drive... that looks pretty full. Delete... C drive...

Oh.

Oh ****.

Um...

Problem over here!

You think I would have learned, wouldn't you?

[this_is_gav]

Someone in my household (and I'm not pointing fingers or, to be realistic, I would probably point at myself) has apparently gone "c drive" "right click" "delete" by accident

Most of the folders from Program Files and Windows have vanished. remarkably, it's still running, but clearly games et al on other drives are a bit screwed now.

So here we go: SIXTH vista re-install.?

Don't want to be picky, but isn't this a bit impossible? If this really is an issue perhaps consider giving read-only rights to certain folders ought to be considered. I realise that some programs wouldn't function (fully or at all) but it's a bit silly to just go "oh ffs" and start again time after time. A better option would be a complete backup from a fully-installed state - that way you lose about 10min restoring a backup if this happens.

[Agent]

Don't want to be picky, but isn't this a bit impossible? If this really is an issue perhaps consider giving read-only rights to certain folders ought to be considered. I realise that some programs wouldn't function (fully or at all) but it's a bit silly to just go "oh ffs" and start again time after time. A better option would be a complete backup from a fully-installed state - that way you lose about 10min restoring a backup if this happens.

and if this over the network - more to the point, why do you have C: shared with full access? thats borderline stupidity

[directhex]

someone's permissions are broken.

did someone think they were super SMRT and disable UAC?

[Behemoth]

Hence my my PC is only used by me, so if anything goes wrong I only have myself to blame.

[Andy3536]

What am i missing, i use vista and reading this thread i imeadiatly right clicked on C drive and delete isn't an option???

[Behemoth]

What am i missing, i use vista and reading this thread i imeadiatly right clicked on C drive and delete isn't an option???

Thats what I thought.

I shall call shenanigans on this one.

[Guy]

What am i missing, i use vista and reading this thread i imeadiatly right clicked on C drive and delete isn't an option???

Edit ignore me lack of sleep!

[this_is_gav]

....that's not the C: drive, and all it should do is remove the My Computer icon from the desktop.

[Nick]

Unless you disabled the function, Vista will have made a back-up... just install that.

And, here's an even better one, you *might* be able to do a system restore if you don;t have a back-up.

Deleting files doesn't actually wipe em off your drive until you over-write the sectors the data was on... so doing a restore *may* recover your old file table and registry, meaning your files will be referenced again.

But I gotta say, that's some mighty heroic stubbornness to be able to delete the root of C under Vista.... Turn UAC on and leave it on!

[Zak33]

I feel a Windows Rollback due

[Lucio]

Heck, I can't even delete my seperate partition from the standard viewing windows. I'd either a) suspect that you've done some serious mucking around with the computer in the first place or b) You've got a virus having fun with your system.


The ONE thing I've done to Vista is turn on the real administrator account, so if I run into problems, I can type a password and get things sorted without logging out of my normal user. Only real issue with that is documents default to the save files of the administrator then. Other than that, just putup with Vista's UAC, it really does help protect you!

[Andy3536]

I have UAC turned off, it still doesn't give you the option to delete you C drive.

[Shooty*]

Man, you buggers are pedantic.

I figured out what it was. And as a result, I am now on SEVENTH reinstall.

I have UAC and system restore off. The computer is not networked, I'm the only one who uses it, so that addresses all those problems and my alleged "borderline stupidity".

It's Windows Disc Cleanup. this morning, I ran it and it said there was 59 gb of User Error Reporting or whatever it's called. That seems both impossible on my 64gb drive with 10gb of vista on it, and ludicrous anyway, so I selected to delete it.

I happened to have "program files" folder open, and noticedthat the quick launch icons and several folders in Program files vanished very quickly.

I'd run disc cleanup the day before as well. So I think I've found my culprit.

Why, I don't know. But there you go.

[Shooty*]

Oh, I tried tuneup utilities undelete thingy, and it made me click some kind of permission for EVERY BLOODY SINGLE itunes album artwork.

And then did little anyway.

[digit]

You sure windows cleanup did the damage? Just seems more like what would have happened after selecting a format accidently.