Help - I lost my yaoi collection when...

[farrago]

Hi.
Can someone here help me please…?

I think I just lost half of myself..
I was away for two weeks and my notebook was with my brother,
So I hide my yaoi collection folder using Free Hide Folder.
When I came back yesterday, he has some surprise for me.
Well, what do you have here..
He changed my window xp to window 7 AND he changed my hard disk to 500gb. He kept the old hard disk and also bought a casing for it. He didn’t remove anything or format it whatsoever.

Ok now, when he gave it to me, of course I was so excited as this is what I want since last year.
(I still can’t believe my brother did this.. he so sweet…)

Ok after that I went to my room to do some explore with my look-like-new-notebook.
Suddenly it struck hard in my head about my hidden treasure.
I connect the old hard disk and click at the Free Hide Folder icon – this is where the tragic song should be play -, I CAN’T ACCESS IT!!!
I also tried to find the back up and NOTHING! It’s all gone.

I have no one to talk to. I can’t complaint about it to my brother. He’s kind enough to even do this. Beside he would know about my well kept secret if I say anything.

Haishh… what should I do?
I know some of you reading this, thinking that I could just download it all back BUT that is my more than 2 years collections. I doubt if mangatraders even have half of it..

Guys, please help me out. Do you know how can I retrieve the folder?
And please don’t reply with technology language. I won’t understand a word.
If someone could just teach me by step how to do it, I would be the happiest person alive.

[KurobaX]

I am not sure if this matters, but have you installed Free Hide Folder on your new hardrive?

Losing so much of your collection really does hurt; I lost 2-years worth of data when my internal hardrive crashed (i.e. it died).

Hope you will be able to re-access your data.

[KarumA]

I am not sure if this matters, but have you installed Free Hide Folder on your new hardrive?

Very important that you do this first.
Basically you have a new computer now that doesn't have your older programs, you won't be able to access a folder made for Free Hide Folder without having it installed on you win. 7 notebook

There are however easier ways to hide a folder that do not require extra disc space, I hid my novel stash by changing the folder name something important-ish, changing to icon to a symbol windows uses when you do not have any program capable of opening the file and hiding it with the usual hide option, making it only visible if you've activated that option

[BlackAssassin]

I think the best thing you could try to do is to talk it out with your brother. The new disk is new and your folder is old, so the requirements for both of them don't match well. So you should try to find a program that can open your folder to your yaoi collection.

For future references, you should have your yaoi collections in adaptable folders that would work on newer harddrives.

[crisislover]

Well I can't really help without some more details. So your yaoi stash was set to be hidden so can you find it or open it? Second I'm not entirely sure but I think you can use a external hard drive or another computer to recover it, it's been a while for now. OR you have your yaoi stash and can't open any of the files (.rar or .zip) or yaoi anime episodes but you can see them listed? You said you used Free Hide Folder and when your brother replaced it with another hard drive that one won't have the program you downloaded to hide your yaoi in the first place, so if that's the problem simply redownload the program to open it. I'm sorry I can't be of much help, also use a USB flash drive in the future or back up your things, or else it'll take forever to find them again.

[plutostar]

I really can't help you. But I have a suggestion. Store your yaoi on a flash drive. That is what I do, mainly cause I am the only one in my family that has to travel with their laptop and that means people wanting to use it. Not only that, but it saves alot of space on your computer

[farrago]

Hi. Sorry I’m late to see the replies.

I already did what you ask me to and reinstall the program in to my new hard disk.
And when I try to open the hidden folder in my old hard disk, I still can’t see it.

When I say I can’t see it, what I mean is that there’s no link or anything in the folder list. What I usually did was I click the FHF icon, enter my password and there’s a list of the folders that I hide. But now it’s empty. *big sigh* I hope you get what I’m trying to say as English is not my mother language.

And to answer crisislover, I can’t see the file, it’s hidden but when I click Properties, Contain says that I still have my 16x,xxx files and xxx folders in there.
That’s mean I STILL have it right?

Oh and no, BlackAssassin. That is not a way. I think I will be disowned. I don’t want that. I still want to inherit my mother’s beautiful diamond brooch. Hehe… how can I joke around at time like this?

The truth is that I’ve been ‘yaoi deprive’ lately. It’s almost 3 weeks since I last read or watch any yaoi.
I’m desperate..!!!

[wizzogidget]

I'm not a technician, but CleanerSoft (the company that makes FHF) has a Restore program here. Be careful if you do download the program; make sure everything is backed up first!

[daniyagami]

Free Hide just change the folder atributes.
Do this:

- open the windows prompt command (exec cmd)
- find the folder
- use the command attrib <folder name> [enter]
- check what appear just to be sure is your hidden folder
- type attrib –s –h <folder name> [enter]
- your folder is now a normal folder again, you can copy, move, etc.

Sorry if I can't explain better, english is not my best feature.

EDIT:

I just found another solution, it's a software made by the same company that makes the Free Hide:
http://www.cleanersoft.com/download/tools/Restore.exe
Before you install this utility you have to uninstall FHF.