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hellblau4's avatar
hellblau4
3 years ago
Solved

All my files are gone

Hello everyone. I'm not sure if this has been happening to other people, but for the last few days (since 25-03-22), I think since the last Sims delivery, my game has been giving me an error (The ga...
pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    3 years ago

    @hellblau4  For the Trojan.BitcoinMiner program, Malwarebytes's documentation says that choosing to quarantine it and then restarting your computer should be enough to remove it completely.  For DotSetupIo, quarantining is also sufficient, but you may want to read what Malwarebytes has to say about the software:

    https://blog.malwarebytes.com/detections/pup-optional-dotsetupio-bundleinstaller/

    For Outbyte, if you're not using it (which you really shouldn't—programs like this are more trouble than they're worth even if they're free), its own documentation says you can simply uninstall it the normal way:

    https://outbyte.com/blog/how-to-uninstall-outbyte-pc-repair-official-guide/

    For the game cracks, hopefully Malwarebytes did its job, but I'd run the scan again when you have time to see whether anything else turns up.

    Your dxdiag shows your C drive is quite low on storage, enough that I would immediately suspect OneDrive of pushing your files to cloud storage if you hadn't already checked.  Personally, I'd still try unlinking it completely just to see whether it made a difference.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-off-disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-f32a17ce-3336-40fe-9c38-6efb09f944b0

    It's best to clear at least another 10-15 GB of space on C for the overall health of your system.  The Downloads folder is a good place to look for extraneous files.  And you can move backup data, including backup copies of your Sims data, to D, which still has plenty of space.

    Once you've run Malwarebytes again, it's a good idea to run a couple of basic checks of your Windows system files:

    • Hit Windows key-X
    • Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator),” whichever option is offered
    • Inside the window that appears, copy and paste “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes into the window, and enter
    • The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here
    • After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key-X again
    • Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Windows Terminal (Administrator)”
    • Inside the window, copy and paste “sfc /scannow” without quotes into the window, and enter
    • Post the message you receive here

    Restart your computer, hit Windows key-i, select Update & Security, and click the box to check for updates.  If any install, restart again afterwards.

    Considering the issues you've had recently, I'd suggest backing up everything important to you on an external device starting now and continuing until you've gone at least a few weeks with no more symptoms.  While your computer may be fine, if this malware keeps coming back, your best bet would be to wipe your system drive and install a fresh copy of Windows.  That's actually not difficult at all and doesn't take much time; the annoying part is the setup: backing up data, redoing your settings, and reinstalling programs.  I hope it doesn't come to that, but better to plan for it and not need to follow through than the other way around.

    I think it also goes without saying that you'll want to back up your Sims data after each play session.  You can delete the older backups when you're sure you don't need them.

puzzlezaddict's avatar
puzzlezaddict
Hero+
3 years ago

@hellblau4  If you're sure your saves aren't in OneDrive (even in its recycle bin) or anywhere on your computer, then unfortunately the files are gone for good.  Just to make sure, please search your computer if you haven't already: open a File Explorer window, click This PC in the left panel, and enter Slot_ in the search field in the upper-right corner.  This would turn up any saves on yoru computer, including ones in some random location where you would never think to look.  If you find saves, you might find your other data in the same location.

Other than that, I'm sorry to say there's nothing else you can do.  I know it doesn't help in the moment, but this is why it's a good idea to make regular backups of everything critical.  You never know when you'll have a system issue and lose data, but if that data is backed up somewhere else (an external drive, cloud storage, really anywhere that isn't on your computer itself), you'll never lose more than a few hours' progress.

As for why this happened, I'd suspect OneDrive, specifically a failed sync.  But that's difficult to prove, and it's certainly not the only possibility.  If you want me to look over a dxdiag for any obvious issues, feel free to attach one to a post.

https://help.ea.com/en/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

But it's entirely possible there won't be any evidence of the kind of issues that can cause data loss, and that you'll never know what happened for sure.

  • hellblau4's avatar
    hellblau4
    3 years ago

    @puzzlezaddict Hi, thank you for your answer, you're very kind.

    I specifically configured OneDrive not to sync my documents folder because it had done weird stuff like this before, so it shouldn't be a problem, but I still checked just in case, with no luck. It's really strange because 1. the only thing that was left was 4 .package files on my mods folder, when I had thousands, and 2. I had another Sims folder from when I played the game in Spanish that had a few saves on it but not any mods or anything and I haven't touched in years, and that one was ALSO gone, but this time completely, the whole "Los Sims 4" folder has disappeared without a trace. It's so weird!

    Anyways, you're completely right, it's definitely wise to backup files often. Luckily I had my saves backed up from 5 days ago, and most of my mods, so it's alright, I'm just pretty bummed about my screenshots folder mostly, and all the progress from this week.

    It's okay though, it's not the end of the world, no need to bother you any more. Thank you again for your help and have a nice day! 🙂

    • puzzlezaddict's avatar
      puzzlezaddict
      Hero+
      3 years ago

      @hellblau4  It's even more odd that your "Los Sims 4" folder would disappear too, especially given that the game wouldn't even be reading that folder while you were playing in English.  I guess an overly eager cleaner app could have deleted almost everything, but even the most aggressive antivirus shouldn't have gone that far.  It's also possible that you have some hard drive corruption, but usually that would mean corrupt files rather than disappearing ones, and usually it wouldn't just be the contents of Documents that disappeared.

      I'm glad you at least have relatively recent saves to fall back on.  And you're definitely not bothering me; I just wish I could give you a better answer.

      • hellblau4's avatar
        hellblau4
        3 years ago

        @puzzlezaddict Well, I was just going to go on with my life and forget about it, but things get even weirder! Apparently, stuff is still disappearing from the Sims 4 folder. Yesterday, when I opened this topic, I had all my folders and stuff inside the Sims 4 folder (picture attached), but they were all empty. Now, I opened it again just to check, and even the folders are gone! Only thing left is the Mods folder, with even less files in it now (second picture). I checked my OneDrive documents folder again but still no luck.

        I would think that maybe I have a virus or something that's deleting my files but I haven't noticed anything missing anywhere else, just my Sims 4 stuff. Do you think I should reinstall the game or something like that?

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