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I tried this and it worked flawlessly! I listed my G: drive to my V: drive

Did you by any chance have [location] somewhere within the currently active folder, e.g. [drive]?

Since this is a backup project I need to make a list of my entire C: drive. An example error:

The directory name C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataApplication DataApplication DataApplication DataApplication DataApplication DataApplication DataApplication DataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsMicrosoft Visual Studio 2010Microsoft Windows SDK Tools is too long.

As you can see it follows “Application Data” a shortcut that leads back to the same folder (don’t know why but apparently this is needed for Windows to work correctly) until the name is too long for even the largest buffers (which I set my buffer to the max size).

I’ve done some research and found that instead of Tree “dir [drive] /b /s > [location]” actually works a bit better (it already puts the files in the proper list format) but, I’ve found a problem with this approach. When listing the files it will repeatedly open the shortcut for “Application Data” which is somewhat recursive as it brings you back to the same folder except Windows detects it as “C:UsersGregApplication Data” thus when dir tries to follow the link it will eventually get “C:UsersGregApplication DataApplication DataApplication DataApplication DataApplication Data” until it’s too much for it to handle and it quits. Obviously this prevents me from getting a clean list and from spotting any other potential issues. I’m betting the same thing probably happened in tree but I just didn’t notice it. The exact error is (without showing the actual path): “The directory name [drive:path] is too long.”

I’ve already tried to ignore recursive’s but it apparently isn’t a recursive so that didn’t work.

I’m going to continue looking for a fix but would be happy enough if someone else beat me to it.

Thanks, Now I need to convert this to a format that includes the full file path of each file (for example: “C:Program FilesCCleanerCCleaner.exe”). With or without quotes (I should be able to remove the quotes if need be quite easily). Once I have that I’ll need to convert from there to a format replaces C: or B: with the relative backup location then I’ll need to compare the tree’s of the actual locations to the backup locations (By replacing the C: and B: I’ll be making the local trees reflect their backup locations. This way I can just say to delete any entries that already exist then keep what remains as a list of files to delete (Files that don’t exist on the original and thus don’t need to exist on the backup). So it’s clear this is meant to only keep a single relative backup, not to keep multiple backups of each drive.

What you want is:

TREE [drive:][path] [/F] [/A] > [drive:][path]filename.ext

Switches:
/F Display the names of the files in each folder
/A Use ASCII instead of extended characters

I’ve made some progress with this. I’ll edit the first post with the details.

Edit: OP has been modified, what I’m looking for now (other than the Comodo thing) is a command to create and save a tree to a certain location (I think piping is used for this purpose but I don’t really know how to do that).

@Paul:
I probably could do this with VBS but I’m far more familiar with AutoIt and I have an easy way to launch AutoIt as well (I have it in my Jump bar so I just right click and select a pinned script). I’ve been slowly working on finding info for this and thus far I’ve found only that there is no command line function for SuperCopier 2 and there isn’t likely to be any soon. As such I’ve posted on the AutoIt forums (which I’ll probably post some more to in the near future) in hopes someone will be able to give me a GUI code to do the trick (AutoIt can select things based on Window titles so there should be some way to do it).

Your reply assumes the manufacturer is logical and won’t charge a premium for this feature. Somewhere in the description of the drive I’m sure there was something about protecting data even if I don’t have a password. Turns out crappy hardware encryption is what they meant. I did actually do a lot of research on this subject as well (Trust me I wanted the data back). At this point I’ve recovered about half the data I lost, I’m currently looking at an alternative backup solution that I think will better fit my needs (Since I lost the data anyway I may as well update my methods to be more efficient/effective).

Hard disks are not encrypted by the USB hardware – this only adds expense to the USB adapter and no manufacturer is going there.
The most likely scenario is the broken connector caused an intermittent connection that badly corrupted the disk. Connecting the disk directly to a computer is the only method likely to provide an answer.

cheers, Paul

I just downloaded K9 I’ll probably set it up sometime this next week (possibly Wednesday just because I’ll need internet access). Still looking for a keylogger (or something similar) so I can watch him.

Something I didn’t mention before is that due to my current family situation it’s very difficult to watch his every move. Our desktop computer is in the family room so we can monitor that when we’re home but my brother will go to the library and friends houses. Chances are he’ll use his laptop so I can watch him with the logger. Of course he can go on other computers but if he does and we get reports he’ll find his rights severely restricted for a while. It’s just really hard to balance these things.

A little more about the keylogger. I need something to monitor him and work just locally. I’ll use other methods for control. He’s just a basic user overall (he asked me how to get a word document set as his background…) so I’m not to worried about hiding it from him (in fact I’ll make sure he knows, might steer him right).

@JoeP517:
The site your sent me to has a bad reputation on WOT (mywot.com) but only a few people have rated it and the comments are good. It looks like good info so I’ll go ahead and check try it out.

@Doc Brown:
I’ve heard of OpenDNS and it looks like it could work pretty well. I’ll have to check more into it.

For the Keylogger I’m going to read through: http://windowssecrets.com/2008/10/09/03-Find-out-whos-doing-what-on-your-computer
I’ve also sent a message to him (Scott Dunn) in the hope he’ll give his input on this.

This is why I decided to add some sources to my last post. I realize that I’m a bit extra paranoid with Microsoft and perhaps MSE is perfectly safe but, I’d rather contribute to a company that’s been doing this for years and hasn’t had any major issues (or at least has fixed issues in question) with data security.

I think I’ll take this opportunity to go ahead and mention something else to show I’m a bit more neutral than I’ve probably sounded so far this thread (just have to get this off my chest). From what I’ve been reading recently a lot of new virus (perhaps not the majority but those that pose the most threat to me) run through browsers which in general are platform independent. As such these new viruses don’t care if your running Windows, MAC, or Linux. I also tend to subscribe to the old idea that “MAC’s don’t get viruses because nobody bothers to make them” (In econ there’s this idea that people go for maximum gain and thus won’t attack Linux or MAC because Windows is the most widely used system).

In case anyone’s wondering I prefer to use Malwarebytes to do my scanning and Comodo (firewall only) to protect my PC. I do regular scans and keep things up to date. I use the free versions of both so this setup requires me to know what I’m doing so when I set up other peoples systems I will either suggest Avira or MSE (though I tell them my opinion and let them choose whether to trust MS or not).

Now then, if we could I think we should return to the original point of this thread which is ways to fix Windows without reinstalling. Another couple pieces of advice I don’t think have been mentioned:

Try Check Disk. I usually go all out with “chkdsk /X /B” for NTFS which completely scans the drive including area’s previous scanned. If you get a lot of lost clusters and especially if you lost a sector you need to either retire the drive or switch it to a less mission critical use (I use my old drive for Homebrew and keep it backed up so if it should fail I have a backup).

Try FileChecker. If you have an original disk for your version of Windows you can use FileChecker to scan your computer for damaged system files. A Service Pack can potentially cause issues with this but I’ve yet to hear of any actual case of File Checker doing more damage than good. If you don’t have the original disk but do have a license then MS might be willing to send you an ISO. In the highly likely situation that they decide to charge, you can instead torrent a copy of your particular Windows Version and burn a disk. It will work just as well and to my knowledge as long as you have a license for the version you’re downloading it’s completely legal (you might want to check on that though as I’ve not done nearly enough research to say for certain. I just know it doesn’t bother my conscience to get what I already paid for).

As a moderator, Fred always blasted Microsoft software, with or without reason. I actually told him that his moderator title here carried enough weight to require him to be more careful about what he wrote, unless he could substantiate it.

MSE has 3 settings regarding Spynet, where the supposed trouble was. Two of them ensure no personal data is ever sent (one of them actually ensures no data is sent at all). The 3 rd one has a clear message on MSE itself, stating that if, by chance, personal info is sent, it won’t be used to identify the computer user in question. I run my MSE on the basic setting, where some info may be sent to MS. For malware detection, it is my opinion that a community contribution can help us all.

This a technical forum. Opinions here should be substantiated by technical data. Where there is no data to substantiate them, that should be clear. Unfortunately, Fred never substantiated his claims and that was detrimental, IMHO, both to the forum and to himself.

@bobprimak:
I’ll admit my documentation is limited to a post but I figured since it was from a moderator that he had some decent sources. Either way I don’t really trust Microsoft on security issues as I’ve seen some of there blunders. I do of course give them (and any other site where’s it’s needed) some of my information here and there (I use PayPal if I can on purchases) but I really can’t trust them. I use Windows because WINE isn’t good enough yet and I’ve fallen in love with one thing I think they did get right, Libraries. If there comes a time when a debian Linux with KDE comes out and can use Windows binaries without errors and has a Library system (some KDE’s already have snap) I could see a whole lot of people switching.

I notice you changed the language of your post slightly and I thank you. The original sent to my mailbox kind of ticked me off. I don’t particularly like being called a fool just because I don’t trust a company with a history of blunders. I do stand by the whole not securing their web-servers thing though. I just read yet another article recently (can’t quite remember the source but I’m fairly certain it was a winsecrets article) about Microsoft not encrypting data. This may sound like a Linux fanboy again but, I’m fairly certain Linux (and probably MAC though I’m not sure) encrypt all data (or at least homefolder) by default. Why can’t Windows use encryption in sensitive area’s on both their servers and computers. I manually activated NTFS encryption in my folders with bank info (which I keep very little on my computer anyway) but I must be very careful because if I copy it (for instance a backup) it will make the copy without protection (even if the receiving drive is NTFS). I know this is true at least for SyncToy but, it’s probably safe to assume that SyncToy uses the built in copy agent and settings which would mean that my explicitly setting Windows to copy protection attributes didn’t work (I believe these were folder settings, I set it up when I first installed Windows).

Finally, most of my sources are Windows Secrets Newsletters but there are probably cases where I do know more about a particular aspect of Windows than one of them does (Computer Science is my field of study and I’ve been hacking Windows long enough to pick up a few tricks they may not of even heard of). Likewise their may be some aspects of Windows you know more about than myself or they do. The newsletter never said anything about them collecting information here but in the past (and I don’t have time to search for the specific examples right now) there have been stories on how MS misused our data or forced us to give them information.

Sources (Since you’re quite big on this these are to be added as I go, sorry for all the paid content in my sources, it’s something I take for granted):
Tips for transferring sensitive information (WS paid content) talks about MS Skydrive not encrypting data on servers.

Various articles talk about IE security issues (also a MS product)

Hotmail finally gets secure –sorta (WS paid content) mentions how behind MS hotmail was (and from what I’ve seen it’s still not perfect).

Office 2010’s Web tools raise security questions (WS standard content) also talks about Skydrive.

Readers state concerns over Windows Update (WS standard content) mentions how MS forces some files to install without notice even when you explicitly say you should be notified (fairly certain there’s a newer article of similar nature somewhere).

Note: A most of these deal with their online activities and server protection but you get the idea.

@satrow:
I honestly didn’t know that. I’ve had a few machines from that era but never had that issue nor had I heard about it. Thinking about it though, it does make sense. A lot of companies took a lot of shortcuts back then (ever take apart an old game console, it’s not good for your health…)

@Deadeye81:
Thank you. I’ll admit I’m not always the best at that but I do prefer to keep these things civil (I get riled up pretty quick and I can admit that).

I’ve now started regathering data. I’ll edit the first post to reflect this.

Might be worth noting my older hard drive (same type just a 1TB instead of 2) recently lost about half it’s capacity because when I ran chkdsk (/R /X I believe). I’m guessing that a few sectors got screwed (I also removed the extra partition they including via their software then I just removed the software). I think from now on I’m going to buy a new internal drive then find a case for it. This way I can separate the two types of issues and don’t have to worry about voiding warranties as much.

I’m almost guaranteed to go over a friends house today if there isn’t any new solutions by then I’ll consider this a hopeless cause and begin repopulating the drive.

To be clear I did actually try a direct mount as you (satrow) suggested but again because of the encryption it couldn’t see the original. (Looking back at my last post it doesn’t appear I was clear with this).

I ended up doing the address book method. The server thing I could probably do but it seems a bit excessive for this case. I have thought about setting up a mail server of sorts though. If I could make a computer download my emails (via thunderbird) then have my computer (and other devices) essentially sync with that one (or perhaps treat it like a server) but that’s somewhere down the road when I have to funds and the room to get a new computer and internet.

Maybe my 1.99 cents:
I use Linux server for email. I handle my own email server. The email-name/address (sender and receiver) filter is just a text file. Edit the file is easier than editing on Thunderbird’s GUI screen. Maybe you can pay and sign up a vanity email address and a sever. You can then do the same conveniently.

I do agree a wholesale copy of the contact list to the filter is much easier. I hope Thunderbird gives user access to the raw filter file in text mode, as well as the raw contact list. That way, you can just copy and paste.

Write to Mozilla-Thunderbird, and suggest the improvement.

The drive was apparently encrypted and since Recuva required me to reformat the drive it’s apparently impossible to recover the data (at least that’s what the 10 or so useful post I read told me). If anyone knows otherwise I’ll wait a few more days before manually replacing the data.

Summary of my research:
The entire drive was encrypted via hardware. This is one of the few cases where I think WD did a horrible job, they made the drive have a unique hardware enryption with a flimsy (at best) USB adapter.

If the drive hadn’t been reformatted it may have been possible to get the data back with a decryption program (though I didn’t see any mentioned so either way it’s probably a lost cause).

A company called Matronix (or something like that) MAY be able to recover the data for 500 to 1,000 USD. I’d rather just buy a new computer with a bigger drive in it for that much…

Again I’ll wait just a little longer for advice before I completely give up and start replacing the data. Thanks.