Laptop misplaced/lost my files

[mochalisa]

My laptop seems to have misplaced all of my music, photos, documents, web favourites, etc. I don't think it's a mechanical issue because the rest of my hard drive seems to be fine - there are no problems turning the computer on or using any of the programs and everything looks and works just fine - but all of the folders that used to house my files are now empty. My laptop runs on Vista and I was running Windows Updates when all of the file folders on my desktop just disappeared and I got a Windows Security message saying "Hard drive error - security may be compromised." I've tried starting it in Safe Mode and reverting to the Last Good Configuration, but it didn't help.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[Nanobyte]

The first thing I would do is search for the files. Assuming the pictures are mostly jpgs, search for *.jpg and see what is found. Wherever they are you may find the rest of the files. Check the Recycle Bin too (do not empty).

Failing that try running Recuva using deep scan.

 

[strollin]

You have been hit by the "Windows Safe Mode" virus. Here's a link to some info about it: Windows-safemode

Among other things, it changes the attributes all of your files to "hidden". First thing you should do is download and run Malwarebytes Anti-malware

Good luck.