Check the Recycle Bin.

First thing I did, nothing there

Gone forever I am afraid.

deerhaven
Four folders. Are just two computers involved?
You wrote the shared folder is mapped FROM another PC on your home network.
What is the origin of the files that WERE in the folder (now files missing)? Are they produced on the PC where they are stored? Are they produced on the PC that maps FROM?
At both computers, the contents of a folder may appear to be gone but pressing the F5 key refreshes the display.
What happens with F5 on the mapped FROM?
What happens with F5 on the PC with the shared folder?
What is the purpose of the share? Is the data created / modified every day? etc.

Hi, actually there are three on the network, a older laptop and a new one I just bought end of March, the two laptops have a mapped drive to the main desktop where the file folders were, I had four shared folders on the desktop, only one that actually was mapped, all four now have no data in them, I did a restore back a week and now can see the subfolders but still no data. As to where the files are produced from it caould have been from any one of the three computers. I did try the F5 key with no results from both computers currently on the network, I have unhooked the third older laptop from the network as it still has the files but about six months old.

The purpose of the share is that all files are visible on any computer on the network any changes are updated to any of the computers, obviously i never thought something like this could happen, I will be doing data backups in the future. The data is not created or modified every day, more like every two to four days.

We are on a Wireless ISP and from time to time you can see other folders on other computers with in the RV park we are in, is there any chance if they showed these folder on their computer and deleted that it would deleted off of my computer?, the other thing I thought about was if someone hacked in, but can not think of why all four folders would lose the data

Bruce

Password is for the machine, also has a password for the admin account, is xp pro

I was not aware you could have a password for the share, is this in permissions??

Not sure what you are reffering to about the share password statement being bypassed

Hi

We do use passwords, also we do have a unique name for the workgroup, it is very wierd situation

Any other ideas would be appreciated

If you had file and print sharing enabled on that NIC, no passwords, generic workgroup name, then yes, I would say you've been hacked.  why leave the folders there emepty.  You wouldn't notice the hack until you accessed the folders. 

Passwords for what, access to the machine or the share?  If you protected the share thne it is doubtful it was hacked but having your machine own bypassed any passwords you installed for the machine side of the equation.

XP Home or Pro?

Secondly if I saw your machine on the LAN, I would bet I could hit the local default share of C$ by using the Admin account with a null password.

Message Edited by jmwills on 04-12-200606:32 AM

Hopefully the password for the Admin account is not the default password and by default on the share, the "Everyone" permissions is there by default.  You  need to remove it and only add those who need access.  The security permissions will also have to be changed.