chkdsk just deleted all of my drivers! "the first allocation unit in not valid."

[ada101]

When doing a re-installation of Windows on my K53SC, I always get my drivers from the recovery partition (they are located ?:\DRIVER64\Software), but today, I left the laptop unattended during the re-installation, and when I came back, CHKDSK was running!
It said:

\DRIVER64\Software\TOUCHPAD\Setup.exe the first allocation unit in not valid. The entry will be truncated.

With all of the files in \DRIVER64\Software\* !
All of the folders are still there, but all files are missing!

When I looked this up, many people said that all of the files would be located in FOUND or FOUND.000 on the root of the drive, but I have no files named FOUND on the root of the drive:

Did CHKDISK just delete all my drivers? Research suggests that this happens when you unplug your USB without safely remove hardware, but this is a hard drive partition! (Also, the RECOVERY partition is FAT32)

[ada101]

Just ran Recuva and it looks as if CHKDSK DID in fact delete near all of my recovery partition files, WITHOUT WARNING! A lot of files unrecoverable even though I haven't written or changed data on the partition:


Never EVER going to allow CHKDSK to run again, as deleting files without warning is unacceptable! I am very happy that Linux is my main OS, and so all of my important files are on EXT4 partitions, Where Windows and CHKDSK can't get to! Looks like i'm going to have to re-download the drivers manually.

[Philquad]

UM, were you doing a install off a usb? or disk?
sounds like a usb or drive had errors on it, when its rebooted it will do a check disk unless you cancel it
shouldnt take much to get drivers again

[ada101]

This was the RECOVERY partition, the first partition on the drive that allows you to restore the PC to factory
I will be doing a SMART check using the Disks utility in LinuxMint after the files that can still be recovered are

[ada101]

For anyone wondering, SMART results are normal. No problem with the drive at all

[lsemmens]

If something has corrupted the recovery partition, I'd be rather concerned about what caused it. If all hardware tests ok, then I'd be considering viral or rootkit activity. I hope you had a complete backup of any critical data. Linux sounds like it may be a good idea, unless you have a copy of windoze on disk, personally, Linux is the best bet unless there is a specific reason to remain in the windoze universe.

[ada101]

There was no OS installed at the time, CHKDSK ran after the Windows Install Reboot.
Before windows 7, LinuxMint 14 was installed, and I was trying to Dualboot Windows 7 and LinuxMint when CHKDSK got in my way
Not to worry, however, The entire hard drive now has a new partition table (which I haven't been able to do on this laptop due to the RECOVERY partition) so RECOVERY partition is gone for good. Linuxmint is installing now followed by windows 7 followed by overwriting the Windows MBR with Grub!

I have a theory of why this may of happened, too: I did a 5-seconds-on-powerbutton shutdown while the recovery partition was mounted and was in use in Windows and CHKDSK has been asking to check the drive ever since. I forgot to cancel during the Windows Install today and so i'm guessing the FAT32 partition has been corrupted since then :P .

I run linux as the main OS on all of my machines, but I have a Windoze partiton on all PCs in case I need to use a Windows program such as Sony Vegas or play Games that don't work on WINE.

Thanks lsemmens!