I am having a series of accident with HD, 3 fried in a very short time
But this last incident was really too much and in such astonishing way i hope for way to restore them

What happened for me is just incredible :

1 )i buy a new HD and i used made a back up before reformat my laptop

2) i wanted copy (not move ) on the laptop 2 folders , very heavy , more then 3GB togheter, so i select and drag and drop on a new place...but a cursed popping window (about the antivirus updated .. ) popped out, got the focus and simulateusly the other window, the target where i was dropping got minimized

3) I saw (the message when transferring file ) that the path was for the desktop so i click to interrupt the c

4) The result was astonishing , no flies or folder where copied BUT ALL THE FILES TO COPY VANISHED
from my storage HD

More then 3GB vanished in a heartbeat!!
It seems impossible , even if i had given the comment to delete it would have taken tmuch more time to complete, and the files should anyway endin the recicle bin

Also my command was to make another copy , not to move so was no reason for that files to be deleted

But there is no more trace of that GIGANTIC folders...
Should be impossible delete more then 3GB in a heartbit...but where ,where are gone ?

and HOW TO RECOVER ?.. it should be way from that moment i used my storage HD in read only to avoid risk to overwrite..that 3GB folders should be still there but how to recover ?

IFor me it will be rally a pain loose that that was the best of my work still unpublished

PS
i even have a program (Recuva ) to recover lost data but failed

Wow, what a drag! Recuva not bad but doesn't always do the job. Just don't write anything to the HD, the files have to be there somewhere. There has to be a way.

Is it Windows? Does the 3GB show in the HD properties?

Sorry to hear that, PC.
You said 2 heavy folders, almost 3GB in size. If I'm not mistaken you're using Windows. Install and run this program. It's called TreeSize and it's free. It will show you all the file folders and subfolders (even hidden) on your system. You can easily sort them out by the size and find what you're looking for. If it's not there - sorry, but they are, most likely, gone.

P.S. This program isn't just another Windows Explorer. You will find out your computer has folders you never knew about and MS doesn't want you to know about.

You mentioned your Anti Virus popped up. Is it possible it quarantined your file as a safety measure? It's worth looking into.

EK may be on to something as far as thinking the files are a virus and placing them in quarantine. Sorry you are goint through all this crap PC. Since I only use my Win7 OS for non-internet stuff, it stays pretty pristine (very rarely even open an internet browser in Win7; do all my internet stuff in an XP VM and I mentioned already in the past and share data between VM and Host). I only run a rudimentary anti-trojan in my XP and delete the VM and recovery from a know snapshot quite often (takes only seconds to recover). Recuva is a pretty good program and would recommend that first before trying something more robust like Hiren tools (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiren%27s_BootCD).

thank i am going to try the various solution proposed

what baffled me more was the speed, it seems impossible delete 3GB in a heartbeat,
or even move or quarantine them, usually for similar operation i have to wait even a dozens of minutes
and i have always to confirm to delete

instead something happened instantly making both folders to vanish

but ok i am going to try now

@ L
i already tried recuva , no joy it took 10 hours to find nothing

Moving files to another directory is instantaneous (especially if the only thing you do is move their parent directory). Hence the hypothesis that the files are still on the disk but not where you expect them... Treeview or equivalent will display directories sorted by size of content, and os make it quick to spot any directory that looks a bit too big for its expected content.

By chance, have you already tried to run the Scandisk utility or the pertinent CHKDSK command? Actually, the problem could be simply due to an error affecting the MFT (by causing the folders to disappear when browsing) rather than to an accidental deletion/moving of the files, and in this case such utility would give the possibility to immediately recover the files at least as fragments.
You might also try resorting to Hiren's BootCD and Ultimate Boot CD, which are provided with a plenty of applications (most of them freeware) aimed to undelete files in advanced manner.
For instance, did you ever used the powerful PhotoRec/TestDisk programs? In my opinion, they often seem to be more effective than other similar utilities.

thank for the help
solved
the 2 folders were somehow moved in a unexpected place..as Ofnuts suspected along their parent directory so the transfer was almost instantaneous.
Not sure why "search" failed but luckily were too big to remain hidden for long, i noticed a folder really too big for what should contain and ...BINGO... there they were both ended

Good stuff, PhotoComix I'm glad you got it sorted out!