After updating µTorrent it started displaying an installation wizard after every boot, so I decided to remove it, it said that this will delete my setting as well but now I see that it also deleted my downloaded files ( more than 10 Gigabytes ), it makes no sense to me !
all I wanted is to delete µTorrent because it was making problems. why delete my downloads ? what's the idea behind this ? deleting Gigabytes of data, all I wanted is to delete µTorrent not my files that took weeks to download collect and share .
is there any chance to restore my downloads ?
-Furious
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µTorrent has caused a ton of problems for me over the last 2 months or so that I had it. I've switched to qBittorrent (available here) and my problems have gone away. BitComet is another popular one, but it comes with a ton of ads and popups, and it doesn't have a portable version.
Still, as much as I dislike µTorrent, I can't believe it deleted all your torrents. If you were having it download within the µTorrent folder and you deleted that folder, then you deleted your torrents (along with the program).
Even so, you could use Recuva to try to get those files back. Get that here. Want it portable? Make a folder in your \PortableApps folder called Recuva (or RecuvaPortable, if you prefer). Click the preceding link, click download, click "builds page" down at the bottom, and click the portable one called "zip file - no installer" or something like that. Unpack it to your new folder. It should show up in the PortableApps menu (might need to refresh from options).
Stop using the disk immediately. This will ease recovery.
uTorrent also causes me problems. It BSOD the IPv6 driver.
Previously known as kAlug.
I just don't find it reasonable to delete all my downloaded Gigabytes when uninstalling µTorrent.
when a user decides to remove µTorrent, most probably he wouldn't want to delete 20 GB of data as well, think about it.
Sometimes making love is just not enough, you have to step it up!
Again, if you have your BitTorrent downloads going to your µTorrent folder, and you manually delete that folder, you will delete all your downloads. This is a fact of Windows. Generally an uninstaller will only touch files it's installed, but µTorrent does not include one.
As the other guy said, stop using your computer. Only use it to download Recuva. Run it, with a deep scan, and WAIT. It will take some time but it will recover your files if Windows has not overwritten them. Deleting only removes the header so Windows can't see it; the bits are still there, they just can be overwritten at the system's discretion.
When I got done playing Fallout 3, I uninstalled it, and yes, I wanted to remove the ~8GB of data as well (the five expansions). Not the same thing, but a workable approximation.
Next time change the download folder, e.g. to X:\Documents\Downloads where X is the drive letter of your portable device. Also, don't even torrent off or to a flash drive. That will burn through its limited write cycles in no time. You should only torrent off or to a hard disk drive.
It can definitely be declared as the users responsibility to remember where he has downloaded his files to. When uninstalling via the platform, the unsinstall window clearly states, what folder it is going to delete. If you stored your downloaded files there and still chose to delete the folder, bad luck.
As others said, it may not be a complete loss - if you really stopped accessing the drive. That includes running windows if it is installed to the same drive or f.i. something like the temp folder/hibernation or swap files are located there (Remember, in large files even a write access to a single block may render it useless).
If so, you best do a recovery from "the outside" booting a live linux with testdisk or a Win PE derivate like Bart PE. Or if you have access to another computer, mount the drive there and do an undelete from that computers OS. (Disclaimer: Advices are not without risk, if you don't feel you can manage it, better ask someone capable to do it for you.)
Good luck, though.
I didn't manually delete the folder, I uninstalled uTorrent using the platform menu. My downloads were in the default folder inside the 'data' folder, I'm using PA on my PC, not on flash.
I'm not using my PC now, I'm using a public computer.
I will try to recover the files.
Thank you for the advise.
Sometimes making love is just not enough, you have to step it up!
Not to "hit you while you're down," but you should take some ownership and responsibility for your actions. I, too, have accidentally deleted critical files. Dumb mistake, but it happens.
The difference is that, when it's happened to me, I've almost always had another copy of those critical files on external media.
Hard drives can die, too, so this may be a good time to think about your disaster recovery plan. How much and how often should you back up? Well, how much data can you afford to lose?
In John's defense, a generic uninstallation routine that asks "are you sure?" is doing its job, and should not be ignored. You really had no clue that those 10-20 Gb of data were inside that folder that you allowed to be deleted?
Rick Carter
uTorrent is a little unique in that the 'documents' (aka files you download) end up in Data instead of a user-selected location. I could, perhaps, add the size of the directory being deleted to the uninstall confirmation in the platform. That would be low-impact in terms of code, require no additional rounds of translations and would have helped 8ball realize that his destructive action was more destructive than he intended. Would that work for you guys?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Sounds like a good idea to me, John!
Rick Carter
That's a good Idea, next time someone decides to delete uTorrent and sees (20GB will be deleted ...) he will think twice about it.
btw, I didn't find my files using Recuva, didn't have much time to do a deep search.
Sometimes making love is just not enough, you have to step it up!
Yes, please add the size of the directory/folder being deleted to the uninstall confirmation.
That's a good idea for a quick & dirty hack, but why not, in future versions, have downloads default to X:\Documents\Downloads? That way it isn't even an issue.
But no, that doesn't work for me -- I've switched to qBittorrent (portable). So I haven't got a dog in this fight, as it were...