Files disappear from folder

dalchina said:

If the folder has been created by some program, it may be that that program has made use of it and deleted them.

I agree.

Hello @jsampson45,

I carried on investigating this for you.

TMP is exactly the same as TEMP as far as the Path [ Folder ] is concerned, and appears to be left over from Win Vista and Win 7. Some programs still use or create the TMP folder if it is NOT already present, although this mainly applies to older programs that get downloaded as TEMP is the standard these days.

In order to prove that BOTH the TMP and TEMP folders exist in the Environment Variables, although the TMP folder does NOT necessarily exist on every ones system. I wrote a Script to list the Environment Variables. The advantage of the Script is that it does NOT cut the end off of the lines of the output, whereas running just the command does.

Strangely enough, I used the TEMP folder for manipulations.

The Script will output an Env_Variables.log file on your Desktop. If you have a re-located Desktop, then obviously change the Path accordingly for the OFN variable.

Copy & Paste the below into the CMD Prompt and press Enter.

Code:

@echo off
set "OFN=%UserProfile%\Desktop\Env_Variables.log"
set "OUT=%Temp%\OUT.log"
if exist %OFN% (del /f /q %OFN% >nul 2>&1)
if exist %OUT% (del /f /q %OUT% >nul 2>&1)
>> %OUT% PowerShell "Get-ChildItem Env:* | Sort-Object Name | Format-Table -Autosize | Out-String -Width 1000"
         findstr /rc:"[^ <Tab>]" %OUT% >> %OFN% & del %OUT%
echo. & echo ^>Press ANY key to EXIT . . . & pause >nul & Exit

These are the Environment Variables that I have on my system . . .

Code:

Name                            Value                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
----                            -----                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
ALLUSERSPROFILE                 C:\ProgramData                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
APPDATA                         C:\Users\System-Admin\AppData\Roaming                                                                                                                                                                                                         
CommonProgramFiles              C:\Program Files\Common Files                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
CommonProgramFiles(x86)         C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files                                                                                                                                                                                                           
CommonProgramW6432              C:\Program Files\Common Files                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
COMPUTERNAME                    System-Admin-LT                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
ComSpec                         C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
DriverData                      C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\DriverData                                                                                                                                                                                                        
FPS_BROWSER_APP_PROFILE_STRING  Internet Explorer                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
FPS_BROWSER_USER_PROFILE_STRING Default                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
HOMEDRIVE                       C:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
HOMEPATH                        \Users\System-Admin                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
LOCALAPPDATA                    C:\Users\System-Admin\AppData\Local                                                                                                                                                                                                           
LOGONSERVER                     \\System-Admin-LT                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS            2                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
OFN                             C:\Users\System-Admin\Desktop\Env_Variables.log                                                                                                                                                                                               
OneDrive                        C:\Users\System-Admin\OneDrive                                                                                                                                                                                                                
OS                              Windows_NT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
OUT                             C:\Users\SYSTEM~1\AppData\Local\Temp\OUT.log                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Path                            C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\;C:\Program Files (x86)\AOMEI\AOMEI Backupper\6.5.0;C:\Users\System-Admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;
PATHEXT                         .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC;.CPL                                                                                                                                                                                    
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE          AMD64                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER            Intel64 Family 6 Model 37 Stepping 5, GenuineIntel                                                                                                                                                                                            
PROCESSOR_LEVEL                 6                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
PROCESSOR_REVISION              2505                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
ProgramData                     C:\ProgramData                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
ProgramFiles                    C:\Program Files                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
ProgramFiles(x86)               C:\Program Files (x86)                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
ProgramW6432                    C:\Program Files                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
PROMPT                          $P$G                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
PSModulePath                    C:\Users\System-Admin\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\Program Files (x86)\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules                                      
PUBLIC                          C:\Users\Public                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
SESSIONNAME                     Console                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
SystemDrive                     C:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
SystemRoot                      C:\Windows                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
TEMP                            C:\Users\SYSTEM~1\AppData\Local\Temp                                                                                                                                                                                                          
TMP                             C:\Users\SYSTEM~1\AppData\Local\Temp                                                                                                                                                                                                          
USERDOMAIN                      System-Admin-LT                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
USERDOMAIN_ROAMINGPROFILE       System-Admin-LT                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
USERNAME                        System-Admin                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
USERPROFILE                     C:\Users\System-Admin                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
windir                          C:\Windows

Do you have these two on your system? . . .

Code:

TEMP                            C:\Users\SYSTEM~1\AppData\Local\Temp                                                                                                                                                                                                          
TMP                             C:\Users\SYSTEM~1\AppData\Local\Temp

I really hope this helps as this has taken quite a while to compile for you.

Paul- just wondering... how does that relate to C:\tmp ?

dalchina said:

Paul- just wondering... how does that relate to C:\tmp ?

Just to see if the Environment Variables have been attacked in some way or got corrupted.

Hello @jsampson45,

jsampson45 said:

[I have run your script and I see both TEMP and TMP environment variables pointing to a folder Temp at Appdata\Local\
The log file should be attached to this posting.
Many thanks for the time you are putting into this matter.

The .log file looks OK.

Have you got a System Image with the folder in that you could Mount and retrieve it?

Hello @jsampson45,

jsampson45 said:

Thanks for all the time you have spent on this, but it is more than I would spend. Life is short for both myself and my client so I have worked round the problem. I do not need the files now.

You are very welcome, and I understand what you mean. I am glad that you have found a workaround.

jsampson45 said:

Now that I know that files disappear I will need to be alert and not use the temp or tmp folders. Lesson learned.

That's why whenever I use them in a Script, they are ONLY there momentarily.

Please mark this Thread as Solved.