Files downloaded w/ IE & Firefox disappear!

I've been having this problem for a while and its really starting to p*** me off!

When I click a download button/link on a website (e.g. for MS Office SP3), in IE 8 or Firefox 3.6.10, the download will start, progress bar shows file is downloading and the files icon appears in the designated download folder.

But when the download completes the file disappears from the folder, seemingly into thin air!

I've been to folder options and selected 'view hidden files and folders', i've looked in Temp Int files and used the search bar on the start-up menu.

I've been looking around for ways to fix this problem and not found one yet.
I have tried a number of things so far:
- Created a new profile in Firefox, No change
- Run Malwarebytes and removed infections, No change
- Run Check Disk for errors, No change
- Run Windows Update and installed everything, No change
- Unistalled and reinstalled firefox, no change
- Checked the permissions in McAfee Firewall
I've also tried things in command promt and within the brower folders themselves, but can never find the folders people are talking about.

Another added problem is that 'about:config' won't launch in Firefox, so I can't fix it that way!

Whats really annoying is that if you right-click on a picture in either browser and select 'save picture as', the pic will be saved onto the computer with no trouble!

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.6.10, McAfee Security Suite (latest version), Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.46.

Can anyone PLEASE help with my problem.

Many thanks

Where do you have the save to location set to?

In IE it first downloads to a temp file, then once the file is completed it will then move it to where you save your downloads too.

Also check to make sure McAfee isn't taking your downloads hostage. Look in the quarantine/virus chest. Your anti-virus will automatically scan every file you download at the end of the download sequence to make sure it is not malicious. McAfee is exceptionally obnoxious, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if it was quarantining your downloads for no good reason.

Try disabling McAfee while downloading something small, and see what happens.

Thanks for the replies.

cryptodan, to answer your question my download folder is set to 'Downloads' (under favourites in Windows Explorer)

keyboardNinja, I checked the quarantine area of McAfee and none of the downloads I tried were there. How do you disable McAfee? I had a quick look but couldn't see a way to do it.

Cheers

Set it to some other location like c:\downloads

A good place for your download folder is your desktop.

I've tried those fixes already, and still nothing!

any other ideas?

Well, there is a way to disable virus scanning of downloads without actually disabling McAfee.

Disable Virus Auto-check in Firefox 3

Please be sure you are downloading safe files. This virus check is put in for a reason and should only be disabled if you are confident you know what you are doing.

• Type about:config in the Firefox address bar and hit Enter
• Type browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone
• Set the parameter to False (double-click it)

If you remember the file name of any of the d\l`s have you tried a search using explorer?

about:config won't launch in firefox, i've tried uninstall and reinstall and it doesn't make a difference. I've also discovered I can't download PDFs.

I tried the explorer search before (with hidden files shown) and the search results are negative !

Any other ideas?

Try creating another user account via User Accounts which can be located in Control Panel, and see if the issue is still present.

I activated the guest account and the problem was still there, then I created a new admin account and still had the problem!

Here is something simple you can try. Go to Start and type downloads, tick downloads and there should be all your downloads that have been completed. Look for your download and tick on it. Let us know what happens. If it is not there McAffe might of stopped it. Many people have problems with McAffe. Another choice would be removing McAffe and installing MSE.
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

the thing is that this problem was around before I installed the new version of mcafee, which was alos a massive pain in the arse as I wasn't able to download the setup package, the guy from mcafee support managed to do it some how, but it was like 3am and I fell asleep when he did it, so frustratingly I didn't see his method!

I'm trying to avoid uninstalling mcafee as I have a free subscription that doesn't sun out for a while, and I don't want to be in the position where I uninstall it then find the problem persists.

Any more ideas? I'm about ready to throw me Laptop out the window!

If it was my computer I would remove McAfee, reboot and install MSE and then reboot again.
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
I think you will have less problems. McAfee is causing a problem so why use it under any condition.