Re: hardware problem ?
The specific files that were deleted were her malware folder. (She was an IT Security worker, so had legitimate reasons for having samples of known malware).
That sounds like she had anti-virus installed and it did a scheduled scan. If she didn't configure the anti-virus to exclude the folder of known malware, then the anti-virus would do what it was designed to do and delete the malware.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
