Unexplained overwriting half my document files

NBNorth · 05 May 2018

I suddenly lost most of my document-type files. Recuva Pro showed only half of 24K files were recoverable. These were primarily from \username\onedrive\..., so I can recover from the cloud. But several compromised file were in C\?\, \Program files, \username\app data, \username\application data\, downloads, and such. So I know I have serious damage to my hard drive contents. It is obvious that I need to restore my computer to factory condition. Yesterday morning everything looked just fine. But last evening?!

My dilemma is that this is a 3-month old laptop from a respected manufacturer, and I'm at a loss as to how this may have been triggered.

I have been using Windows for nearly 20 years, so I'm not a neophyte. In your members experience, could this possibly be a hardware problem? Or more likely a system or application software issue? Or some malware?

I don't expect anyone to spend much time pondering this. I'm thankful for ideas on preventing recurrence.

swarfega · 05 May 2018

Have you been to the OneDrive website to see if your files are still there? If so, make sure your signed in to OneDrive on your computer and its syncing so they should be accessible.

I wouldn't think that a 3 month old laptop would cause such a problem but it's not beyond the realm of possibility.

Did you do anything prior to this happening such as upgrade to 1803?

spunk · 05 May 2018

The Appdata directory is a hidden Temp directory, this is not a place to save documents username\application data\, downloads If you downloaded or scanned a document and you didn't save it to the Downloads or Documents directory, then the file would be lost,
Browse to CL\Users\[UserName} and see if it is in those folders, also look in any other Users directories.
As stated, Also look in the OneDrive folder on the internet and sync them back to your computer

swarfega · 05 May 2018

AppData isnt a temp directory, its where programs store their configuration and other data. But you're right, its not a place for storing user files.

NBNorth · 05 May 2018

I have 1709, Redstone 3.
I was trying to quote from memory with AppData. could have stated that i error. I noticed doc and PDF files in directories other than within Users. I know that Roboform no longer works. My MS Outlook data files were damaged. I am running Recuva again now to be sure of where some of those damaged files are. It took over 3 hours last time for it to scan. I'll report later.
I'm not sure how to find how many files are in OneDrive. I'm new to OneDrive. Just subscribed to Office 365 in past two months. I did confirm that a file I was working on yesterday hadn't been uploaded to OneDrive yet.

NBNorth · 05 May 2018

A check of total file count in my OneDrive yields about 26K. So it looks like I have at least a sizable majority of my documents backed up.

swarfega · 06 May 2018

They should be syncing with your machine then. You can always manually download them from the OneDrive site. You can make multiple selections to make it a it easier. Before doing that check the options in OneDrive to make sure they are as they should be.