Recovered data disappears after copying to new Win10 installation

I've been a self employed I.T. engineer for 15 years. I have a routine when reinstalling windows for a client. I remove the hard drive, make a backup, replace, format & install windows. Then I remove the hard drive, connect it to the server with the backup and restore the files and folders to a folder on the drive for the client to sort out, or for me to restore to the user profile folders.

What's happening with Windows 10 is that I copy the recovered files and folders back to the clients hard drive, but no sooner do I replace the drive in the PC and reboot than all of the recovered files and folders disappear. This has happened several times on several PC's. Today, 120GB disappeared in front of my eyes as I was creating a desktop shortcut to it. This means I have to resort to transferring the files over my network or via external hard drives which is increases the time required for each job and fills my bench with jobs that should be out of the way.

The only thing I can assume may be going wrong is that Windows 10 is refusing to retain the files because of some sort of security or permissions error.

If anyone has any idea what's causing this, I'd be grateful for the answer as it's making a simple job of installing windows into a very time consuming process and cluttering up my bench with jobs that should be on their way back to the client.

Thank you in advance for any answers, correct or otherwise.

Alan Surry
Thurrock PC Services.

Hi. Thanks for the prompt reply. I usually save the files either to the desktop of the sole user profile, or to the shared docs folders if there are multiple user accounts. The logic being that personal data is less likely to be lost during a big update if it's in the C:\users folder rather than on the root of drive C: I don't hold the shift key down at all when shutting down and the post on Tom's hardware is a revelation. I can't fathom the logic behind fast boot removing files that have been placed there in between boots, but I'm sure there is one somewhere. I'm assuming that if i were to use a Linux boot CD or were to transfer files across partitions from a dual boot setup then Windows would behave in the same manner and remove all my files on the basis that they weren't there before I shut down? If so, somebody at Microsoft needs shooting.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to reply. I will disable fast boot in future and see how it goes.

Best regards,

Alan