Disappeared Files Desktop, desktop icons are still there

argibald · 05 Oct 2018

I was sorting files for a backup and made the mistake of putting them all on my desktop. Then i opened a movie with VLC and tried to add a subtitle file from my desktop. This failed for some reason without VLC giving an error so i tried again. I dragged the file from my desktop to the VLC Window and as soon as i dropped it I saw all the files vanishing from my desktop in less than a millisecond. Way faster than it would take to delete them manually (i have a potato from 2005 so I noticed the difference). The only thing left on the desktop was the recycle bin. I already tried everything i could think of.

Here is what i did:
- disabled network connection
- checked recycle bin, Empty
- refreshed / sorted desktop, nothing
- checked Windows Defender and Eset for quarantined/deleted files, not the case
- ran chkdsk, no errors
- searched the whole disk for the files, no results
- rebooted pc, everything seems to work fine
- ran full in depth scan with Eset, everything fine
- Put new files on desktop, rebooted, searched the internet for clues, rebooted again. Files are still there
- tried recovery with EaseUs, found all sorts of deleted files, even files from long before formatting my hdd but not the disappeared ones.

I really have no idea what the problem is. The subtitle file may have been corrupted or something but why and where would the rest of the files go? It could be malware but that seems very unlikely as well. I was not browsing or installing anything. Also 2 weeks ago i formatted my disk and did a clean windows install. Windows is always updated. I have Eset Smartsecurity always up to date and I am serious about practicing safe internet behavior.

Some of the files were important and some of them contain sensitive and personal data so if anyone has any idea what could have happened to them, even if it's a long shot I'd be very happy to hear it.

The disk is a Seagate barracuda 2tb and i'm running windows 10 home 64bit.

dalchina · 06 Oct 2018

Hi, sorry, no idea what could have happened here as you say you can't find them- hope someone has.

You say the desktop icons are still there- for what- the files or shortcuts to them or..?
Otherwise there is this- but I'd have thought you'd have found the files.
Hide or Show Desktop Icons in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

Have you ever relocated your desktop?
If you right click a file on your desktop, Properties, is the path(Location) what you expect?

The only other thing I can think of is to avoid any permissions issues in searching and boot from a live boot disk (Kyhi's from the top of the Software and Apps section here).

Having booted using that, you can first try a fast indexing portable search tool such as
Download Locate32 3.1.11.7100
or
Everything | PortableApps.com

(I've not tried the portable versions of these)

Recovery:
Kyhi's disk has tools available - e.g. Getdataback, Lazesoft recovery, Recuva, Power Data Recovery
If you need to use these, you're probably in trouble as if the files were deleted, they could well have been overwritten.

Somehow I think you will need to be very lucky..

roy111 · 06 Oct 2018

You first can try to check the actual desktop folder ( located into your user folder ) using file explorer, and for some reason simply not visible on the desktop.

dalchina · 06 Oct 2018

Just possible vanishing files are linked to MS stopping 1809 downloads as users are missing files (if you've updated to 1809).
Windows 10 1809 update deleted all files from Documents - Microsoft Community
Windows 10 October 2018 Update now available - Page 57 - Windows 10 Forums
post #565

TairikuOkami · 06 Oct 2018

Windows removes files without asking, when you accidentally press Del, like as I was moving mouse, it right clicked and pressed delete, it took like a millisecond, luckily I have noticed, so I enabled confirmation.

Also there are multiple desktops, it might have been put into Public or other, but I guess you have you already checked all user profiles and their desktops, like: C:\Users\Public\Desktop

Other option is silly Windows Protected folder protection (try to turn it off), which protects user's folders like Desktop from being easily accessed and it can cause unexpected things to happen.

You can also try searching for files based on the name or a file type with WizFile.
If those files were bigger, you can try using WizTree, it should find even removed files.