All my folders and files are suddenly deleted

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  1. Posts : 2
    Windows !0
       #1

    All my folders and files are suddenly deleted


    Those files that got deleted were so important especially for my sister , please guys, help me , im literally crying for hours searching for the solution.
    I shutted down my laptop early this morning after installing programs (Utility Programs) which i know does not affect or change anything on my laptop. I left the house then my sister chatted me that all of her folders and files that is on the desktop is gone. she's so mad at me because she thought that i was the one who deleted it all. i dont know what to do, i rushed home and saw my laptop has updated with new taskbar which has a search bar. It made me think that it performed windows update when i was away. But the thing is all the icons where organized (which was scattered all over the desktop) and is on medium size (which was small size). The important folders where my sister stored her schoolworks were gone including some other files too (Pictures, documents, etc) i looked on pictures, documents downloads and videos. and all of them are empty. I started to do some research . ive tried system restore. and it was incomplete , i cant remember the exact reason but my desktop was back to small sized icons and is scattered. and the taskbar is back to normal, but the files that were deleted was still gone. ive also tried logging in to guest account. nothing happened. Some users here said that maybe i am logging in to temporary account but when i looked into regedit on profilelist , there is no SID with .bak in there and there is only one SID key that has the correct profileimagepath. i gave up after that. now im here to ask you guys how will i retrieve those files T^T im really exhausted and have so much things to do but i cant cause i want to retrieve all of my sister's file. Please guys! I'll keep on refreshing this thread thank you. Godbless this site

    Edit : I cant save any pictures so icant post images but there is shortcuts on my desktop but when i look on the file explorer it is empty. i tried to show hidden files. nothing happened.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 111
    MSWindows10 Version 2004-OS build 19041.572
       #2

    I had a similar problem, Start by looking in Recycle bin.
    Don't switch off yet.
    can you remember any file or folder,
    type it in cortana, and see if it's hidden somewhere, If it shows up in cortana, hover the mouse and copy the pathway, or take a screen shot and paste it in MS Paint. then follow the pathway
    Good luck
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2
    Windows !0
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Sir billz, you're a life saver. i somehow recovered the folders. It was just sitting on the recycle bin all this time, cant believe i didnt notice it, because i was trying to find the specific folders that was missing, and the one that is on the recycle bin is the desktop folders. The Desktop, Pictures, Documents, music, videos folders were recovered but sadly the downloads folder were still empty. and some of the important folders on the desktop were not recovered. I wonder where did it go. Thank you sir! i felt so relieved just recovering partly of her files. I dont know how much should i thank you but may God bless you!

    EDIT: I can save images now. All my folders and files are suddenly deleted-dfdf.png This is the missing folder. and i still have empty downloads folder. I still hope that i can retrieve it, is there still any way?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 69
    Windows 10
       #4

    I occasionally having the same problem with my games folders. on a fresh windows 10.
    once in a while on cold boot some of my games folders get deleted. For no reasons.
    If you get message "Scan drive for errors" on Action center, do it. wait for 10~30 min, you will find folders named "Found.000" that contain deleted files, on the root of the main driver where the folders lost. C: or D: etc...

    One useful tip, have a program called iCare Data Recovery, it saved me few times recovering files if 1st method didn't work.

    Keep in mind, the longer the time pass on deleted files, the less chance of retrieving them, so get them asap.
    Hope this help.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 7,254
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
       #5

    When Windows 10 does an update it often places them in a temporary folder so they're "safe and sound" in case you want to roll back or some other reason.

    Try opening File Explorer

    Click on the view menu at the top and tick hidden items.
    You should see one or more hidden folders appear.

    You should find something like c:\windows.old\Users\<youraccount>. It may possibly be in another location so its worth having a look through the folder.
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 4,453
    Win 11 Pro 22000.708
       #6

    This isn't advice on how to recover your files/folders, but..

    I see panicked posts from time to time from people who lose data, saying that their lives are on their PCs.

    You can't back up your life, but you can back up your PC. You can buy an external USB 1TB hard drive for a little more than $50US. If you don't have such a drive, you may regard recent events as the universe's way of telling you to get one.
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 69
    Windows 10
       #7

    bobkn said:
    This isn't advice on how to recover your files/folders, but..

    I see panicked posts from time to time from people who lose data, saying that their lives are on their PCs.

    You can't back up your life, but you can back up your PC. You can buy an external USB 1TB hard drive for a little more than $50US. If you don't have such a drive, you may regard recent events as the universe's way of telling you to get one.
    True, but there seems to be in issue with windows 10 losing data, I installed 3 games 2 days ago, today all of the sudden when I cold booted my PC, one of them got deleted o_O and this is the 3rd times on 3 different HDDs.
    I backup my data regularly but at this case, I have to backup my data in real time with external medias, which will be very frustrating and making my internal HDDs pointless xD

    Windows 10 seems to be broken ver of 8. very broken.

    I totally agree with you on backup advice, once I lost my data and that was life slap. now I have backup media and backup media for the backup media and another one for the 2nd lol xD.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 366
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #8

    I keep all my important data on external drives. A 1TB external for bulk storage, storage of disk images, system backups, etc. I also use a Ironkey flash drive for anything that is sensitive, such as tax and financial documents. This way if something happens I can replace or reformat drives in my computer with little worry. Especially when it comes to important and irreplaceable things like documents for work and school.
      My Computers


  9. Posts : 4,453
    Win 11 Pro 22000.708
       #9

    black said:
    True, but there seems to be in issue with windows 10 losing data, I installed 3 games 2 days ago, today all of the sudden when I cold booted my PC, one of them got deleted o_O and this is the 3rd times on 3 different HDDs.
    I backup my data regularly but at this case, I have to backup my data in real time with external medias, which will be very frustrating and making my internal HDDs pointless xD

    Windows 10 seems to be broken ver of 8. very broken.

    I totally agree with you on backup advice, once I lost my data and that was life slap. now I have backup media and backup media for the backup media and another one for the 2nd lol xD.
    I'm not much of a gamer. About the only consistent problem I've had with 10 involves the Edge browser. I like the changes in the preview builds, but it seems to be rather flaky in 15063.
      My Computers


  10. Posts : 31,611
    10 Home x64 (22H2) (10 Pro on 2nd pc)
       #10

    I see from the screenshot that the built-in Administrator account appears to have been enabled and it is this account that deleted its own desktop: C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop.

    This accident would not have happened using a normal administrator user, you would have been told 'you need administrator privileges to delete this'. Yes, you could have clicked 'OK' and continued, but it would have be a warning that you were about to do something you may not have intended. The Administrator account has no such UAC restrictions and is dangerous in this respect. Even worse, logging on as Administrator means that malware could run as Administrator and bypass the UAC.
      My Computers


 

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