options for recovery of third party software unexpected win reboot

Third party software was open and windows rebooted (unexpected windows upgrade).

Upon reboot the third party software displayed prompts to save the documents.

The documents had been saved so new saves were not performed.

The third party software (turbo tax) can no longer find any of the documents.

The PDF files are also missing.

Backup images with macrium were not available.

What methods are available to recover the files that should have been saved within the turbo tax software?

Its possible everything is there but the upgrade has changed permissions on some things check permission were you save and load files

File explorer is checked to display hidden files and the files were not displayed.
Everything (search) also did not display the files.
How do you check permissions?
(typically Everything displays everything on the drive?)

My first option would be to download Ultra Search. I use it instead of windows search. It's great. Just check folders and files and enter *.pdf and hit enter. Lots will come up but you might be able to sift through them to see if they are there. Another choice might be Recuva. It searches for files that were deleted but might be able to bring them back if they haven't been written over. Just a thought.

If software is downloaded and installed now can't it overwrite files?
Can or should Ultrasearch and recuva be installed on the problematic computer?
Had you used recuva via a flash drive instead of a download and install?

zbook said:

Had you used recuva via a flash drive instead of a download and install?

There is a portable version of Recuva. It's also included in KyHi's recovery drive.

Recuva - Portable version

Recuva portable was just downloaded to another computer.
It was not installed and is in the downloads folder.
Do you drag and drop to a flash drive or do you download and not install on the problematic computer? Or does it not alter the drive or software so either method?

You are better runing it from a different OS - if you have more than one OS installed on that machine.

Otherwise, use boot media.

zbook said:

Recuva portable was just downloaded to another computer....

You should boot the problematic computer from a USB, such as a recovery drive or a Macrium rescue drive. If you unzip the Recuva portable to a folder on the usb you'll boot from then you can run Recuva from the command prompt. Here's one I booted from a Windows 10 Recovery drive USB.



(you can see from the dates that this is one I had prepared some time ago, just in case )

Does anything happen to the potentially recoverable files during each reboot?
The computer is expected to have a normal boot.
How come using Kyhi is needed?
Why not use recuva from the downloads folder? or possibly USB?