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All the files and folders on my laptop have gone??!!

Anonymous
2020-04-29T11:21:21+00:00

So earlier this week my laptop decided it would create me a temporary account when I logged on. I thought I had resolved this by following a tutorial which directed me to go into the command, identify my sin number and then go through redigit to correct the path and delete the .bak file.  I made sure before doing this that all my files were there just not in the place I was used to seeing them. 

I did this and to my delight everything returned to normal and I could view all of my files again. I logged off as normal after I completed what I needed to do.

However, I have logged onto my laptop today and it commenced going through a lengthy windows update. When this was finished everything, all my files, folders, office have all gone and nowhere to be found. I have typed windows.old in the search bar on my c drive and the only results returned are dated back to 2014. Please can you help me?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-04-29T20:28:53+00:00

    Hello Edin76051

    Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to me. Whilst it won’t help me find my years worth of documents I feel slightly better that it isn’t solely down to my inexperience that this has happened. I am just sorry that so many of us, as appears to be the case, have lost valuable memories as a result of whatever this upgrade has done.  I couldn’t understand when BulldogXX suggested I had a corrupt file as it had been some time since I had saved anything to my any of my folders. 

    I am also left with a lot of unanswered questions around what happened and what can be done to resolve it. Like you say it is as if something has taken over my laptop and deleted everything I have ever done on it, despite the fact that my user profile is still there. It just has nothing underneath it. Plus, I never copied anything to a temporary profile which has been one suggestion. All I did was point the path for start up, back to my user profile as opposed to the temporary one. Additionally I am the only person who uses this laptop, there are no other users on it. So to me the whole scenario is completely bizarre and very suspicious. 

    If you do manage to relocate your files I would very much appreciate you getting in touch. Thanks in advance.

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  2. DaveM121 888K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-04-29T12:05:52+00:00

    Hi SusieYT10

    Before you do anything or move any files around

    Restart (not shut down) your PC 4 times, each time let your PC get to the Desktop before the next restart, this will fix this issue a lot of the time . ..

    Otherwise:

    Please open Windows File Explorer

    Navigate to C:\Users

    Do you see two user folders that look like yours?

    Open those folders and check inside Pictures, Documents . . . etc. and see if your files are there

    If your files are there:

    Create a new user profile with Admin privileges

    Log into the new user profile

    Copy all your data from the old profile to the new profile (Documents Library, Pictures Library . . . etc.)

    NOTE VERY IMPORTANT: Do Not copy your files into the Temporary profile you are currently in, when the situation is corrected, your files will be deleted with the Temporary Profile and will not be recoverable !!

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  3. DaveM121 888K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-04-29T12:37:21+00:00

    Hi Susue

    I think you have inadvertently copied your data into that Temp profile, if that is the case, you will need to use a 3rd party recovery tool to try to recover your data . ..

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-04-29T12:33:25+00:00

    Hello.

    Thank you for your reply.

    When the original temporary profile was created I did troubleshoot by turning my laptop on and off a number of time in the hope it would resolve the issue but it didn’t. It was then that i went through the process of renaming the path back to my username and it assumed by deleting the .bak I was working in my profile and not the temporary profile. Given what has now happened I suspect that wasn’t the case as all of my files and folders are not visible in any of the profiles on my laptop and despite watching numerous videos to try and resolve the issue I fear I have lost everything.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-04-29T12:09:11+00:00

    Your laptop didn't decide to sign you in to a temporary profile. Windows did that, to protect your personal files, because your existing profile was damaged.

    When a Windows user profile is damaged, the solution is not to mess around in the Windows registry or try other tricks. That doesn't fix your damaged profile. It's still damaged, and can still cause you grief.

    The solution is to use the temporary profile as it was intended: to create a new user profile for yourself and to move your files from the old profile to the new. Once you're sure that everything moved over correctly, you may as well delete the old profile.

    A temporary profile isn't called 'temporary' for nothing. Everything you do in a temporary profile will be erased once you are signed out. Windows Updates sometimes needs a restart to finish installing, and that signs you out of your user profile.

    Open File Explorer and navigate to the C:\Users folder. That's where all your computer's user profiles are stored. Search through the folders and hopefully you will be able to find your missing files. Also look in the OneDrive folder and the OneDrive website; if you were syncing you files to OneDrive, or another cloud storage service. knowingly or unknowingly, you may find them there.

    Do you backup?

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