Question Over 100GB of data disappeared. Help?

[lsquare]

I just turned on my laptop and I was quite surprised to see that all of the folders and files on my desktop disappeared. Initially, I saw them in the file explorer, and my C drive had about 200GB of free space. As I was downloading updates on Windows 11, busy on the phone and whatnot, now more free space appears on the C:. I don't know what happened during that time. A virus scan doesn't turn up anything. What do I do now? Is there any way to do a restore and see if those files turn up? This is on an SSD and IIRC, there is a way to recover the files? Unfortunately, I didn't back up those files to an HDD so it's important to find a way to somehow recover them.

I don't know if this is related to Onedrive. I noticed that after this latest Windows update, OneDrive seems to have been turned back on and synced my files to OneDrive. I know files were backed up because there is a desktop folder with subfolders that range from 1-19. Unfortunately, some folders are empty. It makes me wonder if OneDrive was automatically deciding what to backup? Like if an existing folder with the same name exists on OneDrive, would it only back up the folder from my laptop and then delete the files if it seems to exist on OneDrive? I tried to do a restore via OneDrive to a previous date, but all my lost files don't exist using a previous recovery date.

Other than contacting a professional data recovery firm, which I really hesitate, about because of the potential costs and the possibility that a bad actor will steal my data.

I think my best hope is to find some sort of software that can try to recover the data even though TRIM could have permanently wiped it. There are tons of free space according to Windows. Is there any way to go back to a previous state before I installed all the Windows updates (not sure which one caused OneDrive to back up and delete the files from my laptop) and then the files and folders may reappear? I'm not hopeful since if there is a backup, I should have even less SSD space? I'm really frustrated that whichever upgrade, maybe it was a major Windows 11 upgrade?, Microsoft didn't respect the previous settings where I disabled auto backup. I had no idea OneDrive would backup my files to the cloud and then delete them from my desktop. Surprisingly, the deleted files didn't even show up in the recycle bin!

Another problem is that I wasn't subscribing to MS365 so there's no way there would have been enough space to backup all of the files from my laptop. I wonder if OneDrive abruptly stopped backing up at 40GB and then sent a command to my laptop to delete all the files since it thinks they're all backed up?

 

[mikeymikec]

If all your files are missing (inc. documents/pictures etc), then it might be the case that Windows signed you in with a temporary user profile because it saw an issue with your normal user profile data. You could confirm if that's the case by firing up a user-level command prompt, and if the folder you're starting in looks something like C:\Users\TEMP.... then this is what's happened and you can likely find your actual user profile in C:\Users\yournormalusername. If this is the case then don't do anything rash, the user profile issue is normally easily reversible, just get a backup done, I can instruct you further on this point if need be.

If Windows did a feature update, you might also want to check C:\Windows.old\users\yournormalusername for your files.

Did you have the backup feature for OneDrive enabled previously?

I've seen a user attempt to back up all their stuff to OneDrive before and it got stuck when it ran out of OD space; OneDrive just sat there rather than anything destructive.

The other thing I'd check is that if you've never used OneDrive then your desktop files should be in 'C:\Users\yournormalusername\Desktop'. If OneDrive backup is enabled then your desktop files should have been relocated to 'C:\Users\yournormalusername\OneDrive\Desktop'.

 

[lsquare]

Yeah, all my files are missing from the desktop. Like I said, I had them in folders ranging from 1-19 or something like that. The only thing left after the botched backup are the computer, recycle bin, Garmin Express, and Google Chrome shortcuts.

Assuming what you said is true, why would I have more free space now? If the files are still there, should my SSD's free space be roughly about the same?

How do I fire up a user command prompt to look for the files? Won't I need to find the files before I can back them up?

I wonder if I had enough free space in OneDrive when it was secretly backing them up, would I be having this problem today? I really wonder if the backup abruptly stopped at 40GB and then OneDrive issued a command to delete everything else from my laptop.

 

[mikeymikec]

Right-click on the Start button in the bottom-left corner of the screen and then click on 'Run', then in the window that appears type 'cmd' and press Enter/Return or click on OK.

As for the sudden reclaimed amount of space, I'm just hoping for the best here and checking out the nicest possibilities first. Among the nice possibilities, perhaps Windows decided to nuke a tonne of system restore data. <shrugs>

What about the contents of your Documents/Pictures folders, are they unaffected by this problem?

 

[lsquare]

I don't have the laptop with me at the moment as I'm not home. I don't recall having anything in the documents/pictures folder. I only had folders ranging from 1 to 19 or so on the desktop.

I think I made a mistake installing Recuva onto the C drive as it could have overwritten some data. Doh! Surprisingly a deep scan didn't turn up anything. Like no ARW or RAF files. I was really surprised. I haven't installed any other or transferred files to the laptop. I just used Chrome to search up for solutions. Hopefully using Chrome wouldn't affect anything.

What do I do after typing in "cmd"? C:\Users\TEMP?

I'm a total noob and need specific instructions to test everything out. Should I stall an external hard drive and install any data recovery software to that and run it?

 

[lsquare]

@mikeymikec

While I continue to research this topic before resorting to professionals, would you guys say disabling TRIM and not using any SSD space to mitigate any further damages? After disabling TRIM, can I use Chrome or try another search for those files without potentially compromising the integrity of the missing files?

I'm also reading about cloning the drive with Acronis software and trying to look for the files like that?

When installing any software, can I install it to an external hard drive and run it from there? Is there any self-contained software that won't require installation to the SSD?

 

[RLGL]

If you are continuing to use your laptop, there is a chance of overwriting the files you are trying to rescue.

 

[mikeymikec]

@mikeymikec

While I continue to research this topic before resorting to professionals, would you guys say disabling TRIM and not using any SSD space to mitigate any further damages? After disabling TRIM, can I use Chrome or try another search for those files without potentially compromising the integrity of the missing files?

I'm also reading about cloning the drive with Acronis software and trying to look for the files like that?

When installing any software, can I install it to an external hard drive and run it from there? Is there any self-contained software that won't require installation to the SSD?

GetDataBack from Runtime software can be installed from another computer onto a flash drive then run off the flash drive on the target machine, though it's better to pull the drive from the target machine, connect it to another and then run data recovery analysis.

What do I do after typing in "cmd"? C:\Users\TEMP?

No. After you've opened a command prompt, the prompt will tell you the folder you're currently in. If it looks like 'C:\users\temp*' then you're very likely in a temporary user profile.

 

[igor_kavinski]

What is your SSD model?

 

[igor_kavinski]

By the way, I'm available to AnyDesk to your system and have a look if our timings of wakefulness coincide. Sometimes, looking through a system is the best way to understand what might have happened to it as then the person can quickly rule out the possibilities instead of the slow back and forth on a forum.

 

[lantis3]

See if https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva works.