Question Almost everything vanished

[Jakehx]

Hi guys,

I've tried looking around online for solutions, but I don't really know what the problem is so it's hard to find an answer. I'm sure I've done something wrong though...

I was downloading some .dll files to try an repair an application (unrelated to this issue). Shortly after this, I noticed that all of my shortcuts on the desktop were now blank and when attempting to open the program, the system can't the files and suggests deleting the shortcut.

I can see that the SSD is recognised, but it's now showing 903 GB free of 931 GB. I am sure that it was almost half full when I last looked. All of my files (which were mainly games) that were saved on this drive have vanished, except for my VPN. The files still seem to be there, but it's not working so I'm guessing some files have gone missing.

Files/games saved on my other drives are still working perfectly fine.

I genuinely have no idea what to try and do. Any advice?

CPU: R5 3600
Motherboard: B450 Tomahawk Max
Ram: Viper 3600mhz 16GB
SSD/HDD: Crucial P1 NVMe M.2 SSD
GPU: Gigabyte 5700 XT
PSU: 700W Seasonic
OS: Windows 10 64-bit

 

[Ralston18]

What application were you trying to repair?

What problem or problems was the application having?

What was the source of those .dll files and just how were they expected to "fix" things?

For the most part you cannot repair applications: generally just uninstall/delete and reinstall.

Are you able to see the missing files via the Command Prompt or Powershell?

However, before doing anything do you have backups? Depending on what has happened anything you do may cause more problems or make the lost (?) files unrecoverable.

I would disconnect those other drives so you can focus on the SSD.

Start by running AV and Anti-malware software or just Microsoft Defender/Security Essentials. See if any problems are found.

Do you have a recovery disk? That may help get things back in order.

 

[Jakehx]

It was a game that I had installed, but would crash randomly. I researched online and found several YouTube videos where people suggested replacing some .dll files which I downloaded. I can't even recall the website. I know alarm bells are probably ringing...

No, can't see those files via Command Prompt - it's almost like a virus has infected the drive and deleted everything... For what it's worth I can still see the games listed in Add/Remove programmes, but it says that Cyberpunk 2077 for example, is only 1.49mb in size.

I have absolutely no back-ups whatsoever. Dumb move, but hey-ho. Lesson learned!

I'm running a full scan now to see what I can find.

Thanks for your help!

 

[rgd1101]

what game exactly? it does have a name?
where you get it from? couldn't reinstall it?

 

[Jakehx]

Red Dead Redemption 2.

Bought on Steam. I could have reinstalled it, but thought I'd try the fix the YouTube vids recommended instead.

Scan completed and no concerns reported back. I think I just may need to reinstall all my games again. Not a huge problem, but just annoying as I don't know why it happened/if it'll happen again.