Deleted User Folder

freshtodeath

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Sep 27, 2010
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Hello,

I can't believe I'm making a post about this, but I kind of need some help.
Just recently I acquired my first ssd. Due to limited space, I immedeately became anal about the space on the drive. Because I only play 2 games as of right now (WoW and Cod:Blops2), I was wondering how I had only 20 GB remaining on my ssd. WoW is 33 GB and entire steam folder is 10 GB. Windows is about 15 GB. 33+10+15+odd small software=70 GB at best. However when I looked over at my user folder it was 20 GB with nothing in it. I checked every (visible) folder and they were all empty.
Now before I even had a thought about turning on the hidden folders, I had this great idea of deleting the whole freaking user folder thinking "oh, it'll probably recreate itself once comp has restarted and will rid of whatever is 20 GB in space".
I was wrong. My desktop disappeared, no key shortcuts worked, I couldn't figure out how to get to recycling bin and it was 2-30am...

TL;DR version: Deleted my user folder like a moron. No more desktop. Can I restore it from recycling bin somehow? I have my 2nd storage drive with windows on it, can I restore it from there?


Thanks for the help
 

Isaiah4110

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Jan 12, 2012
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Did you delete the entire Users folder (C:\Users) or your specific user profile folder (C:\Users\%yourusername%)?
 

DeadRam

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Jun 14, 2007
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It's impossible to delete "C:\Users\yourname" while logged into Windows using that account. If you logged in using "administrator" or another account that has admin rights, you can also run data recovery software and recover the deleted folder(s)
 

hwangchan

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Feb 14, 2012
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As for the other space unaccounted for, did you re-configure recycle bin to reserve less data? by default it allocates ~10% of total hard drive space (way too much for modern drives) This can be changed by going properties of recycle bin.
 

freshtodeath

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Sep 27, 2010
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@Isaiah I "deleted" the C:\Users\%yourusername%

@DeadRam While I was logged in to my regular (default admin) account (not hidden admin), I right-clicked my username folder in C:\Users\ and hit delete.....it was thinking for a while, then froze, then I lost my desktop. I haven't tried logging in since b\c it was late last night and I just went to bed and I'm typing this from work. Will try as I get home.

@hwangchan No I haven't touched recycling bin properties at all - they are default
 

Isaiah4110

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Jan 12, 2012
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Ok, and just to be 100% clear, you are still able to log in using the profile you deleted, but you don't see any of your data, your desktop icons are gone (likely including the Recycle Bin and My Computer icons) and your desktop background is likely blank when you do so, correct?

Assuming the above is all true, what happens when you try to navigate to "C:\$Recycle.Bin" (without the quotes)?
 

freshtodeath

Distinguished
Sep 27, 2010
59
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18,640
Thanks for the help guys. I worked everything out by logging into Windows the day after and everything was intact. I'm not sure about exactly what happened, but all icons, backgrounds, etc. are all there and everything is working fine.
I have also found out that the 20GB was in my appdata/virtualstore folder and it was a "virtualize" world of warcraft folder. I removed it and got my 20GB back.
 

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