Lost EVERYTHING - HELP!!

[JBurnett]

YouTube froze up on me (no idea if this was the catalyst) and I had to reset my computer. When it came back to Desktop, I noticed that the Trash Can was the only item there. I looked in videos- nothing. Long story short, all my User Library Folders are empty. I did a global search for songs, picture top folders, certain docs, videos that I could remember the exact names of- nothing. I ran sfc: scannow. I did a System Restore To 2 days ago. Nothing. Everything just vanished.

Ideas? Anyone have Bill Gates cell?

Thank you

 

[derekullo]

Check your hard drive and see if your files are listed there.

C:\Users\"Your UserName"\Videos

You should also check your hard drives free space and see if it is nearly empty or filled to a level you believe it should be at.

 

[13thmonkey]

I'd be tempted to boot off of a USB stick and examine it from outside of windows using a lite linux distro.

 

[gasaraki]

His profile is just probably corrupt. Try what derekullo said, browse the files from the file explorer.

 

[13thmonkey]

the global search should have found them, unless the profile corruption prevents them from being seen, this is what i'm also thinking hence bypassing the concept of a profile.

 

[JBurnett]

the global search should have found them, unless the profile corruption prevents them from being seen, this is what i'm also thinking hence bypassing the concept of a profile.

Yes, I've manually looked in C:, nothing. So my best option is what? Booting of a USB Stick? That will bypass the User Accounts?

Thanks

 

[13thmonkey]

That's my thought, take the OS out of the equation, do as little as possible with the drive in terms of writing, preferably nothing, no downloading, nothing.

If this does not show the files, then you may need to use file recovery programs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions_that_run_from_RAM
If you do find the files, copy them to somewhere else on the drive, or a different drive, then you'll have to make a new profile. I'd not do the new profile (or fix the old one), until you have secured the files.

 

[13thmonkey]

so did it work?

 

[JBurnett]

I reloaded Windows, and recovered my Library Files from a backup. Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

I reloaded Windows, and recovered my Library Files from a backup. Thanks!

So you had a backup of your personal data.
Good deal!

This is why we always harp on having a backup...