Windows update deleted all files from my desktop.

Anonymous
2021-02-11T20:30:41+00:00

2 days ago I decided to update windows. after doing the update I noticed that the files on my desktop were missing, so I decided to search for them in windows search. I found them and placed them on the desktop as they were before the update. Also, my wallpaper and several settings were changed. The next day after logging in, my wallpaper and settings went back to the state they were in before the update, but I noticed that my files are not on the desktop again, so I decided to look for them like i did yesterday. But this time, I couldn't find them anywhere. I started looking for help on the internet. I checked windows.old and users folder but ifound nothing. I decided to use disk drill to recover these files. I scanned the entire disk and found some of the deleted files, but after recovering, 95% of them were corupted and cannot even be opened. These files were really important to me. Please help.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-06-01T13:24:40+00:00

    Hi Everyone!

    I've just had this issue TODAYYYYY! I panicked and thought EVERYTHING was gone! There's hope - I just followed this video and everything came back, the issue is that Windows has created a Temporary Profile! So that's why all your files appear missing! This video will show you the steps in restoring it! I had to share it! I came back to share my method!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Km5134uWY&t=16sGood Luck!!!! I hope everything comes back!

    152 people found this answer helpful.
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  1. DaveM121 796.4K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2021-02-11T21:11:10+00:00

    Hi Mikołaj

    I am Dave, an Independent Advisor, I will help you with this . . .

    There is a known bug in Windows 10 updates, what happens during an update is, your user profile is set aside and a temp profile is used for the update, then when your PC restarts at the end of the update, your user profile is restored

    Sometimes, your user profile is not restored when the PC Restarts at the end of the update, and you are then logged into a temporary profile and it looks like all your data is gone, that is the known bug

    The general fix is, to restart the PC 4 times and your user profile is restored

    However, the sequence of events on your PC were as follows:

    After the update, you were logged into the Temporary profile

    You found your files and copied them into the Temporary profile

    Then, when you restarted your PC, your original profile was restored, and the temporary profile, along with all your files were deleted

    The only hope you have is to try another 3rd party recovery utility to see if it can find and recover your files, and it is very important to not recover your files to the same drive, because you may overwrite other files you are trying to recover . . .

    I am just a user like you, so, please don't shoot the messenger

    33 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2021-03-10T20:42:38+00:00

    I posted this on an older post so I'm just re-sharing again:

    So it appears that MS strikes again with another bad update..... I just found out that at my old job, over 200 machines had the same thing happen with this latest update (KB5000802 (OS Builds 19041.867 and 19042.867)) and a friend of mine called me today freaking out that the same thing happened to him when he ran the update yesterday. Fortunately I have a test machine for all MS updates at home so I always test updates before pushing them out to my personal PC's and laptops. I'm an MCSA Systems Admin so this is just a habit that I have incorporated into my personal environment after many years of MS disasters at work. I have not tested nor installed this latest one yet but based on all that I am hearing and reading, I guess it's safe to say that I wait for the fix that they will inevitably push out to fix this one. I wish everyone who is going through this good luck, hopefully a new patch will be out sooner rather than later....

    18 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2021-03-22T15:22:15+00:00

    I had exactly the same problem. I installed the latest windows updates on 21/3/21 but the following day when I turned my PC on 90% of my programmes had been deleted/uninstalled including Opera & Chrome browsers. All that I had left was the Microsoft Edge browser which I've never used. I did a 'system restore' which restored my PC back to its condition 9 days earlier on 13/3/21. Everything came back & the PC was back on the road again. I have just re-installed the same windows updates & at the moment it's still working with no problems. If you type 'Reset this PC' in the bottom left hand corner it will take you to System settings & then just follow the instructions. I'm no computer whizz kid, but thisfix  worked for me.

    10 people found this answer helpful.
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