How do i restore all my missing files?

[Orlaith1]

Hi, can anyone help me please?

I turned on my laptop today and all my files within the folders have been deleted (the folders themselves are still there, just now entirely empty). I have no idea what happened or where all my documents have gone. I thought i had them all backed up on the cloud in case something like this ever happened, but none of the files are there either.

Is there anyway to work out what happened or to restore all the files back? Its all my college work from the last three years 😕

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[mdklassen]

Did you logon to a different ID?

It would have its own collection of folders, e.g., Documents & Music & Pictures.

Did your files get moved into the "Recycle Bin" ?

There is free software, e.g., "RECUVA", that reads the entire disk-drive, block-by-block, that tries to "stitch" the blocks back into files.

Does anybody else have access to your computer?

When booting Windows, did you get a message about a "Temporary Profile" being created?

[Orlaith1]

Hey thanks for replying so quickly.

No my account is the only one on the laptop, and im the only one with access to it! Un

After i reset it to try do a recovery, a new profile was created although i didnt go in to it

[mdklassen]

> After i reset it to try do a recovery, a new profile was created although i didnt go in to it.

Look in the 'C:\Users' folder to the logon-ID that you previously used.

It's possible that your personal files are "inside" that ID, rather than being "inside" the newly-created ID.

[WAWood]

@Orlaith1

When files and folders are deleted from a Windows filesystem, the good news is that they are not actually removed; instead, their directory entries are overwritten, but the files still remain.

Since these are then marked as usable space, the more you use the PC, the greater the likelyhood they will get overwritten.

Your best bet for recovering data now is to do the following:
1) Remove the hard drive from the old PC
2) Purchase a USB-to-Hard Driver adapter kit (like the one illustrated below)



3) Connect the old drive to the working PC using that adapter
4) Try to retrieve the files and folders you want to save from the old drive and copy them to the new PC.
 
If this does not work, then you need to do the following:
1) Download and install this utility on a working PC http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/recover_data_in_3_steps_with_minitool_power_data_recovery_free_...
2) Run the data recovery utility to see what can be retrieved from the old drive.
 
If that tool does not find what you need, an alternative is Recuva  http://www.piriform.com/recuva
 
And, if that does not work well, the best tool out there is this one, but only the trial version is free  http://www.file-recovery.com/

[WAWood]

Restoring Previous versions is limited to copies of files and folders created by Windows Backup or copies of files and folders that Windows automatically saved as part of a restore point. 

So, if neither of these is the case, this is not going to work.