Lost Everything!!

[Kherring]

Hello,

My computer was doing one of those updates, once complete, I went to log in and it appears to be back to factory setting.  All of my documents, videos, pictures and files are gone.  The odd thing is, some of my documents are in the Recycle Bin.  How to get my precious documents back?

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

Piriform Recuva is the usual answer.

Also try WINDOWS.OLD if it exists.

[Dragon-Fur]

@Kherring 

I am really sorry that happened to you.  Losing your data is tough.

What you can do depends on what happened, whether you were prepared (and to what extent), and in what locations you were storing your data (files, pictures).

This is one of those situations where there is only one good option - and it assumes that you have backups of your data.  

For example, Windows comes with a powerful (and pretty reliable) backup tool called File History.  If you take time to configure the settings, File History can usually capture pretty much anything you need to store or recover later.  Unfortunately, File History is not automatic - you have to switch on the service and select a separate (remote) location for the stored data.  

Reference - fairly good (and short) article on File History

How to use Windows 10's File History backup feature

There are many options for creating backups for the purpose of protecting your data against loss - in so much that I am aware, all of them require that you have created the necessary conditions to actually save the data, for example, downloaded / installed the backup software, subscribed to a backup service, configured options that came installed on the computer.  Even something as simple as emailing files to yourself can help - mail service providers typically save your email data and provide their own "backup" and archival services to protect the data against loss.

If you never set up any method to create backups your personal data, you must depend on the few options that might be 'automatically' available.

Depending on what the computer did and where the lost data was stored, something of what you had might be in a folder somewhere on the computer.  For example, some actions create a folder named "Windows.old" located on the C drive.  (C:\Windows.old)  This option is unlikely to be helpful, unfortunately, though it is worth checking.

If you were using Cloud service, for example Windows OneDrive, anything you had in OneDrive that was also synced and stored on the OneDrive servers will still be there when you open (sign-in) your Microsoft account.

Similarly, any other Cloud service(s) will likely have copies of the data stored in that folder.  For example, if you were using iCloud storage / drive, sign into that service to see the data.

If you had files and folders on the computer in which you were keeping records from your bank, for example, your banking institution can help provide old statements and any information for bill paying services that are part of your bank account.

Any file, picture, or email that you sent to someone electronically may be still in that account, with that person or company, or stored in the service used to transfer the data.  For example, some of the bigger Officejet Pro printers can store faxes - this is not the same as having the original files, of course, but it might be marginally useful in the full impact of the disaster.

The situation is a bit like having all your photos on your phone and then dropping the phone into an abyss - the photos you had stored / sent to other places are still in those "other places" (cloud storage, media accounts, with friends).  The photos that were "only on the phone" are gone.

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