Windows 10: accidentally compressed files and lost access

Hello my name is Harrison, I thought I was being clever in creating more space on my PC and compressed a some files, in doing so I lost access to them and in return can no longer open up certain apps on my PC, I saw someone else had a similar problem with their user profile being hidden which is the same problem i'm having now, but iv done the process step by step and now have my user profile back, but the content that was in it is no longer there and I don't know how to get that back.iv tried to find stuff online to help but nothing seems to quite work, iv ran cmd in administrator and put in

:)

 

Access denied to compressed file

Hi,

It seems that the account that is logged in to your computer is not an administrator account that is why you are unable to change the permission settings of the compressed folder on your computer. For us to assist you better, kindly answer the questions below:

• Have you made any changes to your computer prior to this issue?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?
• Which version and OS build number of Windows 10 is currently installed? To check, press the Windows key, type winver, and press the Enter key.
  
  Are you connected to a work domain?
• Are you using an administrator account or a standard user account?

Meanwhile, if you are using an administrator account, we suggest that you try to create a local test administrator account and check if you will be able to change the permission settings of the folder. You can follow the steps in this

link to create a local administrator account.

We'll be looking forward to your response.

 

Unable to open or extract Windows-compressed files

Hi Marcin,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

To have clarity on this issue and guide you accordingly, kindly help us with the following information.

• Are you aware of any changes that happened on the computer prior to which the files were not compressed?
  

The issue might probably due to the file corruption. If the files were actually compressed, decompressing them should help you recover the files. I would suggest you to decompress the files and see if it helps.

• Search ‘CMD’ from the Start menu and choose
  Command Prompt (admin).
  
• Copy paste the following command and hit Enter:
  CD C:\
  
  (Note: The above command is to change to the root folder of C drive.)
  
• Now, copy paste the following command and hit Enter:
  
  COMPACT /U /S /I /F /Q
  
  (Note: The above command decompresses the whole C drive.)
  
• Wait for the command to run its course, try accessing the files to see if it helps.
  

If the issue persists, try the steps listed below.

• Open File Explorer
  and navigate to the folder with blue overlaid icon. Right click on it and choose
  Properties.
  
• Under the General
  tab, click on Advanced.
  
• Uncheck Compress contents to save disk space
  and click on OK.
  
• Click on Apply
  and select Apply changes to this folders, subfolders and files option to confirm attribute changes.
  
• Restart explorer and see if you can access the files.
  

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

 

Files in C: drive automatically compressing?

As you may already know, if this feature is on, every new folder/file you add starts off automatically compressed. If you would like to turn it off for the whole drive, kindly follow these steps:

• Start File Explorer . In the left pane, right-click on the drive that you would not want to be compressed.
• Click Properties.
• Make sure that the Compress this drive to save disk space box is unchecked.
• Click OK then Apply.

Let us know if you need further assistance.