Windows 10: All Files within My Documents lost

After a recent upgrade to Windows 10 pro I lost all my files within my documents The funny thing is that all files within my pictures and video, music were not affected.


Has anyone else experienced this or knows what to do?

:)

 

Windows 10 documents

Hi neilpzz, yes that's where I eventually found the files. In my Windows 7 setup the public files were sub folders within documents, pictures, music etc.

For a short while I panicked and thought the upgrade had lost all of these files.

 

Indexing in Windows 10

Thanks for the tip. I was all excited until I realized that Everything searchs for file names and not keywords within documents. God, how I yearn to be able to access information based on keywords that I lovingly spelled correctly in all those years of documents
for just this reason. It's all lost now, like going back to analog world. Sorry, just needed to whine and pine for Windows 7.

 

Welcome to Ten-Forums !
Been awhile for me since the upgrade to recall any issues. You upgraded directly to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 7 or 8 Pro ? Are you asking how to find and recover those files ? Always need to backup all important files whenever upgrading to another OS and even on a regular basis in case of Hard drive failure. If you did not run any disk cleanup, look for a folder on the C: drive called Windows.old, may be still in there.

 

See if they are there under C:\Windows.old\Users\youraccountname.

 

Thanks for that jds63 & Ztruker
Yes I already have checked in windows old & the lost files were not in there. I have had a word with my computer mates & no-one has heard of this happening before.
I think that the upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 10 pro was offered about 4 weeks ago. Whilst writing this post I have just remembered that when I did the upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 10 pro all my documents were indeed in Windows old etc, I moved them all to my documents but after a few days they disappeared. I looked in Windows old & in the deleted items folder.
I can try to load a file recovery program to find the files but that will be quite time consuming, has anyone got any other ideas?
Your input is very much appreciated

 

Sure have this right, here we are thinking you are talking about upgrade to Windows 10 from an existing OS Win 7 or 8.1.
Only way can upgrade to pro is buying a license if you did not have Win 8.1 Pro and with Win 7 think would be ultimate.
Kind of lost, but should always back up as said.

 

Look at the various accounts under C:\Users, see if your documents files are under one of them?????

Also try installing Everything Search. Let it run after install then try searching for all or part of one or more of the files you know are missing. See what it finds.

 

Thanks to both of you.
been a bit busy today but will try your suggestions tomorrow.

I had Windows 8 pro on both my desktop & laptop (where the problem) is.
when the option came to upgrade to Windows 10 I did so all went fine
I then decided to do a clean load on both systems. I moved all my files to a usb drive once loaded I transferred all my documents back to their relevant folders.
that was a couple of months ago I think and all was fine then about a month ago the option re Windows 10 pro upgrade came up & I loaded it. As I said in an earlier post all documents were moved into Windows old I moved them across to the correct place.
Again all was fine for a few days then the problem arose were all Files within my documents were lost
Hope this explains it better

 

Talking about update Th2 new build 10586 ? Because stating went to Windows 8.1 Pro to Windows 10, then saying upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. Sorry getting a bit confused, just clarify it again. This 10586 build update came in November.

 

I am having this same situation, and the behavior was really weird. There was an update to an already-installed version of Win 10. Not the start right after, but the subsequent one, the desktop set itself back to the old Windows default screen. The behavior repeated when I tried rebooting. I had a very important folder on my desktop. found it in Users that time (IIRC) and moved it back to the desktop, thinking that just the desktop had been reset somehow. Welp... it went back to the way I had it before the update, that folder and all its contents are nowhere to be found, and I have no idea what the heck I need to do to retrieve it. I am praying I don't have to do a system restore... and praying that if I do, that will even work.

Any ideas how I can locate this folder?

 

Hi jds63
yes that would be correct the udate must have come in November.
I note that
SteelHyaena had a similar experience
I also note that he/she also moved the files manually to where we wanted them.

I wonder if the act of moving them although worked at the time, it was the incorrect thing to do. Possibly Windows 10 pro would have moved the files it's self later & somehow this action we made caused the problem?
I don't think a system restore would work as it only alters system files & should not affect our documents

 

Just installed Everything Search. It has found loads of files they are all over the place but mainly seem to be in a folder within My Pictures. As I exspected I had noot actualy lost them just could not find them where they should be
I will just see if there are any particular files lost

Thanks for your help

 

I know you misplaced your files.
Always always make a backup. Macrium Reflect Free

 

Glad you find them. Once you get everything reorganized, definitely time to back them up, or better yet start doing image backups to an external hard drive.