Windows 10: Critical Documents Office, PDF, etc DISAPPEARED From SSD After "Reset Windows" to Resolve...

Questions:

1. It is possible for me to recover the data myself? If so, what tools/software needed or how can I do this, ideally, within Windows?

2. Are data recovery services for SSD data recovery legit? Any recommendations?

3. Read "Recoverit" retrieves data from SSD. Is this fluff or legit?


Many thanks!

John


Background: Running Windows 10 on a Samsung 300GB SSD hard drive; Experienced issues with startup and received the "Automatic Repair: Your PC did not start up correctly"message, repeatedly; Ran into this issue before and fixed it by going to srttrail.log and learning I needed to replace a corrupted file which I did and resolved problem; This time, however, no such luck. Was able to go to two restore points, didn't help; Removed the latest Windows Feature and Update, also of no help; Checked srttrail.log file, shocker, also of no help.


I finally gave in and resorted to "Reset Windows," using option to save user data, but understood my applications would be wiped. Decided reinstalling them would take less time than continuing my attempts to resolve the problem and Windows boot issue would be fixed. I traded one issue for a far more devastating one. Jumped from the frying pan into the fire!

The folder/directory structure on the hard drive is 100% intact; HOWEVER, 90%+ of my files are missing.Most data files are saved on desktop in "Desktop File Cabinet" folder. These are important files. The most critical of which is _Prius Data, and _Ditech Master File, which I need urgently. Folders containing files and no folders "subfolders" are intact with no data loss. Although it may be random, it appears folders containing files I created or modified recently were deleted. But, these folders also contain multiple subfolders. So difficult for me to interpret.

I set up a separate partition D: when first bought the computer and installedActive@ File Recovery for Windows here all important files on C:. I *know* I turned off TRIM prior to attempting file recovery,but uncertain if I turned it back on afterwards roughly 15% chance I did. Using this software - certainly not the best of the data recovery software programs out there - using the in-depth sector-by-sector scan took over 15 hours I was able to "see" the filenames of important "deleted" files maybe not overwritten yet? and noticed the file sizes are consistent with what I would expect. The computer was on for over 36 hours most of time in "sleep" state until I then learned shutting off computer ASAP best route.

Went to the c:/Windows.old/users/jga30 folder and when searching through it with Windows Explorer, I find very few files, and dozen folders, many empty. HOWEVER, when I go to folder Properties it states the jga30 folder contains 101,988 files, 6,853 folders, and 20 GB of data. These are contradictory observations, so I decided to copy the data from that folder to an external HD and 110,000 files copied, majority appeared to have changed filenames with largely random numbers/letters but following some sort of pattern.

It appears virtually all missing files were "Accessed/Deleted" 05/29/20 around 21:20:50 among other "batches of files" deleted around this period. I am certain this is not when I ran the "Reset Windows/Keep Data." I also noticed Kaspersky Total Security was somehow turned off shortly before shutting down the computer. As a result, it is possible this file deletion is virus-related. I reinstalled Kaspersky before I realized extent of file deletion, unfortunately, along with a few other essential apps MS Office. Using Kaspersky I ran a virus/rootkit/malware scan, and it found no virus maybe destroyed during "Reset Windows"?.
Thank you.
Best regards,
John

:)

 

PDF

Hello,

Regarding your PDF documents, the location will be based on where you saved the files. For your second inquiry, your documents can be converted to a PDF. If the original file is from Office Word, we suggest that you follow the steps below:

• 
  In Word, select File > Save As.
  
• 
  Select where you want to save the file.
  
• 
  Type a new File name if you want.
  
• 
  For Save as type, select PDF.
  
• 
  For Optimize for, select an option: Standard or
  Minimum Size.
  
• 
  Select Open File After Publishing, if you want to open the file after you save it as a PDF. This is selected by default.
  
• 
  Select Save.
  

If the steps provided is not working, please get back to us with the exact version of your Office Word.

Let us know the result of the suggested steps.

Thank you.

 

Disappearing SSD Syndrome

Thank you for the information. I have built a new system, and am struggling with a disappearing SSD.

Q: Do you have any suggestions for dealing with a disappearing SSD that is an M.2 device. That is, it doesn't have separate SATA data and power connection-- just the motherboard slot. I have a Plextor M6e SSD plugged in to the M.2 slot on an ASUS Z97 Deluxe 3.1 MB.

Thank you for any comments.

Regards,

DG

 

How to save a scanned document as PDF

Hi Chuck.

There are some options that you can do to save the scanned documents to PDF file. You may follow these steps:

• Copy the scanned document.
• Open Word, then paste it.
• Click File > Save As > Choose the location where you want to save it.
• On Save as type, choose PDF > Save.

Feel free to let us know if you need further assistance.