Windows 10: Lost All Files After Switching to Windows 10

My daughter upgraded to Windows 10 on her laptop recently. She lost all of her word documents and most everything else that was saved on her computer. Has this happened to anyone else and is there a way to get the files back? She is a college student and has lost all of her school files from the last three years.

:)

 

Where are my documents, pictures, favorites

Hi,

You should be able to restore your personal files from the Windows.Old directory.

From: Find lost files after the update to Windows 10 - Windows Help

When you switched to Windows 10, some of your files may have been moved. Check the location of files you find by right-clicking (or pressing and holding) the file and selecting Open file location. Then copy all of the files there to another location.
Files kept in Windows.Old are deleted after
28 days.

 

Unable to find files, pictures, media after upgrading to Windows 10

*Original Title: Lost my files when updating .. found them .. then lost them again!!

when updating from windows 7 to windows 10 i lost all my files, pictures, media ..etc

i found them in c:/windows.old/users/ and moved them into the desktop

after one day i switched on windows and i think i lost the folders i moved into the desktop again ..!

please help i have my whole life in there

shoug

 

Is their a Windows.old folder on her C-drive when upgrading your OS windows will create this folder. Its a backup of all the files on computer before the upgrade. Also......if she did a image backup before upgrading, or maybe a restore point that is available.
The Windows.Old folder might be the best method thou.....IF its still on her C-drive

 

There is a windows.old folder but she isn't finding anything in the folders within windows.old. If she goes back to Windows 7 will it restore all of her stuff? She did not do a backup prior to the upgrade.

 

This is also a good teaching moment. It isn't important if it's not backed up. If it is, back it up.

 

No, restoring to Windows 7 will not bring the file back.

Try installing Everything Search and let it start when the install ends so it builds it's index. Usually take 20 to 30 seconds.

Then in the search line enter

ext:doc and ext:docx

See if any of the files are found.
If yes, right click on one and select Open path.

 

MiniTool Power Recovery might do the trick. There are several very good folder/file recovery programs, free and fee. It will not be easy - this recovery process.

 

Recuva is another free recovery software that works very well.

 

Do you have the habit of automatic backup ? I am using OneDrive for backup . If yes , you can recover your files from backup up . If not , open up the C drive where you find the "old windows" file, instead of clicking on "old windows" just click on the "users" file in the current version. All of your old stuff should be accessible from there. If you delete it, maybe your could not find your files back. You can also try their proposal , try some data recovery tool , recuva , easeus and so on .

 

I went from 8.1 to windows 10 on both my Surface Pro2 and my HP desktop and all my files, word documents, etc are still there.