Windows 10: Lost Files

I'll try and put this in order and hopefully there is an answer after my daughter being in tears twice yesterday.
She got a new Lenovo laptop fro Christmas with Windows 8
She made a back up on her desktop of all the photos on her iPhone - called the folder 'Phone'
She also moved all her music from her phone into a Mix file in Music folder.
Then we decided to upgrade to windows 10.*Sleepy
After the update it appeared but no desktop folder - panic not, I found it in Windows 8/ user file /desktop - so I transferred it to the W10 desktop checked all the photos were there and also found her music and transferred that to the MUSIC file.
*Biggrin
All happy - then we logged off. When we logged back on the photo file had vanished (despite a msg saying all your folders are wher you left them!) and wasn't in the W8 folder and also her music had also vanished *Mad - not a problem restoring the music - but she deleted photo's off her phone after we'd checked they were definitely on desktop??
Now I watch CSi - I know that file must be somewhere?????*Shock
Please help?

:)

 

lost file

Have you checked in recycle bin on the desktop?

Use the search box on the taskbar to search for a keyword in the title then follow the results that come up.

 

lost files

OK. This will be done. Thank you for your help. Merry Christmas. Hopefully my files will be recovered. The problem has been resolved.

 

If the windows.old folder is still around I would check there.

 

Hi, sadly this experience (of missing desktop folders and others) is one some have had in upgrading to the November TH2 10586 or 1511 build, and has been reported a number of times here. Do look in your Windows.old folder by all means, C:\Windows.old\Users\<userspecific>\Desktop, as suggested.

However, you will probably find nothing there. I think the way this upgrade process happens is that only one copy of user data is meant to be present, so that, for example, were you to update the data, then revert to the previous build, the current data (not some old original backup in Windows.old) would be what you would see.

Unfortunately the process does not seem 100% reliable.

What does that leave you? I can only suggest data recovery software.
1st and most important- do nothing to add data, programs or files to the PC, else you could overwrite the data. That may well already have happened.
2nd, get a portable data recovery program (not one you install) or a boot disk with one on.. and try to recover the data - try both Desktop folders.

I presume by 'Windows 8' folder you mean Windows.old ?

This is very similar: a number of users.. Avast Antivirus is mentioned in the first couple of pages.
Lost Desktop Files - Windows 10 Forums

 

I agree, see if there is a Windows.old folder. But you are probably not logged in to the same user profile you were in when you saved the files. Check other accounts on the laptop.

Also, check if you are logged in to a "Temporary Profile" - It's an issue that goes back to Vista. For some reason your user profile gets corrupted, forcing Windows to load a Temporary Profile. When it does this, you won't have access to your desktop items. They will be in your regular account folder. Look in "users" for a "Temp" profile, that will be the one you are actually logged in to.

There are ways to fix it, but you have to edit some registry keys, and finally you have to activate your Administrator account and then create a new user. Then log into administrator in Safe Mode. In Safe Mode, you can move all files in your user account to the new account. Except for all files that say "NTUSER". Then you reboot, and log into the new account and all of your stuff will be there.

Note: You have to move all folders in Users/Username to the new account including appdata, so you have to change your folder view options so that you can see all files and folders, hidden files, system files, etc.

If this is indeed what happened (Temp Profile) search the tutorials section for "Temporary Profile" and find the tutorial that shows how to fix it. If there is no tutorial here, you will have to check "eightforums.com"

Here's the tutorial, it's the same process in Windows 7,8,10

You've been signed in with a temporary profile - Fix