Windows 10: Lost folders and data

Last week I did a clean Windows 10 install from an Installation Media drive after a crash. Windows 8.1 OS with Windows 10 upgrade had been there before. None of my data folders and files were reinstalled. I have restored most from backed up sources, but something is always overlooked and lost anyway. I just found a "Temp_Migration" folder with all of my previous lost and uninstalled folders and data in the "Users" > "H Gillis" subfolders. A web search as to what that folder is just gets me a bunch of gibberish. For future reference, how could that folder be used to quickly restore those folders instead of copying and pasting one at a time? When I have restored all I need from the Temp_Migration folder, can it be safely deleted? It is hogging 400GB.

:)

 

Folder in Favorites lost

Had a folder in IE favorites named xxxxx favorites with many items in it. Don't know what I may have done but it is gone from the list. When I try to create a new folder it tells me that there is one already there, but it is not. Any suggestion where I might find the lost folder or how to restore it.

 

Lost folders on Update

Hi,

There are ways to recover some missing files on Windows 10. For us to help you recover them, we'd like to ask a few things. Kindly answer the following:

• Are you using an Administator account to search for the missing folders/files?
• Are you able to find the missing files/folders using Search?
• What specific files/folders are missing?

Meanwhile, as an initial troubleshooting, we suggest that you check this
article and follow the troubleshooting steps given.

We'll be waiting for your response.

 

Lost data from hard drive, what to do now?

Well, I'm sorry to hear that it's a WD My Passport that failed on you, @tomhenry ! *Frown
I'd recommend you to try using a different USB cable with it and see if that will help your system to detect it without it disconnecting.
I'd also suggest you to go to Disk Management and see how the drive is listed there. It won't hurt to check up on the health and SMART status of the HDD by running the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from the WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics. Here's a link to the available software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=11ZOpD

Give these troubleshooting steps a try and keep us posted with the results!
SuperSoph_WD