Windows 10: Need help for a friend who can no longer access his documents

I have been trying for about a week or so to help a friend with his computer. It's a fairly old computer about 8 years old and it has been having issues recently. The files like the files in the Documents folder for instance were not able to viewed in Windows Explorer when going to the Documents folder. However, going to the Documents folder from This PC > Windows C: > Users > Username > Documents seemed to work. However, he wanted to get to his important files without needing to locate the Documents folder, so my other friend who was helping at the time somehow managed to move the folder for the user profile the only user profile on the PC to the desktop. I'm not exactly sure how that happened since the Desktop is a subfolder of the user, but that somehow managed to work. I've tried to get the same result with virtual machines running Windows 10 but have had no luck in doing so. When they booted the computer back up, the files were gone and the links to folders like Documents, Pictures, and so on were all gone too. That was when I started to try and figure this out, and I've had no luck so far. Unfortunately, the computer keeps creating temporary users since the only user was moved out of the Users folder, so a temporary user has been made. I looked into a lot of methods to recover the user account and remove the temp accounts such as restarting which only created more temporary accounts, editing the registry, trying to create another user when trying this, I had the hidden administrator account enabled and tried to add a new user that way, but it would not let me, enabling Safe Mode, and trying to just copy any files we could. Sadly, none of it seemed to work. I see that there are a few other options in this post: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hello/you-have-been-signed-in-with-temporary-profile/737c5fe1-4557-4268-b46e-00ac023ff4c4 , but I am worried about doing something that is actually difficult and losing my friends files, since they are incredibly important. The only thing that I can think of as to why this is different from other cases is Windows 10 S Mode. The computer has been in S Mode for a while, and I believe that it may be the cause of these issues with getting the files back. When trying to make another user with the Administrator account, it told me that my version of Windows did not allow for that, so should I try to take it out of S Mode and see what happens? My other idea was to try updating it, since this mostly happened after a Windows Update sadly, there were no backups before the Windows Update occurred, and another Windows Update may potentially fix it, but I worry that the update could break it as well. I've looked into a lot of the solutions and I just don't know if I'll be able to do the more complex ones, so is there anything I can do that won't be too complex?

:)

 

Prooblems accessing documents

Hi Jilly,

Generally, the Documents folder found under Quick access is the Documents folder built-in to Windows, and not the Documents folder in OneDrive. Since you mentioned that both This PC and OneDrive are giving you the "Location is not available." message,
do you mean to say that both Documents folders are missing from Quick access?

Based on the screenshot that you've provided, you are accessing your Documents through This PC, instead of Quick access. Have you tried pinning the Documents folder from This PC to Quick access? If not, we suggest that you do. This way, you won't need to
go through several folders to reach your files.

Here's how:

• Access the contents of of the user account that you're using, in your case, it's the
  jilly folder from This PC > OS (C >
  Users > jilly.
• Right-click on Documents, and then select Pin to Quick access.

Regarding the OneDrive folder, we suggest restoring the Documents folder from the OneDrive recycle bin so we can avoid further errors. You may refer to this
support article for steps on how to restore deleted files and folders
in OneDrive.

Is your OneDrive synced to your Windows 10 PC? If so, you can try to restore the Documents folder from
http://onedrive.live.com. Steps on how to restore deleted files and folders can be found in this
support article under the
Restore deleted items section.

Let us know how it turns out.

 

Can no longer access Words with Friends any suggestions?

Why can I no longer access Words with Friends?

 

Downloads folder is the Documents folder

Hi Chris,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

I suggest you to Restore to Default the folders and document settings and see if it helps.

Step 1:

Please follow below steps and check if it helps.

• Go to Download folder.
• Right click on the Download Folder and go to Properties.
• In Properties go to Location tab.
• In location Tab Click on Restore Default.

Step 2:

Please follow below steps and check if it helps.

• Go to Documents folder.
• Right click on the Document folder and go to Properties.
• In Properties go to Location tab.
• In location Tab Click on Restore Default.

After performing above steps change the settings as you required and check if it helps.

Hope these information helps, please get back to us for future support, we’ll be glad to assist you further.

Thank you.