Windows 10: No user data in windows.old

After an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, there is a windows.old folder in the root directory of c:. Within windows.old, there is a \Users folder, and within the \Users folder there are child folders for the user accounts that were on Windows 7, but none of the child folders have data.

This is not a disaster as I have an image backup of the partition, but I find it damned curious and wonder how this might have happened. Anyone have a idea?

:)

 

Desktop Data Vanished

Hi,



I would suggest you to check if the data is present in Windows.old folder in C:\ Drive. In the Windows.old folder, look for the Users folder where you will find the user accounts and check if you can get the data.



Let us know if it helps.

 

Lost photos and files

Hi,



I would suggest you to check if the data is present in Windows.old folder in C:\ Drive. In the Windows.old folder, look for the Users folder where you will find the user accounts and check if you can get the data.



Let us know if it helps.

 

Use Disk cleanup by chance or anything similar ?

 

Not that I know of, but I'm not the only one with access to the machine.

However, as I understand it, using disk cleanup (clean system files) would remove the entire windows.old folder. In this case the folder is still there, there's just no data for users, although the user folders are present, i.e., there's \Users\ron, but the folder ron is empty.

 

Instead of looking in Windows.old. if I remember correctly, look in your Win10 users folder(turn on hidden items) and see if there is an extra folder from the upgrade there, I can't remember what it's called(already clean installed on both PCs).

 

True, would of wiped it, just a thought of a possibility disk cleanup will usually remove windows backup and updates if checked on box of cleanup.

 

I found an obscure Technet item that indicated this could happen if the upgrade process runs twice in succession...the first upgrade creates the normal windows.old folder, the second creates a new windows.old folder over the first, but there is no user data since the user accounts haven't been set up yet.

I seem to recall that when the upgrade ran on that machine I did have to answer the setup questions twice...which I found a bit odd, but since things seemed to be working I didn't think much of it. Now, why the upgrader would run twice...

 

Have that article, i do find that strange ? Have anything to do with more users on PC you meant ? Where you looking for files that were missing during the upgrade, reasons for you checking there in first place or out of curiosity ?

 

I was hoping to find a copy of a document I had intentionally deleted from my Windows 10 installation and then decided I wanted back. I knew it had been on the machine at the time the upgrade was done, and I thought I could just pull a copy from Windows.old instead of having to go through the monkey motion of getting it from the backup image. I was surprised to find no user data in Windows.old and that made me curious.

 

Check where Cliff S told you if find it there. Even though made a system image, all files like this (e.g. Documents, music,videos,pictures) should be always put on a backup drive, told in tutorials here and many other places before upgrading.
We all learn from our mistakes, not sure how to retrieve it from image or anywhere else.

 

rb did you happen to sync your documents with OneDrive on the previous OS? Even if you deleted it Onedrive has a recycle bin too that must be accessed from the internet(not from win7 or win8 but from the browser) to be cleared. This has helped me twice when I accidentally deleted a couple of scripts I needed later on(almost as easy to recover as from File History if I hadn't cleaned it out too).

 

Thanks both.

Cliff, I don't use One Drive, but I do use Macrium Reflect Standard edition and had, in fact, made an insurance image before executing the upgrade as JDS mentioned (this isn't my first rodeo). With Reflect (Standard) I can mount a backup image as a virtual hard drive and pull individual files/folders off that...which I did...it's just that the backup image was on an external drive that lives waaaaay over on the other side of the room, and it sooooooo far to go....<g>.

Anyway, I did recover the data I needed, but as noted above I was curious as to why the user folders in Windows.old were empty. I think I have an answer to that (the upgrade was restarted before it finished).

As for why that happened...I just noticed that particular machine consistently needs two tries when I shut it down. The first completes and after about 5 seconds it powers itself back up. Shutdown from there actually does. Something in the ACPI code or maybe a BIOS/UEFI issue. I dunno. That particular machine (Intel seven series motherboard) has always been "sensitive". The other machine, built around an ASUS 9 series motherboard is solid as rock.

 

That was the mystery, where it went and why. Glad able to recover it from image, this i was not sure as do not use Macrium but know it is a good program. Get off the chair and get it !! *Biggrin I also use external device for backups.

 

I like to find out the "why's" too, to hopefully prevent something from happening again, or at least I can sleep well, without it running through my head the whole night*Smile. Plus I just like solving these kind of "puzzles" as I can always reimage or like you mount one.*Thumbs