Windows 10: Win10 Deleted Folders

I have Windows 10 Pro v1909 18363.1802 My SSD boot drive C: has 10GB free of 74. Abruptly last weekend there was like 20 minutes of continuous drive activity. There was no message or alert from Windows. After the drive activity, everything continued fine.


HOWEVER, when I went to my project folders under DOWNLOADS they were gone. File Explorer showed the icons, so some part of the system recognized those folders should have been there. "Restore Previous Versions" did nothing. The Recycle Bin had no deleted folders or the missing files. Had I made the mistake of deleting them, surely they would still be in the Recycle Bin or via Previous Versions.


I did look at using the File Recovery tool, but that says it is limited to the 2004 version of Windows 10. "Check for Updates" says that the release of v2004 for Windows 10 Pro is "on its way" but not here yet.


WHY did Windows 10 delete these folders?

:)

 

Trouble deleting a folder

Thanks for the suggestion but it says "delete folder failed for E:\....." for each folder I try.

*Confused

Will I be forever stuck with these unnecessary folders? *Oh Well hwell:

 

Unable to delete a folder - Invalid folder name


Suggestion:

1. Run chkdsk x: /r to make sure that there's no HD corruption.
   x: is the drive containing the folder you want to delete.
2. Try to delete the folder again. If still does not work, go to step 3.
3. Download: Download - Linux Mint and create a bootable USB using: Rufus - Create bootable USB
4. Boot up with Linux Mint and try to delete the folder again.
   NOTE: Unlike WinPE. Linux does not have any Windows permission imposed to it so it is easier to delete.

 

Delete a file folder.

In such cases it is often possible to use this 3-step process:

1. Move the folder to C:\
2. Reboot
3. Delete the folder