Windows 10: Windows 10 update 1903 deleted all my files

Hi all.


So last night my HP laptop updated Windows 10, and when i opened it in the morning, it wouldnt allow me to log-in. I was getting a message on a blue screen along the lines of “user profile cannot be loaded”.


Panicking a little at this point, i shut down and restarted, and thankfully I was able to log-in as normal after the reboot.


I then noticed that a lot of my apps had been reset. Looking a little further i noticed with some horror that all of my files, documents, pictures, music, EVERYTHING, was missing. Every folder was empty.


Panicking MASSIVELY at this point, i dug a little deeper and found all of my files in the WINDOWS C: > Users folder. Relieved that i’d found them, I moved them across to their usual folders and shut down my computer.


Now, I have just opened it again and, once more, all of the files have gone from their usual folders. I looked in the WINDOWS C: > Users folder, annoyed that i would have to move them over again, and i am distraught to see that they are no longer in that folder either.


I’ve done some frantic Googling of the issue and have seen a few other people mentioning something about windows setting up a “temporary” user account after the update (which i’ll admit i don’t fully understand) and that this is the place I moved my files to from the “Users” folder. Somehow, this temporary user account has now updated again, and overwritten the moved files, which are obviously no longer in the “User” folder either because i moved them out.


Does anybody have any idea if i can get them back? I had years and years worth of photographs (including my wedding and newborn children/childhood/holidays), countless work documents and all manner of other important stuff.


I fear the worst. I’ve checked in the “windows.old” and “users” and “temp” folders. Have restarted the laptop numerous times. Perhaps most worrying of all is the fact that the C: drive storage looks to be less than half of what it was before the update.


Have my files gone completely? Or is there somewhere i’m not looking? My previous back up point is years old unfortunately. I understand that i’m not completely blameless here for not creating more recent restore points, but I never thought that performing a requested Windows update would be the thing i had to worry about. How could Microsoft let this happen?


Any assistance would be much appreciated.


Kind regards

:)

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

I deleted $Windows~.BT folder that was propably Windows 10 files. How to recover?

Hello,

So about two weeks ago I deleted a $Windows~.BT folder (through the cmd). Now I know that was Windows 10 files ready for install.

How can I download it again? I'm sure I need to reinstall some update. But which?

Tintai

 

C windows installer folder - Delete?

He can do symbolic link redirection and move the files in it to a different location. *Wink
Better try it out in a virtual of first. Just a suggestion.

Like:
First move everything in c:\windows\installer to d:\installercache
Then delete c:\windows\installer folder
Then type this in command mode as admin
mklink /d c:\windows\installer d:\installercache

Removing those installer files is a bad idea. it might prevent you from updating or uninstalling apps.